The People’s Report

NO NEW JAIL IN SAN FRANCISCO

The People’s Report

NO NEW JAIL IN SAN FRANCISCO
This report would not have been possible without the No New SF Jail Coalition in San Francisco,
including every individual and organization who has worked with the coalition. We would also like to
thank everyone who has opposed the new jail construction throughout California, and everyone who
has invested time, resources, work, and thought into developing and implementing solutions to harm
and violence that are participatory, functional and relevant.
Research by Coral Feigin, Jamie Gerber, Jayden Donahue, and Jess Heaney
Photos from CR-Oakland and No New SF Jail Coalition
Written by Jayden Donahue and Jess Heaney
Edited by Critical Resistance Oakland
Graphic Design by Finley Coyl
Cover image info: Design from CR-Oakland’s The Plan for a Safer Oakland (PSO) banner series. CR
initiated a partnership with All Of Us Or None to work towards REAL safety in Oakland, 2005-2010.
Cover Image by Scott Braley
Infographic on page 4 by Hannah Klein
Prints on pages 20 and 24 by SF Print Collective

About Us
Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the prison industrial complex
(PIC) by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. We believe that
basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make our communities secure. As
such, our work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness. The success of the
movement requires that it reflect communities most affected by the PIC. Because we seek to abolish
the PIC, we cannot support any work that extends its life or scope.
Over the past two years, Critical Resistance-Oakland has been part of a broad-based No New San
Francisco Jail Coalition fighting a proposed new jail at 850 Bryant. This coalition includes advocates
for housing justice, formerly imprisoned people, transgender communities, architects and planners,
children of imprisoned people, and concerned residents. We demand investment in real solutions to
public safety and creation of opportunity for all San Franciscans, not more cages.

No New SF Jail Coalition

nosfjail@curbprisonspending.org

|

www.nonewsfjail.wordpress.com

Critical Resistance

1904 Franklin St., Ste #504, Oakland, CA 94612 | 510.444.0484
croakland@criticalresistance.org | www.criticalresistance.org
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Table of Contents
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Introduction 
What are the costs of a new jail in San Francisco?
Human impact: Who is impacted by jail expansion?
What are the alternatives to building a new jail?
Get involved and join the fight!
SF Jail Fight Platform

Introduction
In June 2013, San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi went public with plans to build a new $290 million
jail in SF. Immediately, community members and organizations sprung into action to oppose this
hazardous scheme. Almost two years later, with the SF County Jail System at only 65% capacity, a
declining county jail population, repeated stories of prisoner abuse at the hands of sheriff’s deputies,
and abundant opportunities for life-affirming alternatives and pre-trail diversion, there is widespread
and rapidly mounting opposition to the jail construction proposal.
We oppose expanding the jail system because jails harmful to our communities and costly; they
perpetuate San Francisco’s problems rather than solve them, and they waste valuable resources that
could be invested in effective solutions.

The reality of the SF County Jail System and the new jail proposal
The reality is that San Francisco already has too much jail space. There are approximately 1,000
empty jail beds in county jails every single day in the SF, and the jail population has been declining
steadily, remaining at 62-65% of its total jail capacity for almost four years. The county has discussed
“leasing” empty jail beds to other counties, states, or the federal government to fill excess cages. In
essence, San Francisco not only wants to build County infrastructure that systematically disempowers,
disenfranchises and kills Black, poor and homeless Californians, but is also willing to use it as a way to
generate income.
The Sherriff’s department has stated that this building at 850 Bryant is decrepit and seismically
unsound. Instead of continuing to invest in ineffective solutions that harm our communities, this
is an opportunity for the city to CLOSE the jail at 850 Bryant, turn the building into humane city
infrastructure, and invest resources in meaningful solutions.

