San Mateo County defense attorneys add social workers

She will create and oversee a panel of social workers and work with San Mateo County service providers to help private defender clients get services. Samra will also provide training to attorneys about working with social workers, optimizing services for clients, and how to identify mental illness and substance abuse. The social workers will also help bridge gaps in the system, help educate lawyers and reach out to community-based organizations. Samra most recently worked for the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office. She has eight years of experience as a social worker in public defender offices working with juvenile and adult clients.

She is the first to hold the position within the San Mateo County Private Defender Program, or PDP, which provides defense representation to all people facing charges from the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. A 2020 Civil Grand Jury Report recommended that both the county and PDP improve client services, which the PDP program said it was committed to ensuring. San Mateo County contracts with the San Mateo County Bar Association to provide attorneys to defendants through the PDP program.

Chief Defender Lisa Maguire believes having a social worker program will help clients succeed after their cases finish.

“We want to see them set up for success. We think the best way to do that is to assist them while we can in coordinating treatments and wrapping up as many things as we can assist them with while they’re dealing with their criminal case,” Maguire said.

Maguire has seen an increase in immigration and housing needs but since she started defense work in 2001, she has seen a significant increase in people in the San Mateo County criminal justice system who have mental health needs.

“It is a real problem we are having in the criminal justice system. More and more, we are being asked to deal with simultaneously with not just dealing with a criminal case, but with a person who has significant mental health needs,” Maguire said.

Samra will be a liaison between attorneys and county service providers and help lawyers assess what services clients need. Services might include referrals to housing agencies or immigration services or guiding lawyers seeking mental health diversion for clients. Maguire said there had been a disconnect in services as attorneys do not always have the expertise and training to set up and provide client services.

“Samra will be instrumental in facilitating of communications as well, so she will be planning training for the attorneys, letting attorneys know ways in which she can help them evaluate their cases for clients needs and how to best offer referrals and guidance and helping that individual obtain those services and support,” Maguire said.

Samra noted the program would help clients get services and provide attorneys with resources for their clients. She offered a recent example of an attorney with a client in her younger 20s who has tried to make a medical appointment to get back on medication for bipolar disorder but can’t get an appointment for three months. The client has not seen a doctor in more than a year, and one must see her before they are willing to prescribe the medication again.

“I want to make sure that we do this in a way that’s going to help the clients and be able to help the attorneys really get somewhere with their cases where they haven’t had the ability to do that for,” Samra said.

Attorneys would reach out to Samra to have a social worker involved with their case at any point in the process. Her goal in the first year is to bring in around five to 10 social workers, with more potentially added later on.

“We can have a significant impact on how a case may go through the court system because of the different types of things that we can help attorneys with,” Samra said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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