FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 3, 2022 MEDIA CONTACT: SF Public Defender’s Office | PubDef-MediaRelations@sfgov.org | (628)249-7946 **PRESS STATEMENT** Public Defender Mano Raju Warns DA Jenkins’s Drug Policies Will Lead to Worse Community Health Outcomes District Attorney Brooke Jenkins today announced policies with regard to drug cases. Mano Raju, the elected Public Defender of San Francisco,...Read More

Nancy Chan reported in the San Francisco Examiner: SF City Attorney seeks to bar 28 alleged drug dealers from the Tenderloin. “More enforcement of low-level, subsistence street level sellers is not the solution to this ongoing public health crisis,” Raju said. “Rather, we should use our resources to provide meaningful alternatives to street level dealers...Read More

September 24, 2020 PRESS CONTACT: SF Public Defender’s Office – (628)249-7946 – Valerie.Ibarra@sfgov.org  Public Defender Mano Raju Responds to City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s Decision to File Civil Injunctions Against 28 Individuals “I agree that drug use in the Tenderloin is a serious public health issue that negatively affects residents, many of whom are clients of my office,...Read More

SF’s failed ‘War on Drugs’ needs innovation to transform the status quo by Hadi Razzaq, Managing Attorney for the Investigation Unit of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office San Francisco has historically responded to street-level drug activity in the same way: periodically cracking down on low-level drug sellers by ramping up policing. But arresting and...Read More

Read Deputy Public Defender Vilaska Nguyen's op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle.Read More