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“$278 million dollars is more than what is currently being proposed by
Mayor for the new affordable housing revenue initiative. New jails are bad
in and of themselves, but even more absurd in the middle of the worse
displacement crisis in San Francisco’s history.”
4

– James Tracy, Co-founder of the Eviction Defense Network and
author of Dispatches Against Displacement: Field Notes From San Francisco’s Housing Wars

The People’s Report

“There are so many other uses for this money than spending it on a new
jail. All the indications about whether a jail is needed or useful point
towards that it would be a big waste of resources. This is the moment to
be getting rid of 850 Bryant. There is no need for that jail to exist. I work in
housing. That $278 million could be used much more appropriately to house
people in a meaningful way. There are so many services that could benefit
from that money.
At the same time that they’re talking about the new jail—that is not
needed—they are also talking about expanding the police force. On one
hand you build a jail that you don’t need, and on the other you build a
police to criminalize people to fill the jail.”
–Fernando Marti, Co-Director at Council of Community Housing Organizations,
artist and community architect

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Human Impact
Who is impacted?
Jails perpetuate the systemic oppression of racism. The communities most impacted by the building
of a new jail are communities of color, and more specifically the Black community in San Francisco.
These communities are also the ones that are suffering the worst effects of San Francisco’s systematic
and crushing pace of gentrification. According to the American Community Survey of the US Census,
the Black population of San Francisco is 6%, a 7% drop since 1970. Conversely, the overall population
of the city continues to rise, netting a nearly 10% gain from 2010 to 2013. Evictions, foreclosures,
rent increase and development projects act hand in hand with policing and imprisonment to push
out people of color in San Francisco, resulting in the loss of lives, networks, legacies, systems of
social support and cultural traditions. Yet, while Black people make up such a small portion of the city
population, they account for 56% of the jail population.

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All of Us or None
All of Us or None is a grassroots civil and human rights organization fighting for
the rights of formerly- and currently- incarcerated people and our families.  We
are fighting against the discrimination that people face every day because of
arrest or conviction history.  The goal of All of Us or None is to strengthen the
voices of people most affected by mass incarceration and the growth of the
prison-industrial complex.

How does imprisonment affect your community?
Imprisonment hurts our communities on so many levels.  Rather than addressing the root
cause of harm and violence, removing a person from a community continues to leave—if
not exacerbate— tears, holes, and problems in many families and communities of color.
Consequently, the underlying conditions remain the same in most critically-impacted
communities, riddled by poverty, state-sponsored violence, and interpersonal violence, which
all methodically feed imprisonment. Instead of diverting resources to families and communities,
federal, state and local governments choose to perpetuate these irresponsible cycles by
prioritizing imprisonment over people.

Why do you oppose the new jail?
We oppose the construction of new jails because they are simply inhumane, unhealthy, and do
not solve our social, economic, and environmental problems. 

What do you want instead?
We want all jails, prisons and detention centers to be converted into educational, health, and
training centers for former prisoners, the homeless, and those living in the informal economy,
staffed and run by former prisoners and those affected by imprisonment. We want 24-hour
community centers instead of liquor stores.  We want community gardens instead of police
stations.  We want at least 50% of all new development in cities and suburbs across America
to be available to working- and low-income families.  We want to put an end to the systemic
discrimination facing us due to our conviction histories, and to be able to live our lives with
dignity.

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Jails are not health care facilities
People struggling with mental health or substance use issues are disproportionately criminalized.
In fact, nationwide more than 50% of people in jail or prison have a history of symptoms of mental
illness, compared with 6% in the general population. Sixty-five percent of imprisoned people
experience substance use problems. The San Francisco Department of Public Health Jail Health
Services Department reported in 2011 that throughout the 4 county jails, 75-80% of the population
has substance use issues and 14% has significant mental health problems. Sheriff Mirkarimi claims that
a new jail will focus more on rehabilitation and re-entry, yet we know that just 1 in 6 people in local
jails with a mental health problem receives any treatment at all.1 Police contact, traumatic and violent
confinement, and cycling through a punitive system can seriously exacerbate already critical health
challenges and addiction issues. We know that imprisonment further damages mental health and that
people with mental illness receive inadequate treatment or none at all behind bars, yet politicians use
this to justify increased spending for mental health services in prisons and jails. Jails are harmful to all
people, and a jail is no place to address health issues.

