In an act of silent protest against what they consider crushing caseloads and chronic underfunding, members of the San Francisco public defender’s office showed up to work on Thursday wearing one color: black. 

The protest coincided with the office’s refusal to accept new misdemeanor cases one day per week, a practice it began last May, and which prompted a San Francisco judge to fine the city’s elected public defender, Mano Raju, $26,000 for contempt of court. Under District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, there has been almost a 50% increase in charged crimes since 2020, though the total number of cases charged in 2025 was less than in 2019, according to the DA’s office. The public defender’s office’s budget increased from $42 million in 2020 to $58 million in 2025. The DA’s office budget in 2025 was $96 million.

Similar protests took place across the country this week, as public defenders in Wisconsin, Tennessee, New York, and other states wore black to draw attention to what Raju called  “a systemic, statewide, and nationwide issue.” 

“Our clients are immigrants,” he told The Standard. “People who speak English as a second language, predominantly people of color. Poor. Suffering from mental health issues. This is not a group with a lot of political power, and that’s why it’s really important that public defenders stand up for these vulnerable members of our society and try to give them a fair shot in court.”

The Standard sent photographers to the public defender’s office to capture portraits and videos of the men and women in black. Interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

Felony attorney, 57
Caseload and hours: 50-60 cases; 60-80 hours per week

Do you get as much face time with your clients as you would like?   

Of course not. I just got off the phone with a client who wanted to talk to me and I said, “We got five minutes. That’s all I have.” I don’t like giving clients, “You got five minutes.” I want to be able to sit down, talk with them about their case, explore the options, explore the defenses without rushing them.  

The more serious cases I work on more, but that’s not fair because every case is serious to the defendant. So even if you’re charged with a simple drug possession as a felony, you deserve someone who’s going to spend the time and energy on your case and not rushing you through because I’m working on these more serious cases. Unfortunately, that’s what I have to do.

The DA’s office has argued that the public defender’s office has no right to refuse to take cases, as it currently does one day a week.

That’s a ridiculous statement. The public defender cannot take all the cases that the DA charges. And I think they say that knowing that if we’re overworked, understaffed, then we’re not going to do a great job for every single client. And then that’s how people end up pleading guilty to charges that they should not be pleading guilty to. 

Felony attorney, 31
Caseload and hours: 65-70 cases; 50-60 hours per week

How does having to work so many hours affect your personal life?   

 It’s a fire hose of sad things. I try to keep boundaries, but you drink from the fire hose of watching people go through the worst traumatic moments of their lives every day.  And sometimes multiple people every day being separated from their families. And not getting relief sometimes for years. So I do my best to keep it separate from my personal life, but of course it has an impact.  

Does it depress you sometimes?

Yeah, it’s not happy work. It’s not a fun job. But I still feel called to do it. 

Felony preliminary hearing attorney, 33
Caseload and hours: 45-50 cases; 60 hours per week

Why did you become a public defender?   

I believe that people are more than their worst moments. But then, when I got here, I realized how many charges are actually not based on good evidence, that they can’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  

 Under the three-strikes law in California, a lot of serious felonies are strikes. And so if you have one strike on your record, your next is double the sentence. Three is a life sentence. If I was charged with a strike, I would like my attorney to be prepping a month or more out. Transcribing, reviewing, investigating, interviewing. Writing my cross [examination], getting witnesses, all of these things. And I don’t have the time to do that. I’m looking at what’s next week, what’s the week after. 

Misdemeanor trial attorney, 35
Caseload and hours: 100-150 cases; 50-70 hours per week

What is your usual day like? 

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Every day, basically we’re doing our calculations, kind of determining what sacrifices we can make. Which client is a priority for today? What can I get done today? What can I put off? Because it’s just not possible for us to get it done, even in my 10-hour workday.

I sleep about six, 6½ hours. I also had a period of time where I started grinding my teeth, which I never did before working here. 

How did you solve that? 

Via mouth guard.   

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Are you still wearing it? 

Yeah, I try to.   

Misdemeanor attorney, 48
Caseload and hours: 130 cases; 50-60 hours per week

You worked in tech before?

Yes, for about 20 years, and I was just kind of done with my career not aligning to my values. I wanted to have a career that centered on people. A lot was going on in the country around police brutality. Several black men were killed by police during that time. So I decided to go to law school.

 When the district attorney changed [in 2022, after Chesa Boudin was recalled, and Brooke Jenkins was appointed], there was a huge increase in our loads. Not only just with how many things they were charging, but the kind of things they were charging that they had never charged before, like unauthorized lodging.  Almost all the cases went from one charge to being overcharged with like five or six different charges.

How has that affected your workload?

