Kate Chatfield
@katechatfield.bsky.social
Attorney. Californian. Executive Director, California Public Defenders Association. “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.”
On July 1, San Francisco plans to dismantle SF Pretrial and hand the work to the armed Adult Probation Department. SF Pretrial has a 93% safety rate and is 7.7× cheaper for the city than the alternative. dontdismantlesf.org
Don't Dismantle What Keeps Us Safe in SF
San Francisco's most uniquely effective public safety program — a 50-year community-based innovation that doubles every city dollar and is 7.7× cheaper than the probation alternative — is being handed...
dontdismantlesf.org
Yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled in In re Kowalczyk that judges can’t keep people locked up before trial simply because they can’t afford bail. The court reaffirmed what should have been obvious: liberty is the norm — detention is the exception.
THREAD. This single headline in the NYT contains two outrageous claims reported as fact: 1) Vance "tried" to end the war; and 2) he "opposed" it. Neither is supported, but the thing to understand is: why is lying about the *intention* of powerful people so key to propaganda?
Calvin Duncan, a man imprisoned for 30 years before he was exonerated, won an election in New Orleans promising to fix a judicial system that failed him Now, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and the GOP-controlled Legislature are racing to eliminate his job before he can be sworn in
Louisiana GOP races to eliminate an elected office won by an exonerated man
A New Orleans man exonerated after serving nearly 30 years in prison has a new fight on his hands. Calvin Duncan has been elected as the city's new clerk of criminal court, but now Republican lawmaker...
apnews.com
Lil Nas X's case shows us exactly how mental health diversion is supposed to work — and why we have to protect it. Let them know that you oppose AB 46 and SB 1373 as written. Getting people treatment keeps us all safe. If you’re in California, find your rep here: findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov
Happy to share a new project with @katechatfield.bsky.social. We started a podcast called Due Processing @dueprocessing.bsky.social. It's available in the usual places. Please check it out and send reactions.
Daily Memo: Another Kavanaugh Stop, Woman Detained and Released Outside Courthouse
Thing is we don’t have any fucking public restrooms and refuse to offer people healthcare for any mental issues outside of jails or prison, so yeah you have every right to be upset about something like this happening, but you have to understand *why* it happens.
Sam@samd.bsky.social · 8mo agoAmerican leftism will never achieve power if the response to getting peed on while taking public transit is “toughen up” public spaces should be safe and pleasant, and that shouldn’t be a hot take
In Bay Area, Felony Charges Against Student Protesters Prompt Free Speech Concerns boltsmag.org/stanford-san...
In Bay Area, Felony Charges Against Student Protesters Prompt Free Speech Concerns - Bolts
German Gonzalez grew up about an hour south of Stanford University, in a dusty California farming town where the apples for Martinelli’s sparkling cider are juiced and packaged. In high... Read More
boltsmag.org
CPDA Executive Director Kate Chatfield was quoted in an article from Inland Empire Community News, where she voiced support for SB 873. The bill was written to stop federal immigration agents from turning court appearances into arrests for undocumented persons. Read more: iecn.com/senator-reye...
Torture is a feature of life in thousands of US jails and prisons. It’s often blamed on “guards,” but someone had to design this contraption, build it, plan its use, and run it up the chain of command. Judges and lawyers had to create a legal regime where this stuff pervades for decades.
There’s no hope of an anti-fascist coalition if journalists do stuff like this without accountability. Crime was *down* under Boudin, who barely changed anything! It’d be like the SF Chronicle saying: “many in the city blame Boudin for city’s children becoming flat-earthers.”
Not Sure How They Deal With Criminals In Your Town, But ’Round Here We Use A Restorative Justice Process
Not Sure How They Deal With Criminals In Your Town, But ’Round Here We Use A Restorative Justice Process
Well, well, well. What have we got here? Another city slicker who thinks he can waltz into my town and start causin’ all sorts of trouble. I’d be careful if I was you, fella. Because however they do t...
theonion.com
"District attorneys hold immense authority in people’s lives and in a community. When that authority is exercised by someone who publicly expresses racial, religious, or gender-based bias, it endangers both individual rights and the integrity of the justice system itself.” @katechatfield.bsky.social
California Public Defenders Association@calpublicdefenders.bsky.social · 11mo agoStatement from CPDA Condemning Racist Statements From San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow - Nov. 13, 2025:
Latest statement from CPDA: One Year After Prop. 36 Passes, Incarceration is Increasing, Treatment is Not.
CPDA is collecting information about arrests in and around state courts by immigration agents. If you have witnessed any action by federal agents in and around state courthouses, please fill out this form. Form link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Great read.
jon ben-menachem@jbenmenachem.com · 11mo agoZohran showed that a socialist can take City Hall—but the ruling class still forced him to keep Jessica Tisch at the NYPD. For Zohran to fight the police unions and win, the Left has to build power beyond the ballot box. New from me for The Nation: www.thenation.com/article/poli...
This was fantastic but I’m not wholly disinterested. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
John Oliver on the ‘shocking’ use of felony murder charges in the US
The host spoke about a little known charge that sends people to prison for life for murder even if they haven’t actually murdered anybody
theguardian.com
So this is not just any small county elected official engaging in good old gutter racism. This is an official who wields enormous power over people’s lives and a community. Who gets charged, who gets held in a cage, how many years should be taken from a life… www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/a...
SLO County DA shares posts linking New York’s first Muslim mayor to 9/11 attacks
When asked why he shared the posts, Dan Dow called Zohran Mamdani “an un-American socialist who wants to trample on the values and freedoms that millions of Americans have fought and died for.”
sanluisobispo.com
I am begging people to understand the different powers that a mayor holds and that a prosecutor holds. Begging. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Contributor: Voters want both 'tough on crime' and compassionate reform
Zohran Mamdani's campaign for New York City mayor has neatly sidestepped a trap that ensnared multiple progressive prosecutors in California.
latimes.com
This is so true. They are going to follow the 2020 SF playbook & create hysteria. And everyone is going to fall for it hook, line, and sinker. First and most vociferous perpetrator of this nonsense will be the NYTimes.
Xander Lenc@xlenc.bsky.social · 12mo agoNYC is going to have the world's biggest media-manufactured crime panic in history the second Mamdani is elected. They aren't even going to wait until he is inaugurated. Whether or not you like the guy, you need to start preparing now for the fire hose of disinformation that is about to activate.
The U.S. and the Philippines are the only two countries with a for-profit bail industry, says civil rights lawyer @equalityalec.bsky.social. The insistence that people in pre-trial detention pay to get out of jail leads to "millions of coerced guilty pleas" by poor people each year, he says.
Welcome to the next installment of our CPDA series “What is a public defender?” This week’s question we are answering is “What would a world without public defenders look like?” Submit your questions to cpda@cpda.org, and we’ll return soon with a new question!
CPDA and its members across California stand united with immigrant communities, labor partners, and local leaders demanding the immediate withdrawal of CBP agents from the Bay Area. California’s commitment to justice and sanctuary cannot coexist with the federal militarization of our streets.
Remember Prop 36? Which promised to "help everyone come indoors" through longer prison sentences and drug treatments? Guess how many people completed the drug treatment in the first 6 months! Did you guess... 25? calmatters.org/justice/2025...