Roma Guy, Tax Payers for Improving Public Safety:
How is imprisonment a health issue in the SF Jail?
We do know the mentally ill population in the jails in SF (state-wide and nationally) is
significant. Even the Wall Street Journal has written that the incarcerated population nationally
is becoming a “mental health asylum.” It is cheaper and more humane to seek placements in
community services.

What would you advocate for instead?
My organization, Taxpayers for Public Safety, knows we need to advocate for:

1. Expansion of Pretrial diversion programs that would include adding a clinical social
worker and perhaps a psychologist.
2. Intervention at point of “pre-arrest” that would divert some people to mental health
assessment service for diagnosis and appropriate services without having to go to pretrial or jail.
3. Improved clinical assessments of those pretrial and sentenced.
These recommendations will also include the combined factors of substance abuse and mental
health. We may separate the two but we know that people use substance to mitigate their
mental health illness.
1 “7 Reasons Why Mental Health Advocates Should Fight Prison and Jail Expansion,” Californians United for a Responsible

Budget. http://curbprisonspending.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/CURB-Mental-Health-Fact-Sheet-edits-5.22-2.pdf

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The San Francisco jail is a pauper’s prison
Eighty-four percent of people in SF County Jails are pre-trial, meaning that they have not been
convicted and are in jail because they simply cannot afford bail. Furthermore, we know that homeless
people and poor people are criminalized simply for being poor. People are regularly arrested and
jailed for so-called “quality of life crimes” or under sit-lie ordinances which make it difficult if not
impossible to carry out daily human necessities such as sleeping or eating without being targeted
by law enforcement. As of fiscal year 2013-14, 28% of San Francisco’s jail population experienced
homelessness. Simple bail reform would make a new jail completely unnecessary.

Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP):
WRAP was created to expose and eliminate the root causes of civil and
human rights abuses of people experiencing poverty and homelessness in
our communities.

How does imprisonment affect your community?
Poverty is criminalized. Life sustaining activities like sitting, standing and sleeping are criminal
offenses. Jails are a tool that ensure people get a clear message that they are not wanted.
Every time you turn around they are searching your belongings, giving you tickets and not
providing you with an attorney to deal with that ticket. Jail is a threat and a tool to let you know
who the boss is.

Why do you oppose the new jail?
The criminalization system has become a poverty policing program. We keep building jails and
prisons and further criminalizing the existence of poor people.

What do you want instead?
Don’t build new ones, empty the old ones and then tear them down. The best redirecting of
resources currently going to criminalization would be toward residential mental health and
substance treatment for poor people. Local governments should be advocating for federal
funding [for affordable housing] to be restored and simultaneously they should be investing
local resources to increase the amount of and access to residential treatment.

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SF Coalition on Homelessness:
The Coalition on Homelessness is comprised of homeless people and allies who have been
organizing together since 1987 to expand access to housing in one of the richest cities in the
country, to protect the rights of the poorest people in our society, and to create real solutions to
contemporary homelessness.

How does imprisonment affect your community?
As a policy response to the visibility of homelessness in SF, many members of our community
have been incarcerated due to the accumulation of “quality of life” citations that they are
unable to pay or take care of. On any given day, more than 25% of the jail population was
homeless before their incarceration, and the vast majority will be homeless upon release.
Imprisonment and criminalization more broadly cause and perpetuate homelessness and
make it almost impossible for folks to exit homelessness once they are entrenched in the
criminal justice system. A criminal record excludes you from affordable housing, traditional
employment, and public benefits in California.

Why do you oppose the new jail?
Locking someone up or forcing them to interact with law enforcement to get their basic needs
met is coercive and proven to increase trauma and community-police tensions and have not
been proven to lead to decreasing or ending homelessness.

