OAKLAND – A stubbornly persistent number of criminal defendants in Alameda County languished at the Santa Rita Jail this year amid a monthslong shortage of court-appointed attorneys, according to court documents and several defense lawyers.
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Multiple defendants have been forced to wait weeks — at times, even a month — for attorneys due to the shortage, raising alarms among civil rights advocates and prompting the county’s presiding judge and other top local jurists to scramble for solutions. The issue has caused such deep frustration and impatience among defendants that one man recently negotiated his own jail sentence with a prosecutor in open court, moments after being told the system for appointing attorneys remained “completely backed up,” court records show.
The lack of available attorneys became so problematic during the first half of this year that the ACLU of Northern California sent a letter to Alameda County Superior Court Presiding Judge Thomas Nixon and other local judicial and county leaders in April, demanding that he address it. In the letter, the organization’s attorneys said the delays amounted to “a clear violation of constitutional rights, exacerbating the cycle of incarceration and injustice.”
At one point in mid-May, 59 people were waiting to be assigned attorneys, a court filing shows. Since then, the delays have persisted, said Yoel Haile, the ACLU of Northern California’s criminal justice program director. Court records show a 30-year-old Berkeley man jailed on an assault charge recently waited at least five weeks for an attorney in June and July. Another 32-year-old Oakland man waited four weeks for an attorney while jailed on drug charges.
They are among at least eight people this month who showed up to court – more than a half-dozen times in some cases – only to be ordered to return another day while their cases remained in indefinite limbo.
In another case, a 48-year-old San Leandro man out of jail on his own recognizance on weapons charges showed up to court four times from June 4 through July 8, only to be repeatedly told to come back because the judge had no attorney for him, according to court documents.
He failed to show for his next hearing on July 14, prompting a judge to issue a $25,000 arrest warrant. The man may have viewed the hearing as pointless – no attorney was listed in court records as appearing for him that day.
“There’s a whole host of serious adverse life consequences that happen to people if they’re detained even one day, let alone 14 days,” Haile said. “These people don’t have convictions yet. These are people who are legally innocent that this is happening to.”
“The government has to fix it, to find a solution for this,” Haile added. “The harm to people’s rights is unacceptable, remains unacceptable and seems to be increasing.”
The shortage exists solely among attorneys appointed through the Criminal Court Attorneys Program, or CAAP. The county-funded program vets attorneys and then helps pair them with defendants who cannot be represented by the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office. The attorneys are then paid varying rates based on the severity and nature of the charges.
The attorneys are necessary when public defenders declare conflicts of interest with clients, which can happen if there’s more than one defendant being charged for the same crime, or if the public defender’s office is representing a witness in their case.
In a May 2 letter responding to the ACLU, Judge Nixon expressed frustration, noting that he had called a meeting earlier in April to find solutions to the problem.
Even so, he refused to issue an emergency general order allowing judges to appoint attorneys from the bench who are not a part of the program, writing that “appointing counsel sounds easier than it is.”
In a statement this week, Nixon said he remained “deeply concerned” about the shortage, adding that he’s “encouraged” judges to appoint counsel “where possible.” He said a supervising criminal court judge is working with the public defender’s office and the attorney program to recruit more counsel.
Theories for the shortage abounded this week. In his statement, Nixon suggested that public defenders have declared conflicts at an “unprecedented” rate, yet did not offer specifics. CAAP’s director, Andrea Zambrana, hinted at an increase in cases, claiming the new Alameda County District Attorney, Ursula Jones Dickson, has taken a “more punitive” approach to filing charges — particularly with recently passed Proposition 36 — though statistics were not immediately available. Nixon downplayed that notion in his May letter.
Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods took issue with Nixon’s comments on conflict declaration rates — calling them “absolutely false.” He claimed his office declared more conflicts of interest during the first six months of 2019, 2021 and 2022 than in 2025. Woods added that his office had received several hundred more felony referrals during the first half of this year than in 2024.
At their meeting Tuesday, Alameda County supervisors amended their contract with the Alameda County Bar Association, which oversees the court-appointed attorney program. The changes — which did not add any money to the association’s three-year, $30 million contract for the program — aimed to help the association better recruit and retain attorneys for the program, county records show.
CAAP’s director, Andrea Zambrana, defended her program this week while lamenting how her office had been forced to handle more cases without additional county funding. “Let us be clear: this is a countywide public defense and public funding crisis — not a CAAP crisis,” Zambrana said in a statement. “Solutions must be systemic. Scapegoating CAAP delays real reform and leaves vulnerable people without meaningful legal protection.”
Some other areas of the state, such as Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties, have alternate public defender’s offices that can act as a secondary option when typical public defender’s offices can’t take a case. Yet other, outside attorneys are still necessary, experts say, such as when more than two people are arrested in the same case.
Public Defender Brendon Woods said the creation of an alternate public defender’s office — which in some cases is overseen by the county’s chief public defender, in this case Woods — is “something that needs to be explored,” if CAAP can’t address the current shortage. He called the current shortage “terrible.”
“It’s something that has to be remedied immediately,” Woods said. “It’s almost unfathomable that there are people sitting in custody for two weeks or longer waiting for counsel.”
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
The shortage has left an increasing number of defendants demanding help, with several recently expressing deep frustration in open court with the delays, attorneys say.
On July 10, one man took matters into his own hands.
Told by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Colwell that the court had no attorney for him, the man asked if he could move forward without a lawyer. Immediately, Colwell told him, “I don’t want you to,” adding, “We’re trying as hard as we can to get you someone. I want you to have someone. I don’t like this,” a court transcript shows.
That’s when Christopher Infante, the prosecutor, piped up, saying aloud that he planned to offer the defendant 120 days in county jail for a probation violation. Authorities claimed he stole merchandise in June from a Target in Albany, after allegedly burglarizing two other stores in 2023.
“That is informational only,” the prosecutor added.
“I’d take 90,” the 32-year-old Santa Maria man said.
“Sold,” Infante replied.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at [email protected].