Event Information
What does true public safety look like—and who’s best equipped to deliver it? In this powerful conversation, Rae Cannady of the Pretrial Justice Institute sits down with San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju to discuss how his office is reshaping justice from the inside out. From investing in youth through the MAGIC program to launching the End the Cycle initiative with community-based social workers, Mano shares how public defenders can do more than defend—they can prevent.
They also dig into client empowerment, racial equity, and why treating people with dignity isn’t a luxury—it’s essential to real justice.
Watch now to learn how a people-centered approach is redefining what safety, advocacy, and accountability truly mean.
Speakers
Rae is the Program Director for Local Change Work at the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI), where she leads the groundbreaking “Willful Flight: Shifting Policy and Culture” project—an effort to transform pretrial practices in the Boston Municipal Court by replacing outdated “failure to appear” standards with a more equitable “willful flight” approach. With over 25 years of public service experience spanning social work, education, mediation, and law, Rae brings deep expertise to the creation and evaluation of research-based policies. She holds degrees in Psychology, Sociology, and Social Work from the University of Michigan, as well as a JD from Marquette University Law School. A proud Midwesterner turned Las Vegas local, Rae is driven by a lifelong commitment to justice—and by a deep belief that pretrial reform is more than a job; it's her love language.
Manohar Raju is the elected San Francisco Public Defender. As the only elected Public Defender in California and an elected member, Manohar continues to uphold the Office’s reputation not only as a formidable group of lawyers, paralegals, social workers, investigators and support staff, but also as a catalyst for criminal legal system change in local and state-wide arenas. A son of immigrants from India, his pursuit of justice is rooted in his acute awareness of the ramifications of social inequalities. Manohar completed his undergraduate degree at Columbia University, and holds a Master’s degree in South Asian Studies from U.C. Berkeley, where he also earned his law degree.