What do you want instead?
The resources required to construct, maintain, and police homeless people would much better
be spent on increasing access to affordable housing, mental & medical healthcare, and holistic
drug and alcohol treatment programs - investments proven to end homelessness.

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Trans women
A recent national survey of 6,450 individuals by the National Center for Transgender Equality and
the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce examined issues of incarceration and law enforcement for
trans and gender non-conforming populations. The study found that almost 1 in 6 trans people has
been locked up at some point during their lives and that 1 in 2 Black trans people had been to prison
or jail.2 Further, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that each year, 40% of trans prisoners
experience sexual abuse by prison staff or other prisoners.3

“A new state-of-the-art facility is irrelevant if it’s filled with deputies
who are abusive against us,” read an open letter to the SF Board of Supervisors from
women currently housed in the system. “A jailhouse is a jailhouse is a jailhouse. It
is never safe. They want to lock us up instead of helping people with our
problems.”4
Discrimination and harassment by law enforcement officers based on sexual orientation and gender
identity continues to be pervasive throughout the United States. For example, a 2014 report on
a national survey of LGBT people and people living with HIV found that 73% of respondents had
face-to-face contact with the police in the past five years. Police abuse, neglect and misconduct were
consistently reported at higher frequencies by respondents of color and transgender and gender
nonconforming respondents.5 Sheriff Mirkarimi’s transgender pod, specifically for trans women, in the
proposed new jail is touted as a kinder, gentler place that would be more appropriate for the living
reality of trans and gender non-conforming people and would address their issues as trans people.
We know that jails and prisons can never be places that address the issues of trans people. While
transgender specific pods or wings are put forth as reforms, they are really excuses for prison and jail
expansion.

2 Grant, Jaime M., Lisa A. Mottet, Justin Tanis, Jack Harrison, Jody L. Herman, and Mara Keisling. Injustice at Every Turn: A

Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey.Washington: National Center for Transgender Equality and National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2011 http://www.thetaskforce.org/static_html/downloads/reports/reports/ntds_full.pdf

3 “Federal Survey: 40% of Transgender Prisoners are Sexually Abused Each Year,” Advancing Transgender Equality, https://

transgenderequality.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/federal-survey-40-of-transgender-prisoners-are-sexually-abused-each-year/

4 Meronek, Toshio. “No to Prison Industrial Complex: San Francisco’s Trans Community Responds to Brutal Murders,”

Truthout, 2/25/2015. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29256-no-to-prison-industrial-complex-sf-trans-community-s-response-to-seven-brutal-transgender-murders-in-2015

5 Mallory, Christy, Amira Hasenbush, Brad Sears. Discrimination and Harassment by Law Enforcement Officeers in the LGBT

Community. Los Angeles: The Williams Institute, 2015. http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/LGBT-Discrimination-and-Harassment-in-Law-Enforcement-March-2015.pdf

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Trans Gender Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP):
TGI Justice Project is a group of transgender people—inside and outside of
prison—creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom. We
work in collaboration with others to forge a culture of resistance and resilience to
strengthen us for the fight against imprisonment, police violence, racism, poverty,
and societal pressures. We seek to create a world rooted in self-determination,
freedom of expression, and gender justice.

How does imprisonment affect your community?
Trans and gender non-conforming people, especially trans women of color are disproportionately affected by policing and prisons. We are more likely to have contact with the cops
and more likely to get locked up simply for being ourselves. These things make it harder for
trans and gender non-conforming people to get meaningful employment and safe housing.

Why do you oppose the new jail?
History shows that if you build more cages, you will fill them. There is a high percentage of
trans women of color held at 850 Bryant. A new jail will be expanding the city’s capacity to
cage trans people instead of putting those resources towards alternatives.

What do you want instead?
We want accessible and trans-specific re-entry services. We want low-income housing in San
Francisco that serves the needs of trans women of color. We want jobs and job training for
formerly incarcerated trans women of color. We want the city to continue to expand trans
specific health care and mental health care.

