Manohar Raju

• Office: Public Defender
• Election Date: November 3, 2026
• Candidate: Manohar Raju
• Due Date: July 1, 2026
• Printable Version

Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the November 3, 2026 election! GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city delivered via common sense solutions and effective government. Our work includes running public opinion polls to understand what voters want, advocating for those changes, and ensuring that the SF government represents the people.

The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco.

This questionnaire will be published on growsf.org, and so we hope that you use this opportunity to communicate with voters.

Please complete this questionnaire by July 1, 2026 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.

• Your Goals
• Executive Leadership
• The Issues
• Personal
• Thank you

Your Goals

We’d like to get some details about your high-level goals and how you intend to use your elected office to achieve them.

In your own words, what are the core responsibilities of the Public Defender?

The San Francisco Public Defender works to protect people’s constitutional rights when facing criminal prosecution. Last year, the attorneys in my office represented over 20,000 clients per year. We handle cases at all levels of advocacy on behalf of indigent defendants assigned to us. We also represent clients in mental health court, immigration court and in the juvenile system.

Additionally, we do our best to promote community health and public safety by connecting our clients with treatment, educational opportunities, housing, mentors, etc. Further, we advocate for common sense policy changes on a local state level that promote more just outcomes and improve the efficiencies of the criminal legal system.

What relevant experience, perspective(s), or idea(s) makes you uniquely qualified to be an effective Public Defender?

In 2019, I was appointed Public Defender by then-Mayor London Breed following the tragic passing of my predecessor, Jeff Adachi. Prior to my appointment, I had worked in the PD’s office for over a decade where I served as a trial attorney, as the Director of Training and Felony Unit Manager.

Our clients are part of our community. Too often, individuals we represent have faced challenging upbringings, poverty, and a lack of opportunities.

While the core of what we do is legal defense, I have our office set up to address the root social and economic causes of legal system involvement through specific dedicated, internal units. I am proud of our prevention efforts, and my decision to promote upstream intervention–breaking the cycle of incarceration before it ever begins.

How do you intend to use your experience to improve the office of the Public Defender. Please name 1-3 goals you have for your term.

Under my leadership, the Public Defender’s office has begun many new initiatives, such as::

• Expanding the Clean Slate program to enable more clients to attain jobs and housing;
• Establishing the End the Cycle program to allow clients to access city services more quickly;
• Extending the Homecoming Project to SF to connect those coming out of prisons with housing, and
• Expanding the Immigration Unit to meet the onslaught of new challenges posed by Trump 2.0.
• Initiating the Be the Jury program that enables jurors to serve who would otherwise have an economic hardship.
• Initiating the Freedom Project so that clients who are serving life sentences can, if the law allows, be released safely from prison. The program has lead to the release of over one hundred clients with no recidivism. This has saved California millions of dollars and led to the reunification of families.
• Elevating courtroom practice to ensure protection of constitutional rights and to generate more just outcomes.
• Initiating the College Pathway Program to connect our clients with SF State and City College.

My goal is to maintain and enhance these programs that promote equity, more just results and public safety.

Will the power of the office of the Public Defender be enough to achieve these goals?

There are never enough partners to meet the challenges we face. As mentioned, the Public Defender’s office places a priority on crime prevention so that our community prospers. To drive meaningful crime prevention, my office partners with a wide group of partners that include other governmental agencies, civic organizations, neighborhood groups, and non profit organizations.

We also engage in the legislative process to champion common-sense reforms that we believe will help make our communities safer.

I am proud of the work that I have done along with others as a line attorney, trainer, manager, and elected official to develop our office into one with a reputation as perhaps the best public defense office in the country, and with collaboration, strategic planning, maintenance of high standards, and a growth mindset, would like to keep raising the level of what is possible to accomplish in a public defender office.

What is an "out there" change that you would make to state/local government policy, if you could? For the purpose of this question, you are not constrained to the office of the Public Defender.

Here are three “out there” ideas that merit exploration, all focused on crime prevention..

First,, one ‘out there’ change that has proven effective is to pay high, at-risk individuals to be part of a mentorship program that teaches them life skills.