Now that you have all these charges that the jury has to consider,  some of our misdemeanor trials, instead of taking only three to four days, they’re taking weeks.

Misdemeanor unit, 37
Caseload and hours: 100-120 cases; 50-70 hours per week

How’s your mental health? 

I think I’m a little bit better than I was in my first year, just trying to ensure I’m trying to get some rest, at least six hours of sleep if I can. But sometimes, when I’m in trial, it’s only four hours or less. Because you just got this last-minute discovery, or you’ve got to make this transcript, or you’ve got to fix your questions and be ready to go. 

How do you operate on that little sleep? 

Caffeine, adrenaline … . You’re on a different type of mindset. Like if you can think of an athlete getting ready for the big game, the playoffs, it’s like you’re in the zone and you’re focused and you just have to keep a positive mindset … try to eat something, just tell yourself you’re going to be able to sleep at the end of this and just keep it positive. Because that’s what you have to do to keep yourself going and fueled.  

San Francisco public defender, 57

What’s the effect of the caseload crush on your office? 

The reality is, you could cut the caseload of any staff member in my office in half, and it would still be more than a full-time job. It’s not fair to the clients, and it’s not fair to my staff. And the reality for clients is they often have to wait weeks or months or sometimes years in a cage until their legal team can really devote the time appropriate to their case 

 I feel terrible that we have committed staff who can’t devote the number of hours they need to each case. It takes a physical toll and an emotional toll on each one of my staff members, which is why we’re fighting so hard for this. I feel saddened by the current state.   

What is the solution?

As long as there’s going to be this amount of filings by prosecutors and this many arrests by the police, the solution is to systematically work on improving public defense funding. We need more attorneys, more investigators, more service workers, more clerical, more paralegals, so that we can accomplish justice in an effective and timely way.

Felony deputy public defender, 41 
Caseload and hours: 88 cases; 40-70 hours per week

When the DA says things like, “The public defender just needs to do their job,” how does it make you feel? 

They’ve never been in our shoes before. They’ve never represented clients, actual people, human beings … . Without having done this job, you don’t know what it takes to connect with someone and get their trust and do what you think is right. And when you don’t have the time to do that, it’s not a good feeling.

Felony deputy public defender, 50 
Caseload: 54 cases

You’ve been here 21 years. What’s changed in that time? 

This is the most taxed we’ve ever been. That started to change when the new administration of the district attorney’s office came in. In most cases, there are really no meaningful negotiations. Their offers are ones that they know our clients simply cannot take.  Prison time for people who are undocumented, offers that would create great immigration hazards for them.  And although the law requires the DA to consider immigration consequences when they make offers, they do not.  

 I have less personal life than I used to because I have to work many more hours.  I have a wife. I have three children.  I have less time with them, absolutely. And obviously that affects quality of life. But I also think it affects quality of representation. In order for us to be performing our very best, we need to have balance in our lives. That’s true for everyone. 

Felony attorney, 53
Caseload and hours: 55 cases; 50-60 hours per week

Why did you become a public defender?  

 In law school … I realized that the major civil rights issue at the time actually was the over-incarceration of people of color. And then there was an intersection with people with disabilities, whether it be physical disabilities or mental health issues. 

With so many cases on your plate, what are the toughest tradeoffs for you? 

I have to deal with whatever emergency situation comes first. You have to convince people to wait sometimes in custody for you to get to what they need done on their case. It damages the relationship that you have with a client, because they don’t understand why they’re not the No. 1 priority. Our relationships with clients are based so much on trust. They basically put their lives in our hands. And having to constantly tell clients “You need to wait” or “I have to work on something else first” or “I just have too many cases this week” damages that trust. It’s common for clients to want to take deals that are not in their best interest or even plead guilty to crimes that they haven’t committed because they’re frustrated with the system.

Felony trial lawyer, 36
Caseload and hours: 50-60 cases; 80-100 hours per week while in trial

What’s the effect of juggling 50 to 60 cases at a time?

Being overworked and under-resourced means you are put in a position of doing something that I consider to be extremely unethical, which is choosing which client gets your time, which client gets your energy, who is more worthy, who is more deserving. And that is fundamentally opposed to everything we believe when we come to this work, which is that everyone is valuable and everyone deserves the best possible representation. 

 There have been times where I know my investigator is already at his wit’s end, and I will decide, “I think video surveillance in this case will be more useful than in this other case.” But frankly, both clients absolutely deserve someone to go out and get surveillance video, because nine times out of 10, there is something on that video that is different from what is in the police report.  That can be the difference between someone resolving their case for a felony or a misdemeanor, or being released from custody or sitting in jail for six months before they get to trial.