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Jails tear families apart
There are an estimated 17,993 children in SF with an imprisoned parent. The Pew Charitable Trusts found
that children of imprisoned parents are much more likely to experience life-long struggles. For example,
a family with an imprisoned parent on average earns 22% less the year after the imprisonment than it did
the year before. In addition, children with parents in prison are significantly more likely to be expelled
from school than others; 23% of students with jailed parents are expelled, compared to 4% for the
general population.6 Being the child of an imprisoned parent is a deeply traumatic experience. Children
with a parent in prison need counseling, therapy, and academic support from educators and schools.
Community-based quality services such as health care, education services, mental health and substance
abuse treatment are far more effective than imprisonment, let alone exponentially cheaper.

Project WHAT!:
Led by youth who have had a parent incarcerated, Project WHAT!
raises awareness about children with incarcerated parents with the long-term goal of improving
services and policies that affect these children. 

How does imprisonment affect your community?
There are currently more than 2.7 million children in the United States with a parent who is
incarcerated. Jails and prisons do not make cities safer or communities stronger. They are
disruptive. They target poor people, people of color, homeless people, transgender and
gender queer people, and youth, among others. They tear families apart. They take parents
away from their children.

Why do you oppose the new jail?
We need access to those support services that will keep our parents home, rather than costing
the city more money by continuing to go in and out of jail with addiction problems, mental
health issues and poverty that can all be combated. If the city of San Francisco really cared about
children with incarcerated parents having better relationships with their parents, they would be
spending money on keeping parents out of jail, not building new places to lock them away.

What do you want instead?
Alternatives to incarceration are less expensive and much more effective than putting people
behind bars. It could go to helping those with mental illness and drug addiction get the proper
treatment, rehabilitation and support they need to live fulfilling lives. It could provide homeless
people with safe and affordable housing. It could improve our underfunded schools. It could
provide better health care and access to health care for us all. Having a parent incarcerated is a
deeply traumatic experience. Spend money on keeping our parents out of jail, not locked up.
6 The Pew Charitable Trusts. Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility. Washington, DC: The Pew

Charitable Trusts, 2010. http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/CollateralCosts1pdf.pdf

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California Coalition of Women Prisoners:
CCWP is a grassroots social justice organization, with members inside and outside prison, that
challenges the institutional violence imposed on women, transgender people, and communities
of color by the prison industrial complex (PIC). We see the struggle for racial and gender justice
as central to dismantling the PIC and we prioritize the leadership of the people, families, and
communities most impacted in building this movement.

How does imprisonment affect your community?
There is a CCWP community inside the San Francisco jail. Through our weekly Fired Up!
program, we go into the jail and build connections and power with people in the women’s pod.
At CCWP we believe that supporting and empowering people to survive and fight for their
dignity and freedom is part of how to organize our way out of mass incarceration. So many
of our members have lost their children and decades of their lives to traumatic and extreme
prison sentences and extended jail time.

Why do you oppose the new jail?
If San Francisco’s only solution for the housing crisis and the widening wealth and poverty
gap is to target and lock up poor people, people of color, youth, immigrants, and queer and
transgender people, then jail is exactly where people will end up.

What do you want instead?
CCWP would like the city of SF to take jail funds and redirect them to subsidize extremely
low-income housing for people deprived of housing and living homeless on the streets, and
for people living in severe poverty because of extremely high rents across the city. We also
believe these funds should be used to improve city mental health services, and to provide free
education opportunities and job training for people coming out of prison and jail.