Modeled after successful pilots like Advance Peace initiatives in Richmond and Sacramento, this strategy involves identifying individuals who are statistically most likely to be involved in gun violence (either as a perpetrator or victim) and providing them with a monthly stipend conditioned on their active participation in a mentorship program, taking a life-mapping skills class, and remaining conflict-free.

Second, since we know that crime spikes in areas that go dark after 5:00 p.m. when there is decreased foot traffic, there could be tax incentives to subsidize small businesses, community hubs, arts spaces, and later-night (non-alcoholic) entertainment spaces that stay open late.

Criminologists refer to this idea as “capable guardians.” When a block has vibrant, well-lit, non-alcohol serving venues open late, street level crime drops dramatically because of the physical presence of positive activities.

Third, we ought to strongly enact urbaning green laws. These laws would be aimed at blight removal and beautification. Passing statewide legislation that fast-tracks turning vacant or abandoned lots into clean, beautiful spaces would have a dramatic effect. There are a number of obstacles, to be sure, but the data is clear.

A series of studies by the University of Pennsylvania found that clearing up vacant lots reduced gun violence by 29% along with a significant crime rate overall. In addition, there was a massive 68% drop in self-reported feelings of depression among local residents.

To address the pipeline from impoverished neighborhoods to prison, our society would be well-served to give people the kind of stability that allows them to live in peaceful, vibrant neighborhoods.

Fourth, an art certificate program for our clients to complete while their cases are pending.

Executive Leadership

The Public Defender manages a large, complex organization. How would you measure attorney performance, training effectiveness, and workload equity across the office?

Employing a large number of attorneys and administrative, paralegal, investigative, and social service professionals, the San Francisco public defender’s office is among the largest criminal defense law firms in the state.

To measure how well we are doing internally, I have instituted a number of evaluative approaches that move beyond a simple win-loss formula, and speak to how well our attorneys provide the best defense in a given situation. We evaluate effectiveness measured by tangible progression of casework that meets client objectives.

For staff development, to supplement traditional training and workshops, we use a ‘bring your own case’ model where a group of attorneys weighs in on active cases and ways to handle specialized issues. We also offer our junior attorneys mentorships and provide post-mortem analyses, as called for.

Workload equity relies on a combination of data and real time supervision.. Our cases are assigned with workload and attorney experience in mind. We assign cases based on a matrix that crosses the seriousness of the charges, complexity of the legal questions at stake, complexity and volume of the evidence, and the specific experience level of the deputy public defender.

We maintain annual evaluations and measure performance using data tracking dispositions, trials, motions and other factors that lead to excellent practice.

I have also developed a highly functioning leadership team that nimbly addresses workplace issues as they emerge so as to not slow down the goals of the office while also striving to make systems level improvements.

Public understanding of the Public Defender’s role is often limited. What information or performance data would you make public to improve transparency and trust in the office?

As an office, we maintain a public website that was recently overhauled and launched as a way to make our work more transparent. As an elected official, I personally make numerous appearances throughout the year to talk about the work we do. The office regularly responds to requests from media outlets on issues related to our criminal, juvenile, immigration and mental health systems.

Please describe any relevant experience you have running large organizations, managing departments, managing budgets, and maintaining performance metrics.

As Public Defender, I administer the $56.7 million budget and supervise all attorneys and professional staff. Within the office itself, we have a number of divisions, departments, and specialized units. I have established a senior team to help me guide the office, and my oversight is constant.

The Issues

Next, we will cover the issues that voters tell us they care about. We hope to gain a better understanding of your policy positions, and we hope that you use this opportunity to communicate with voters.

The Public Defenders office has been refusing cases this year. The office cites an insufficient budget and low staffing alongside an increase in cases as the primary reasons. As the incumbent, please explain why you believe this decision was necessary. How will you resolve this in your next term?

The decision to refuse taking cases was not one my office took lightly. And it was not at all done suddenly–it was a decision months in the making, with the court informed as to the reasons why our office was acting as it was.

By declaring my office unavailable in certain instances, we relied on several constitutional and ethical reasons.

All attorneys are required to maintain strict ethical guidelines to adequately investigate and prepare cases for courtroom litigation in a timely manner. These duties cannot be met when the workload is too high. Further, the support staff consisting of investigators, social workers, paralegal and clerical have too many cases to support the attorneys adequately in a timely manner when the caseload balloons too high.

