On December 2, 2021, Public Defenders presented at a hearing called by San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen to discuss the urgent need for San Francisco Superior Court to open more courtrooms and prioritize criminal jury trials to address the growing backlog of trials that have passed their legal deadline. The backlog has also left hundreds of accused people in jail while pandemic conditions continue, where people are being kept in their jail cells for 23 hours a day, have no access to the outdoors or regular programming, and have limited visitation. Supervisors Hillary Ronen, Dean Preston and Connie Chan acknowledged the crisis of liberty and offered to join the efforts to resolve it.
ABC 7 Bay Area’s Melanie Woodrow reported on the crisis. Click here to access the report:
