San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

New San Francisco DA to reform criminal justice system

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District Attorney Forum

Recently sworn in as San Francisco’s new District Attorney, Chesa Boudin has bold plans to reform the city’s criminal justice system.

“Our criminal justice system is failing all of us. It is not keeping us safe,” said Boudin in a recent SF Examiner article. “It is contributing to a vicious cycle of crime and punishment.”

As the head of San Francisco’s investigative division, Boudin said he will form a Conviction Integrity Unit of special advisers to address wrongful conviction allegations and excessive sentencing.

Boudin, a Rhodes Scholar and Yale graduate, ran for district attorney on a platform of reducing mass incarceration.

“There have been debates about how sympathetic Boudin will be to victims of crime, with some questioning if his policies will be empathetic to them, and others arguing that he will stand up for crime victims,” the SF Examiner reported.

We have a shared understanding that “there is a balance between justice and fairness,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “I appreciate that Chesa Boudin understands that balance. We can hold people accountable, and we can make sure there is fairness in our criminal justice system. I am looking forward over the next four years of working with him to do just that.”

Opposed by the San Francisco police union, Boudin who has been labeled a “radical” for his extremely progressive plans.

“Radical simply means, grasping things at the root,” Boudin said, quoting one of his supporters, activist Angela Davis. “For far too long, criminal justice policy has been shaking the trees, when the plant itself has rooted out. The solution lies beneath the surface.”

Boudin views the criminal justice system as failing and points to current tough-on-crime sentencing enhancements, immigration prosecutions, and “illegal searches” after minor traffic violations as problematic.

During his inaugural speech, Boudin told a crowd of public defenders, former mayors, and police brass, “These failures (of our criminal justice system) have led us, as a community, as a nation, to accept the unacceptable. Join me. Join this movement. Join us in rejecting the notion that to be free, we must cage others.”

Boudin is the son of radicals who were convicted for a robbery that led to the deaths of two police officers and a security guard. In his speech, he described visiting his parents in prison as a child. Although his mother was there to hear his speech, his father is still incarcerated.

Speaking of his father, Boudin said, “He taught me that we are all more than our worst mistakes.” And in a spoken aside to his father, said, “Thank you for teaching me about forgiveness and redemption.”

San Francisco to replace Juvenile Hall with rehabilitative center

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By Dillon Kim, Journalism Guild Writer

San Francisco voted to close its Juvenile Hall and replace it with a smaller “rehabilitative center” to provide a more home-like setting for youths who don’t need to be detained but can’t return home.

The Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 on June 4 to shut the facility by the end of 2021.

Mayor London Breed and some other community leaders oppose the facility’s complete closure and instead support institutional reform. “What about a teenager charged with murdering someone? Someone’s son or daughter is dead and so what happens to that young person?” said Breed. “Sometimes there is a need [for incarceration]. And so what does that look like?”

California law mandates that certain juveniles must be held in a secure facility.

According to a recent report in the San Francisco Chronicle, juvenile delinquency rates in the U.S. and California have declined over the past decade.

Last January, just forty-five youths remained housed in SF’s juvenile hall—less than one-third of its full capacity. At that rate of occupancy, the city spends almost $270,000 annually to incarcerate a single child, according to numbers released by the Young Women’s Freedom Center.

Additionally, HuffPost reported that San Francisco’s population is only 5% Black—yet Black children comprise 60% of its incarcerated juvenile population,.

Supervisor Catherine Stefani was the only holdout to vote “no” against the ordinance.

“I do believe this piece of legislation is well-intended. I’m on the same page in terms of why we are doing this,” said Stefani. “But when we flip that page to the solution, I’m not there yet because I have a hard time closing Juvenile Hall with a date certain and without a plan in place.”

The new ordinance creates a 12-person team that will include city officials, juvenile justice experts and community members—all working to develop feasible alternatives to youth incarceration. It also calls for redirecting the funds allocated for Juvenile Hall to programs that support youth mental health treatment and academic aid.

As a 16-year-old, Leticia Silot spent time incarcerated at the city’s juvenile hall. She spoke about her experience recently in an interview for KQED on National Public Radio (NPR).

“Man, it felt like forever. I don’t even know what time it was half the time because they take the clocks out,” Silot recalled. “They don’t let us have clocks in the building, so it’s like- it’s very confusing.”

Supervisor Matt Haney told the Examiner, “The harsh truth is that the incarceration of children in jail-like environments, behind steel doors in concrete rooms, does not work. Incarceration adds trauma and pain to the lives of children who have often experienced an unimaginable amount of trauma and pain.

