Overloaded SF Public Defender limits amount of new cases taken due to lack of funding

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A move is underway in the San Francisco Public Defender's office.

Public Defender Mano Raju said his office is scaling back by not taking on new cases one or two days each week.

"It's already taken effect. We started this week," said Raju. "We cannot allow the representation of our clients to suffer, and if we take on more cases, that is going to happen."

Raju said his attorneys are overloaded with cases. This comes amidst budget cuts and an increase in cases against drug dealers. Raju said he's been sounding the alarm for quite some time but case loads continue to climb.

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"There's been an increase of 27% of misdemeanor filings since 2020. And there's also been an increase of felony filings of over 30%," said Raju. "There's been a huge spike in quality-of-life cases; there's been loitering cases filed. There's been an increasing number of drug cases that have been filed."

Raju said he hasn't gotten the help he needs.

"There's no parity between the Public Defender and the Prosecutor's office. The Prosecutor has a budget of $40 million more than our office does. The police department also has a budget 14 times the Public Defender's office," Raju said.

Raju has asked for more attorneys, paralegals, social workers and investigators. This comes at a time when the San Francisco's mayor is looking to cut 15% from all city departments.

Some worry what will happen if the public defender's office doesn't get extra help. Julia Arroyo is with the Young Women's Freedom Center, a leadership and advocacy organization for young people who have dealt with poverty, violence and incarceration.

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"The Public Defender's office is essential for the poor working class of San Francisco to be able to have legal representation when they don't have representation, which means they could have unfair convictions," Arroyo said.

Raju says private attorneys will take on some of the cases from his office -- but at an extra cost to taxpayers. That worries Arroyo.

"When you have private attorneys, sometimes they don't understand the cultural makeup of SF, and that's really unfortunate. They also may not understand politically what is happening currently here with some of the new laws changing," Arroyo said.

ABC7 News reached out to the mayor's office for a response Friday.

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A spokesperson released this statement saying:

"Keeping San Franciscans safe has always been Mayor Lurie's number one goal, and we are putting together a budget that will close this historic deficit and build on the 30% decreases in crime we've seen so far under our administration. We appreciate the public defender's partnership in this urgent work to get fentanyl off the streets and keep our city safe."

Raju said he appreciates the mayor's verbal support, but he said he needs more money to get the job done.

"If we don't get more, (if we don't) receive that funding, unjust results happen," Raju said.