Racial Justice

Some of our most recent efforts and achievements aimed at fighting for racial justice include:   

• Ending unaffordable cash bail for individuals incarcerated pretrial: We litigated and won the landmark In re Humphrey case in the California Supreme Court, which held that “no person should lose the right to liberty simply because that person can’t afford to post bail.” This groundbreaking decision ended unaffordable cash bail for individuals incarcerated pretrial, a pivotal step toward expanding racial justice and ending mass incarceration statewide, as California has the second highest pretrial detention rate in the country. 
• Increasing jury diversity: We conceived of and helped start the Be The Jury pilot program to pay low-to-moderate income San Franciscans $100 per day, reducing financial hardships for jury service and increasing the economic and racial diversity of juries. Studies have consistently shown that economically and racially diverse juries have wider-ranging and more accurate deliberation discussions and make better decisions.
• Ending racially biased police stops: In partnership with the ACLU of Northern California, Glide Memorial Church, and over 100 other community-based groups, we helped create and co-lead the Coalition to End Biased Stops, which led the San Francisco Police Commission to vote to adopt a new policy designed to reduce the harms caused by racially profiling drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The new policy, which is the most comprehensive in the country, prevents the police from using several traffic and vehicle code violations (for example, a broken taillight) as the sole or primary excuse to pull someone over – which is often used as a “pretext” to harass and search them without probable cause and can escalate to police violence. 
• Using new laws to fight for racial justice: We are fighting racism in individual cases by filing motions under the “California Racial Justice Act” (RJA), which prohibits bias based on race, ethnicity, or national origin in charges, convictions, and sentences issued in court. This law enables us to challenge criminal convictions if a judge, attorney, law enforcement officer, expert witness, or juror exhibited bias or animus towards the accused because of their race, or used racially discriminatory language during their trial.

Our Office’s budget is 60% of the District Attorney’s Office. This is despite the fact that we represent approximately 75% of individuals charged by the District Attorney, and the fact that the police act as the District Attorney’s investigatory wing. Moreover, our budget is just below 5% of the combined budgets of the Police, Sheriff, District Attorney, and Probation (approximately two times less than the Adult and Juvenile Probation Departments, six times less than the Sheriff’s Department, and thirteen times less than the Police Department).  

Given the overrepresentation of People of Color in San Francisco’s criminal legal system, these funding disparities are racial justice issues, and the reason why we continue to urgently and determinedly call for parity in funding each budget cycle.

We developed a Racial Equity Plan focused on creating a stronger, more inclusive culture to nurture diversity and inclusion and to identify and combat our own unconscious biases. We are committed to growing and strengthening the professional opportunities for all employees including Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) staff so we better reflect the populations we serve.  

We have a Racial Justice Committee and various affinity groups comprised of attorneys, investigators, paralegals, and other staff that meet regularly to discuss how we can ensure anti-racism is embedded in our values and actions.