“Kids need treatment, support, education, community-based, non-incarceration-based opportunities. They need better than we are doing now.”

San Francisco sugiere humanizar el lenguaje hacia los presos

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La Junta de Supervisores de la Ciudad de San Francisco aprobó recientemente una resolución que pretende humanizar el lenguaje que se utiliza para referirse a las personas que han estado encarceladas y que tienen antecedentes criminales.

La resolución 336-19 reconoce el impacto dañino del lenguaje peyorativo y urge la ciudad a adoptar un lenguaje que anteponga a la persona o al individuo antes que sus antecedentes criminales.

En la justificación de la resolución, los supervisores reconocen que el lenguaje que enfatiza los antecedentes criminales sobre el individuo ‘mina, devalúa y deshumaniza’ a las personas, en tanto que palabras como ‘prisionero’, ‘convicto’ ;preso’, ‘delincuente’ solo sirven para obstruir y separar gente de la sociedad y hacer que la institucionalización del racismo y la supremacía aparezca como normal.

En este sentido, la resolución propone sustituir el uso de términos como prisionero o preso, por ‘personas encarceladas’. Para una persona que salió de prisión y que está en libertad condicional, se propone usar ‘una persona que estuvo encarcelada’ o ‘una persona que está en libertad condicional”.

La resolución propone evitar el uso de términos como ‘ofensor’, ‘traficante de drogas’ o ‘delincuente juvenil”. En su lugar sugiere usar términos como ‘un persona convicta por un delito grave’ “una persona convicta por traficar drogas’, ‘un joven con un problema con la justicia”.

La junta de supervisores reconoció que uno de cada cinco californianos tienen antecedentes criminales y el lenguaje es a menudo asociado con estos antecedentes que tienen un efecto negativo en la persona

El debate parece ir más lejos que solamente modificar el lenguaje ya que muchos de los individuos encarcelados opinan que el adjetivo no es importante cuando el sistema judicial sigue enviando personas a la cárcel con sentencias exageradas. Cambiar el lenguaje con que se refieren a ellos no alivia el abuso indiscriminado contra las personas de color.

Otros opinan que es importante porque de esta manera las personas se pueden sentir más humanos y que es importante que la ciudadanía no se olvide que las personas en prisión todavía tienen una identidad y son seres humanos.

En una encuesta informal a 130 personas encarceladas en San Quentin, las opiniones están divididas: El 45% de los encuestados prefieren ser llamados personas encarceladas mientras que el otro 55% opina que el nombre no les beneficia en nada. “Después de todo es lo que somos, presos”, dijo uno de los encuestados quien no quiso ser identificado.

La resolución adoptada por la junta de supervisores enumeró nueve categorías diferentes que serán modificadas, estas son:

1. “Persona formalmente encarcelada”, “envuelto con la justicia”, no “criminal” o “ofensor”,

2. “Persona en libertad condicional”, o “persona bajo supervisión” no “parolee” o “en probación”

3. “Persona encarcelada” no convicto o prisionero.

4. “Persona convicta por drogas”, no “traficante de drogas”

5. “Persona convicta por un delito serio”, no “ofensor violento” o “ofensor violento serio”

6. “Persona” o “individuo”, no residente que regresa a la comunidad o “extranjero ilegal”

7. “Persona convicta de una ofensa criminal” no “criminal”

8. “Persona joven impactada por el sistema judicial” no “ofensor juvenil” o “delincuente juvenil”

9. “Persona con una historia de uso de sustancias” no “adicto” o “adictos a las drogas”.

San Francisco looks towards changing its language relative to justice involved persons

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Supervisors hope to eliminate stigmatization by changing criminal justice labels

By Charles Crowe Staff Writer

San Francisco officials urge a softening of criminal justice language to more humanize incarcerated people.

“The words ‘felon,’ ‘offender,’ ‘convict,’ ‘addict,’ and ‘juvenile delinquent’ would be part of the past in official San Francisco parlance under new ‘person first’ language guide- lines adopted by the Board of Supervisors,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported Aug. 18.

“Going forward, what was once called a convicted felon or an offender released from jail will be a ‘formerly incarcerated person,’ or a ‘justice- involved’ person or simply a ‘returning resident.’”

The city’s Board of Supervisors passed a non-binding resolution encouraging the change by police and courts. The newspaper said the district attorney “is already on board.”

Supervisor Matt Haney joined nine other supervisors in voting for the resolution.

“We want them ultimately to become contributing citizens, and referring to them as felons is like a scarlet letter that they can never get away from,” Haney explained.

“We don’t want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done.”

The non-binding resolution was passed in July.