“Jails do not teach people healthy living skills, safety skills, or employment
skills. This is evidenced by the recidivism rates of incarcerated at 70% and
significant reduced rates at 40-45% in pre-trial and pre-arrest programs.
These SF diversion interventions have made SF the most under crowded jail
system in the state of California. We don’t need a new SF Jail. Rather there
is a need to continue expanding pre-arrest and pretrial diversion.”
— Roma Guy, Taxpayers for Public Safety

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What are the alternatives
to building a new jail?
We want, deserve, and demand to live in a city that prioritizes the health, wellbeing, and cultural and
political life of all of San Francisco’s residents. This moment is a critical opportunity for San Francisco
to invest in real solutions for its residents and working communities, rather than squandering valuable
resources on cages that perpetuate serious harm, systemic disempowerment and violence.
Simple reforms can be made now!
Even Sherriff Ross Mirkarimi himself has said that he would not advocate building a new jail if the
population was to drop below 1,000 people. Since 84% of people in SF County Jails are pre-trial—
meaning that they have not been convicted and are in jail because they simply cannot afford
bail— simple bail reform would make a new jail completely unnecessary, even by the system’s own logic.
Further, we know that 75-80% of the population has substance use issues and 14% has significant mental
health problems. San Francisco can design and implement diversion programs, such as intervention at
point of “pre-arrest” to divert people to mental health services for appropriate care and services.
In addition. viable community-based alternatives such as restorative justice and violence prevention
programs can be more strongly resourced to deal with harm, conflict and trauma.
Thankfully, real solutions to the problems that jails perpetuate already exist! For years, communities
have been working hard to create practical and visionary resources to meet our needs. Instead of
building another jail, San Francisco can seize this moment and invest in the life-affirming solutions that
already exist. Imagine what $290 million could do if invested in the resources that address both daily
needs and our long-term stability.

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Alternative investments to imprisonment
Affordable housing
Gentrification destabilizes communities, neighborhoods, and families by pushing poor and working
class people out of their homes. The city needs to intervene in San Francisco’s gentrification crisis now!
We need more well-maintained affordable housing with community programming, open space and
significant tenant input in decision-making. We need more support and services for homeless people.

Coalition on Homelessness, www.cohsf.org
SF Tenants Rights Union, www.sftu.org
Housing Rights Committee, www.hrcsf.org
Eviction Defense Collaborative, www.evictiondefense.org
Examples for street-based folks and emergency housing:  

Community Housing Partnership, www.chp-sf.org
Tenderloin Housing Clinic, www.thclinic.org
Chinatown Community Development Center, www.chinatowncdc.org
Mercy Housing, www.mercyhousing.org
Hospitality House, www.hospitalityhouse.org
Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, www.mnhc.org

Mental Health Services
People struggling with mental health or substance use issues are disproportionately criminalized, and
police contact, traumatic and violent confinement, and cycling through a punitive system can seriously
exacerbate already critical health challenges and addiction issues. Jails are harmful to all people, and
a jail is no place to address health issues; we must invest in quality, voluntary and accessible mental
health services.

Mental Health Association of SF, www.mentalhealthsf.org
Westside Community Services, www.westside-health.org
Lyon-Martin, www.lyon-martin.org

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Re-entry support for people coming home from prison
People with conviction records face tremendous barriers to successful reintegration. Aside from
making sure all of the above are accessible to people coming home, we must also provide education
opportunities and end discrimination against formerly imprisoned people in jobs, housing, and welfare.

All of Us or None, www.prisonerswithchildren.org/our-projects/allofus-or-none
TransGender Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), www.tgijp.org

Alternative ways of dealing with harm, conflict, trauma
Policing and imprisonment are violent practices that break up families and destabilize communities.
We need to use and continue to develop responses to harm that help people flourish and learn
without punishment and separation from their families and communities.

Communities United Against Violence, www.cuav.org

Youth leadership and violence prevention
As stated above, policing and imprisonment break up families and destabilize communities.
Communities prosper when they are healthy, stable, and people have the tools and resources
necessary to build strong relationships. We need to invest in violence prevention which motivates and
empowers young leaders and communities that are most affect by the prison industrial complex.

Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD), www.cywd.org
HOMEY (Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth), www.homey-sf.org
Mission Girls, www.mncsf.org
Project WHAT! www.communityworkswest.org/programs-2/project-what/
United Playaz, www.unitedplayaz.org

Job training and placement programs
Many people participate in criminalized street economies to contribute income to their families and
meet their basic needs. We need training programs that prepare people for job applications and
meaningful work; help them find stable, well-paying employment; and build community.

