Ten years ago, when I first became a public defender, it quickly dawned on me that, of all the entities within the criminal legal system, public defenders are doing the most work to prevent crimes from being committed. By trying to improve the lives of those we serve and help them stay away from the criminal legal system, public defenders are much more in the business of public safety than anyone realizes.

In recent years, in addition to working with our clients, we public defenders in Marin have been reaching out to help the larger community avoid continued contacts with the criminal legal system. The Marin County Public Defender’s office has made extraordinary changes, bringing our knowledge and services to the general public throughout the county. We are out at community events multiple times a week not only to bring direct services to our clients as a sort of mobile law office, but also to help educate and guide community members before they become our clients, and to ensure that they are never swept in to the criminal legal system in the first instance.

These outreach efforts are possible because of our specialized staff. Our DMV liaison answers people’s questions and assists community members with obtaining driver's licenses and IDs. Our Clean Slate team assists with dismissals of convictions, record expungements, and arrest record sealing – breaking down barriers to employment, housing, and services. We have also welcomed a licensed social worker who supports clients with housing and recovery resources, mental health services, crisis intervention, legal support, veteran services, and family and childcare assistance. We set up tables at parks, nonprofit organizations, food pantries, homeless encampments, and other locations to make it as easy as possible for the community to find us and take advantage of these services.

Since the federal election, the need for information about immigration law has skyrocketed. Questions come not just from our clients, but also from community organizations, agencies, and professionals who want to know more about their rights and responsibilities when it comes to federal immigration enforcement. The Public Defender’s Office Immigration Unit is rising to the challenge. We provide presentations, offer general legal information, and other services to answer those questions. We have presented to groups of physicians, educators, public agencies, nonprofits, and community members. We vacate old convictions where they are impacting a community member’s ability to stay in the United States with their families.
We have also now doubled our capacity to provide such aid not only to clients but to people in the community. Our Immigration Unit exists principally to provide the Constitutionally mandated legal service of advising about immigration consequences of criminal charges, and avoiding those consequences when possible through plea bargaining. In addition, we have always included informational services to the general public through presentations and answering general legal questions at public events. As the federal government continues to ramp up its extreme enforcement tactics throughout the community, not only for
immigrants but for others as well, our office will continue to ramp up our efforts to help the public feel informed and supported and, in the best of cases, protected.

After all, the world is not divided into victims and perpetrators as our system seems to pretend. Everyone has, at some point in their lives, been both. The majority of our clients at the Public Defender’s Office have been victimized by someone else in one way or another, many very seriously. The system we have in place acknowledges the harm to victims when punishing criminal defendants but fails to acknowledge it when the collateral consequences of that harm surface in the form of unwanted behavior, or drug addiction, or homelessness. If you care about victims of crime, care about them even when they exhibit behaviors of someone who has been the victim of crime.

This quote, from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, sums up the sentiment behind the Public Defender’s Office mission:

Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.

But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,

So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.

And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.

You are the way and the wayfarers.

And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.

Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.

I have always said that public defenders are the people who most deeply understand the truth that you cannot judge someone until you have “walked a mile in their shoes.” While we cannot truly know someone else’s life, we public defenders walk alongside those whose paths are often especially treacherous to help them remove the stumbling stones. When they do stumble, we pick them back up and walk with them until, we hope, they can become faster and surer of foot.