Mayor London Breed did not endorse the resolution because it is non-binding, according to the mayor’s spokesperson, Jeff Cretan. However, “she is always happy to work with the board on issues around equity and criminal justice reform,” Cretan said.

The San Francisco Police Department has taken note of the board’s action and has “made our members aware of the resolution and are researching possible impacts on operations and communications,” said police spokesperson David Stevenson.

San Francisco adopts free phone calls for inmates

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Inmates in San Francisco county jails will be allowed to make free telephone calls, which is expected to reduce these costs passed on to their family and friends.

In June, the city’s mayor, London Breed, and sheriff, Vicki Hennessy, announced plans to cut costs of phone calls and commissary items sold to inmates, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In a statement, Breed said “This change is an important continuation of our efforts to reform fines and fees that disproportionately impact low-income people and communities of color.”

San Francisco’s Financial Justice Project, an organization inside the treasurer’s office that analyzes fines and fees imposed on the poorest residents in the city, reported nearly 80% of telephone calls made by inmates from its jails are paid for by families and friends, mainly low-income women of color.

“These practices are predatory and disproportionately affect poor people,” said Public Defender Manohar Raju. “Reducing the financial burdens of phone fees for incarcerated people will allow them to stay better connected with their loved ones and gives them a better chance going forward after their release.”

The city reported that it costs $300 in a little over a month for someone to accept two 15-minute calls a day.

“When people are in jail they should be able to remain connected to their family without being con- cerned about how much it will cost them or their loved ones,” said Breed.

According to the mayor’s office, San Francisco will be the first county jail system in the nation to get rid of such costs. The city expects to make the changes within a year.

“Breed set aside about $1.7 million in the city’s two-year budget for the Sheriff’s Department to eliminate the fees charged for phone calls and the sometimes dramatic mark- ups placed on jail commissary merchandise,” the Chronicle reported.

“I’m really proud that San Francisco is putting people before profits,” said State Senator Holly Mitchell (D- Los Angeles). “When people can stay in better touch with their families and sup- port networks, it eases their reentry and it reduces recidivism.”

Noncitizens allowed to vote in local San Francisco elections

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San Francisco became the largest city in the nation to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Noncitizens were only allowed to vote Nov. 6 for a single school board race. That was widely criticized by conservatives. The Times reported that only a little more than 40 noncitizens had registered to vote by Oct. 28.

The change carries symbolic force, according to Louis Desipio, a professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine.

He said, “It will speak to that sort of sense that change is coming to the United States and that change is being done extra-legally somehow.”

The chance to vote as a noncitizen is a result of a measure that passed in San Francisco in 2016.

“Noncitizen voting is a very contentious issue,” said opponent Robin Hvidston, executive director of We the People Rising, a Claremont organization that lobbies for stricter immigration enforcement. “The move to extend voting rights to those illegally residing in San Francisco has the potential to backfire among citizens with a moderate stance on illegal immigration.”

Shamman Walton, a San Francisco Unified School District commissioner, presented a resolution in support of the measure in 2016 and told the Times that he doesn’t buy the rhetoric from the right.

“At the end of the day, for me it’s important that families who have children in our schools… have a say,” Walton said.

There is no record of how many students and parents in the school district are non-citizens. But according to the district’s website, 29 percent of its 54,063 students are English-language learners. Additionally, a 2017 Pew Research report estimated 35,000 people without legal status live in San Francisco.

Joshua A. Douglas, a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law who specializes in election law and voting rights, said that San Francisco’s expansion of voting rights is part of a greater resurgence to allow noncitizens to vote in more local races.

Douglas said Takoma Park in Maryland has allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections for years. Allowing noncitizen voting has a long history in the United States, according to Douglas. “Noncitizen voting was not considered all that radical until a backlash during post World War I,” he said.

Homeless center helps to reduce overdoses of addicted teens

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A homeless center for youths in San Francisco has found success reducing overdoses and helping addicted teens find sobriety through harm reduction.

“(We) now have a suboxone clinic at our syringe access site! This is a huge lifesaver, removing bureaucratic roadblocks from the paths of people who want to get off opiates,” said Mary Howe, executive director of Homeless Youth Alliance (HYA) in San Francisco.

“Now young people, who are in withdrawal, can come to HYA’s site—a place where they already feel safe—and have a consultation with our physician, who, after evaluating them, can immediately call in a prescription to be picked up at a nearby pharmacy.

“And because of the close trusting relationships we build with youth, we’re able to help them build on the momentum of getting treatment, by helping them navigate the challenges of recovery, find safe housing, get mental health counseling, and so much more.”