ABA guidelines direct Chief Defenders to decline cases when the workload becomes too much. The recently published National Workload Study and the corresponding California Public Defense Workload Study have detailed the appropriate workloads. We are understaffed in every area. As a result, we work closely with the private indigent defense to ensure that on days that we decline a portion of cases, there is a private court appointed attorney who has sufficient notice to avoid any delay in representation. While our caseload has not declined appreciably since our unavailability is surgically limited, at least it has not increased over the last year.

The problem in San Francisco has become the onslaught of new cases filed. Since 2021, the number of cases charged has exploded with an over 60% increase in active cases. We have only been declining to accept a very small percentage of cases in comparison. Due to the proliferation of body-worn camera and surveillance footage, cell phone technology, each case is substantially more terabytes than they were even a few years ago. Further, legal developments such as the Racial Justice Act and Mental Health Diversion require more work for our staff,

There has been a well-documented increase in the amount of arrests and filings on lower level cases. While we do not set those policies, we have a constitutional mandate to provide the downstream constitutionally mandated defense to those charges. To do so, more resources are required.

There continues to exist a severe funding gap when comparing our office’s budget to the combined, massive resources allocated to the police infrastructure and the District Attorney’s office. There is no parity or fairness in resources, yet the Public Defender’s office is asked to do more.

Our office has been complemented by the Court in the thoroughness of our analysis–we know what we need to get the job done. I have personally advocated for the resources we need to meet this demand.

And, we have gone out of our way–as a public agency–to seek resources from foundations and from the State in order to meet as many of the needs of our vulnerable populations as possible.

As the leader in the office, I will continue to educate stakeholders and advocate to attain the resources we need for the vulnerable clients and their families that we serve.

Delays harm defendants (with long pretrial detentions), victims (with no closure or justice), courts (calendar congestion) and public confidence and trust. In your words, what are the 1-3 key drivers of these delays? And what operational or staffing reforms would you implement to reduce case backlogs and improve case resolution timelines? Please name 1-3 specific performance metrics you would track.

It’s true that delays in criminal matters do not help anyone.

As stated above, there has been a dramatic increase in misdemeanor filings and a change in the willingness to engage in meaningful early plea negotiations. In part as a result of this, our office has a very high success rate in trials.

As Public Defender, my office is appointed to its cases–we do not choose them. The role we play is an important constitutional one.

But the fact remains: attorneys in my office carry the highest workloads of any office in the Bay Area.

Just to keep up with the current charged cases, my office would need an additional 35 attorneys, and dozens of support staff to meet the most basic constitutional compliance that is demanded from us according to the National Workload Study.

In order to address delays, our office has a practice of monitoring caseloads to ensure that attorneys are not unnecessarily delaying the processing of cases. When our clients exercise their right to speedy preliminary hearing or trial cases resolutions are expedited, leading to closure for all involved in the case and to more bandwidth for my staff to handle more cases. We coach and train in efficiencies, regular client communication and effective work collaborations in order to improve case resolution timelines.

The relationship between the District Attorney and the Public Defender is designed to be in tension - the DA seeks maximum punishment while the PD provides the accused with constitutionally-guaranteed defense. Please describe why this tension was designed into our justice system.

The criminal justice system is adversarial by its very nature with the belief that if the defense zealously advocates, constitutional protections are preserved and the judge or jury has the most complete set of facts so that they can reach the most just resolution.

Often, the PD will advocate for diversion or treatment programs rather than prison. The public perception of diversion is mixed, so please take this opportunity to defend it as a rehabilitative strategy.

The truth is, over 95% of all incarcerated individuals in California will be released into the community. It only makes sense, then, to seek to do more than punish an individual who has been convicted.

In order to keep our community safer, we must break the cycle of recidivism. Our system has tended to favor the punishment and de-emphasize rehabilitation in a way that has compromised public safety.

Our current criminal justice system is designed to punish the symptom (the crime) while ignoring the real causes (substance use disorder, untreated trauma, mental illness, poverty, etc.) This is a short-sighted approach that keeps our society less safe.

Leading criminologists say that incarceration often acts as a “school for crime” teaching illegal trades. Incarceration naturally separates individuals from positive social networks, disrupts employment, and exposes those incarcerated to increased levels of violence.

