SF Public Defender

San Francisco’s public defender Mano Raju was just reelected and had his inauguration ceremony. San Francisco is the only place in the country that the Public Defender is elected. The West Bay had the chance to sit down with Mano last September before the election and discuss his plans if reelected. He mentioned he would continue to work closely with community groups to try to reach kids young, and try to keep them from getting in trouble. He also works with youth that fell into trouble. Instead of issuing harsh punishments that will follow them for their life, and possibly interfere with them finding jobs, he takes a diversion rout buy getting them introduced to job training and readiness programs. In some cases, in leu of fines or juvenile hall, he gets sentences commuted to community service and proof of finding gainful employment.  Mano expressed desire to work with the building trades to get kids introduced at a young age to good careers in the trade.