Homeless Employment Collaborative

www.cjcj.org/Direct-services/Homeless-Employment-Collaborative.html

Hospitality House, www.hospitalityhouse.org/employment-resource-center/
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Get involved and stop the proposed new SF Jail!
1 Call these Board of Supervisors targets and tell them that you oppose
San Francisco building a new jail. Urge them to invest in real
alternatives, not more cages!

Supervisor John Avalos
District 11
(415) 554-6975
John.Avalos@sfgov.org

Supervisor Eric Mar
District 1
(415) 554-7410
Eric.L.Mar@sfgov.org

Supervisor Katy Tang
District 4
(415) 554-7460
Katy.Tang@sfgov.org

Supervisor Norman Yee
District 7
(415) 554-6516
Norman.Yee@sfgov.org

Supervisor David Campos
District 9
(415) 554-5144
David.Campos@sfgov.org

Supervisor London Breed
District 5
(415) 554-7630 - Voice
London.Breed@sfgov.org

Supervisor Mark Farrell
District 2
(415) 554-7752
Mark.Farrell@sfgov.org
Supervisor Scott Wiener
Supervisor 8
(415) 554-6968
Scott.Wiener@sfgov.org

We have successfully organized the following Supervisor to oppose the new jail proposal. Let Jane Kim
know that you support the stand that she is taking for a better San Francisco!
Supervisor Jane Kim
District 6
(415) 554-7970
Jane.Kim@sfgov.org

2 Share this report with your neighbors.
3 Bring this report to your organization or community group and get them
to sign on to the fight.

4 Invite someone from the coalition to speak to your organization or
community group.

5 Join our email list for updates on actions and opportunities to engage:
nosfjail@curbprisonspending.org

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Californians United for a Responsible Budget
(CURB):
CURB is a broad-based coalition of over 65 organizations seeking to CURB prison spending by
reducing the number of people in prison and the number of prisons in the state.  CURB seeks
member organizations who are working on issues related to the prison industrial complex and
organizations concerned about our state budget priorities.

How does imprisonment affect your community?
Our communities are overrepresented in California’s prisons and jails: poor, people of color,
many of whom are not US citizens, many of whom have been incarcerated or have had a family
member incarcerated. One of our core messages in SF and CA is that public funds that are now
used to police, convict and incarcerate people should be going to provide housing, education,
health care & employment to them. This jail proposal is just an extension of the continued
prioritization of incarceration and criminalization that our communities face throughout the
state.

Why do you oppose the new jail?
We are actively opposing and exposing the SF County Jail for what it is: a poorly run, brutally
violent waste of taxpayer money. We know that this jail is just another structure that will not
answer the problems that our communities are facing.

What do you want instead?
In SF and California, the public funds that are now used to police, convict and incarcerate
people should be going to provide housing, education, health care & employment. People
need mental health services, youth centers, supportive and affordable housing, and real
opportunities in their communities; not cages.

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SF Jail Fight Platform
Many San Francisco residents are facing hard times—
particularly in communities of color.
Many people in this city are struggling to find meaningful work, affordable housing,
and access to good education and sustainable healthcare. It is concerning that
more and more families are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet, some
decision-makers are prioritizing spending on more jails, more police, more condos and
luxury apartments, more Google buses, and more golf courses. We want, deserve, and
demand to live in a city that prioritizes the health, wellbeing, and cultural and political
life of all of San Francisco’s residents.