Diversionary programs are designed to do the opposite. While not appropriate in every case, mandating strict, supervised substance use, mental health treatment, counseling, and career development can fundamentally change a person’s trajectory in life. These are the kinds of programs we ought to push to make our communities safer.

Also, diversionary programs require a high degree of accountability and responsibility in order to successfully complete them. Many of our clients are willing to stay incarcerated for longer in order to access treatment, rather than simply accept a plea bargain in exchange for release from jail.

Do you believe diversion and treatment are always the better option over prison, or do you believe that prison serves a genuine social good.

Diversionary programs are not sought in every case or for every client. To qualify for a diversionary program, a client must meet rigid requirements and, ultimately, it is the Court that makes the decision about whether someone is eligible for diversion or a treatment option or not.

In the long run, if there is to be a sentence, the focus should be on addressing the harm, promoting healing, and, hopefully moving the lives of all affected parties in a positive direction.

Whether we have a client in treatment while a case is pending, pleading to charge and then on probation, in prison, or completing some kind of diversion program, we encourage and support clients to make the best use of that situation. Two clients can have the exact same disposition on paper, but the intentionality of the counselor/social worker role of the defense team can lead to a radically different trajectory for the represented individual.

Many clients struggle with serious mental illness or substance use disorder. How would you strengthen the office’s capacity to identify clients who need, and would benefit from, treatment, diversion, or competency support — and ensure those pathways are actually available and effective? How would you partner with other stakeholders to address this problem?

My office has a number of social workers. We recently received approval for a medical social worker in our mental health unit. Greater funding to provide a full substance abuse and mental health inquiry upon initial appointment would be beneficial.

We try to partner with other community based organizations to provide placement and counseling when appropriate. We also retain mental health experts including psychologists in order to diagnose untreated underlying conditions.

From our positions of trust and attorney-client confidentiality, we are well positioned to gain trust to help clients address mental illness and substance use disorders. I will continue to collaborate with other organizations and seek additional staff and collaborations so that we can maximize our positionality to help address these critical societal issues.

Personal

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am a child of immigrants from a farming village in India where there were very few opportunities. My family's values of preparation, hard work, humility, and connection to extended family have prepared me well for the intense work of public defense, which is a field that I love.

I enjoy reading, music, sports, pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation.

What is your professional background?

I did my undergraduate work at Columbia University and earned a fellowship at the University of Oxford’s Center for African Studies. I earned my Master’s and Juris Doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2001, I began working at the Contra Costa Public Defender’s office where I handled misdemeanor and felony cases as a trial attorney. In 2008, Jeff Adachi recruited me to work in the San Francisco office where I have been ever since.

How long have you lived in San Francisco? What brought you here and what keeps you here?

I have lived and worked in SF for almost twenty years. I came to the Bay Area for higher education and the people, the natural beauty, the social justice consciousness, the diversity and the cultural expression of the communities keeps me here.

What do you love most about San Francisco?

The parks, the restaurants and cafes, the preservation of culture through events and neighborhoods, and the beautiful views.

What do you dislike the most about San Francisco?

The weather in the summer :)

Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)

I am on the Board of the National Association of Public Defense and part of the Association of Chief Defenders of California and on the Board of a Bay Area Wide South Asian Youth Community Center, and a regular participant in the MAGIC programs in the Bayview and the Fillmore.

Why do you want to run for public office?

It is an honor for me to serve as Public Defender. Our office stands as a vital shield for the community, making the work of fighting for justice a real privilege. I love my work, and look forward to making San Francisco a safer city, protecting and strengthening the constitutional rights that protect all of us while also facilitating vulnerable individuals getting to a better place.

As a successful line attorney, trainer, and manager, many people in my office wrote to City Hall to ask that I be appointed. After being appointed, I have used strategic planning and hiring to make our office more successful. I am very proud of how high functioning our office has become. I am invited to speak nationally on various aspects of trial practice, organizational development, and leadership. Our office has evolved into a well-recognized national model, and I am proud to lead a group of passionate and skilled public defenders.

Thank you

Thank you for giving us your time and answering our questionnaire. We look forward to reading your answers and considering your candidacy!