Sonoma County public defender asks California to prioritize attorneys on vaccine list

Sonoma County Public Defender Kathleen Pozzi is urging state officials to put the state’s public defender workforce and their impoverished clients high on the list of those to receive early doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Two of the county’s 32 deputy public defenders are currently out sick with the coronavirus, including one person who is seriously ill, she said. Ten of the office’s clients living in congregate care facilities have died from complications of COVID-19 since the virus was detected in Sonoma County nine months ago.

In a Dec. 3 letter to California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, Pozzi urged the state to hasten vaccination for public defenders and their clients, who disproportionately come from communities of color and are especially vulnerable during the pandemic with high rates of homelessness and chronic health issues.

“Members of our office and those that we serve are uniquely exposed and at risk of contracting the COVID virus, despite every precaution taken to avoid it,” Pozzi wrote. “Vaccinating our staff and those that we serve will not only protect us and them, but our and their respective families and will protect the entire community.”

The first batch of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines arrived in California last week, heralding the start of a new era of the pandemic. But the 327,600 doses are a fraction of the amount needed in a state of nearly 40 million people.

The first doses will go toward health care workers in acute settings and also begin to inoculate residents at skilled nursing facilities, where the elderly have experienced the most grave outcomes from the disease.

The panel of health experts advising the California Department of Public Health on how to prioritize inoculating the state’s massive population Thursday published recommendations on what categories of workers and vulnerable populations will come next.

Teachers, child care providers, first responders, grocery and restaurant workers were among those they said should be inoculated next.

The panel has so far overlooked public defenders and their clients, instead recommending another group of essential workers be in line as more vaccine doses become available, including with florists, sawmill operators and butchers.

A department spokesperson said no information was available about where public defenders might fall in the priority list yet, adding “details about the placement of others are still being determined.”

Pozzi said she hoped the state would recognize the difficult balance she and other public defenders must strike each day when weighing their role defending the rights of their clients, which they are mandated to do under the U.S. Constitution, while protecting the health of their workers.

“I’m very worried,” Pozzi said in an interview. “I feel like the mother of this office. The people who are sick, they’re young and healthy. Hopefully they will be again.“

Other industries and sectors are also making the case that their workforces should be put toward the front of the line. The advisory panel has received comments from many industry representatives, from those representing dentists to cleaning service workers.

Sonoma County Deputy Health Officer Dr. Kismet Baldwin said she believed Pozzi’s concerns are valid. The committees helping the state develop priority lists for essential workers are taking input like Pozzi’s into account, Baldwin said. Ultimately, the county will follow the state’s recommendations for prioritizing essential workers.

“I think that’s great that the public defenders have reached out to the state, and maybe they can work with the state to figure out where they fit into the prioritization scheme,” Baldwin said. “We are certainly going to follow whatever the state is recommending.”

Public defenders across the state have argued their clients represent a cross section of the most vulnerable people in the state.

In a Dec. 2 letter to Ghaly, the California Public Defenders Association highlighted outbreaks of the virus among inmates, noting that 60% of inmates at one Los Angeles County Jail had tested positive for COVID-19.

Salvador Salgado, who worked for the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office for 21 years, died in May from complications of COVID-19, association president Jennifer Friedman wrote in the letter.

“Our incarcerated clients are living in conditions that prevent them from being able to socially distance, and are frequently not provided the necessary sanitary products, making protective hygiene impossible,” said Friedman, who works in the federal Public Defender’s Office in Los Angeles County.

In an interview, Friedman said the vast majority of public defenders’ clients have all the hallmarks of risk during the pandemic.

“The vast majority of our clients are Black and brown, communities hit most hard by COVID,” Friedman said. “They don’t typically have good access to health care and they suffer from underlying conditions that make them more vulnerable.”

In Sonoma County, about 60% of the office’s clients do not have stable housing, according to Pozzi. Its clients are about 35% Latino, a slightly higher proportion than the general population which is 27% Latino. The county’s Latino community has been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, representing about 68% of local residents who have tested positive for the disease.

Pozzi said she doesn’t have a complete picture of the impact of COVID-19 on her office’s clients and doesn’t know how many have contracted the disease.

So far, Pozzi has felt confident in health protections at the jail but is most concerned for her attorneys in and out of court, where they come into contact with 50 people each day, on average, including clients and their families.

The county’s public defenders handle between 400 and 500 cases each day, from felony and misdemeanor criminal matters to probate cases, post-conviction matters and an array of other petitions.

“To communicate with our clients, despite all precautions we take — regular testing, masking, six feet of space — there are times you have to whisper to your client and talk with them in confidence. You’re within inches,” Pozzi said. “There’s no one else, apart from law enforcement while they’re arresting people, who come this close.“

In addition to those accused of crimes, the office represents people under conservatorships because of a combination of advanced age, illness or mental disability. They are deemed unable to care for themselves and live in group facilities.

The toll of the virus has been most clear in that group of clients, Pozzi said. Of the 10 clients who are known to have died from complications of COVID-19, one was mentally disabled and nine were in locked facilities or board-and-care homes with advanced memory loss.

“The Public Defender’s Office is unlike any other county department,” Pozzi said. “We’ve never closed down. Our doors are always open. We work from the office and we are not working remotely.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.