WHAT we want, What we Need
1. Community-based solutions and alternatives to incarceration.
Countless research, from university-based studies to reports from street-level service
providers, find time and time again that approaches that use community-based solutions
to harm and violence, have exponentially better outcomes. Outcomes that keep families
intact, assist loved ones to overcome the hardships of addiction, reduce the likelihood
of repeated harm, increase community stability—rather than locking people up.
San Francisco has experienced a downward trend in jail population for several years
now. If we restored funding to pretrial diversion programs we could divert enough
prisoners to close CJ4 immediately. AB 109 funds could be utilized to implement
community based programming, as Alameda County has done through the department
of public health, Innovations In Reentry initiative. We could expand restorative justice
practices many community groups are already practicing throughout the San Francisco
bay area. Many solutions already are in practice, and should be prioritized over
incarceration, which we know has failed not only our community, but our nation.

2. INCREASED FUNDING FOR RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT PROGRAMS &
OUTPATIENT MENTAL HEALTH & SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT SERVICEs.
Prioritizing mental health and treatment should be a top priority for any county that
values community stability, health, and wellbeing. Funding treatment programs not
only prevents people from doing time to begin with, but also helps those coming home
transition more successfully back in to the community.
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3. HEALTH CARE FOR ALL SAN FRANCISCANS.
Regular and preventive care for people of all ages and backgrounds has been proven
to have a positive effect on all aspects of community stability and sustainability.
People coming home from jail and prison don’t have health insurance, let alone
adequate health care. Increase funding for programs such as Transitions Clinic that
serve people coming home from prison. Make sure everyone coming out of jail
and prison, regardless of their migrant status, know they can apply for Healthy San
Francisco health insurance and get linked to medical care.

4. STOP ALL DEPORTATIONS.
Tearing apart families, depriving them of their means of survival, and saddling them
with legal debt in their efforts to save their family is destructive and creates massive
insecurity, trauma and harm. This is the opposite of public safety. Protect all San
Francisco families and workers!

5. FULLY FUNDED EDUCATION INCLUDING CITY COLLEGE.
Accessible and affordable higher education increases opportunities for our residents
while contributing to a more cohesive and vibrant community. Fully prepare all
San Francisco youth for a healthy future, and keep programs that serve formally
incarcerated San Franciscans available and expand them to meet the needs of all
people coming home from jail and prison.

6. JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS & LIVING WAGE JOBS FOR ALL SAN
FRANCISCO WORKERS, INCLUDING UNDOCUMENTED WORKERs.
Access to meaningful work and job training, education and healthcare, should be
a core value and top funding priority for any city or county that values community
stability, health, and wellbeing.
People with records need vocational programs that address the specific obstacles
they face in finding employment. San Francisco is one of the first cities to pass Ban
the Box legislation, but we must do more to change attitudes of discrimination in the
hiring of people with records.

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The People’s Report

7. MORE FUNDING FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND SUPPORTIVE HOUSING
DEVELOPMENTS, & AN END TO EVICTIONS.
A stable community is built on an absolute right to affordable and dignified housing
for all residents. In most countries in the world, this is recognized as a fundamental
Human Right. By taking a stand against evictions and the violence of gentrification,
this county will show that it prioritizes residents’ needs over corporate development
and profit.
We need affordable safe housing for all San Franciscans, including supported,
re-entry housing and rental subsidies to meet the needs of all people coming home
from jail and prison. We must put an end to practices of discrimination against people
with criminal convictions seeking housing.

8. FREE AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMMING FOR EVERY CHILD & YOUTH.
A vibrant educational and cultural life should extend from the classroom into the
community, providing our youth with empowering and safe places to grow; and
develop into strong community members and leaders. To achieve these goals
programs must be culturally affirming, and address the need for multilingual
programming.
After school programing invests much needed resources in to the communities and
the children that are most underserved, and the most vulnerable to police and other
forms of violence.

9. EXPAND COMMUNITY PARKS AND GARDENS FOR ALL SAN
FRANCISCANS.
Beyond the basic needs every person has an irrefutable right to, residents also
deserve to have beautiful and life-affirming open space in their communities—free
and accessible to all.
Parks, gardens and plazas are spaces for healthy social interaction and community
restoration. Through education for youth and adults alike, these spaces facilitate
healing and community cooperation for people impacted by harm.

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