Suboxone is commonly prescribed by qualified physicians to help opioid addicts reduce or eliminate withdrawal symptoms, according to the California Association for Alcohol and Drug Education.

One of the program’s success stories is a former addict Audry.

“HYA was practically the only place I could go and not feel like a piece of meat or a piece of s***,” she said. (They) cared for me until I cared for myself and fought for me to fight for myself. Letters to jail, accepting phone calls, going to court dates…free snacks, ’cause you know no dollars went to food and if it wasn’t free, I didn’t eat.

“Mary and company showed me what it feels like to show up for others and myself. HYA made getting clean and giving back look desirably punk rock.

“HYA kept me alive long enough to actually build a life I don’t want to escape from.”

Audry is now sober, married and a devoted mother and music photographer working in San Francisco.

“I love Audry’s statement because it underscores what HYA’s really about. As someone with a similar history, I was able to change the direction of my life in large part because harm reduction taught me that there’s something truly subversive and rebellious about proving hate and dismissiveness wrong, and showing kids like me should be invested in, not written off,” Howe said.

HYA Outreach Counselors and therapists work on the streets in the Haight Ashbury and Castro neighborhoods, where transient youths are often found in San Francisco.

“Our counselors…help young people process and troubleshoot the daily traumas they’re dealing with: overdose, HIV and violence, to serious health conditions from having no dry socks or access to showers,” Howe said.

“These young people are dealing with the day-to-day traumas of homelessness against a backdrop that’s getting darker and scarier.

“All we can do is to continue to let them know they have a safe haven (with) us. We provide that haven, even though, almost four years after the lease termination that put us on the street, we still don’t have a drop-in-center where youth can take a shower, eat a hot meal and get a moment of respite. The loss of our space continues to deeply affect the neighborhood as a whole.”

Despite having many challenges, HYA counselors in 2017 managed to make 9,368 contacts on outreach and held 954 individual one-to-one sessions. In addition, 596 youths attended 44 creative and educational groups, according to data given by HYA.

“To continue to meet the growing need…due to lack of indoor services in this neighborhood and lack of affordable housing in San Francisco—we need your help,” Howe said.

“When you donate, you enable us to hire and retain the very best and most effective staff…your support means dry socks, healthy snacks, Narcan training (opiate overdose reversal drug), which saves hundreds of lives. In short, your support means opportunities given, lives changed, and lives saved,” Howe added.

 

To donate or for more information contact:

Tides Center/Homeless Youth Alliance
P.O. Box 170427
San Francisco, CA 94117 www.homelessyouthalliance.org

Any amount is encouraged.

    New CA laws may erase pot convictions

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    If other counties follow San Francisco’s lead, district attorneys’ offices across the state can erase pot convictions under California’s new legal marijuana laws.

    “Our vision is to help government clear all eligible criminal records starting with convictions under Prop. 64,” said Jennifer Pahlka, executive director of Code for America, a non-profit with the goal of making government more efficient, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

    The November 2016 passage of Proposition 64 prompted San Francisco’s District Attorney (DA) to announce in January that his office would dismiss and seal more than 3,000 misdemeanor marijuana convictions dating back to 1975. As of May, the DA has only been able to prepare 962 motions to dismiss, with the courts granting 428 of these according to the Chronicle.

    Dealing with the city’s 4,940 felony marijuana convictions, however, is more difficult. District Attorney George Gascón announced a partnership with Code for America to use a computer algorithm to identify which felonies the courts can reclassify.

    “A lot of what we do is antiquated….We’re very excited to partner with Code for America,” said Gascón at the press conference. By using this new algorithm, the DA’s office will not have to use attorneys to pull the file and review each case.

    In contrast, it costs Contra Costa Public Defender’s Office over $400,000 per year to clear about 1,100 convictions in 2016, according to Safe and Sound a report by Californians for Safety and Justice.

    “We heard from prosecutors around the state…(they) don’t have the resources” to review, reduce or seal decades of marijuana convictions, said Gascón. With this algorithm, that argument goes away.

    Gascón said he hopes their work will serve as a template that other jurisdictions can use to review past cases in states where marijuana is now legal, reports the Chronicle.

    Criminal justice reform advocates have long complained that marijuana convictions dis- proportionately affect the poor and people of color. In San Francisco, even with similar use patterns, Blacks were more than four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession as Whites according to a 2013 American Civil Liberties Union study.

    Marijuana convictions can be erased

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    If other counties follow San Francisco’s lead, district attorneys’ offices across the state can erase pot convictions under California’s new legal marijuana laws.

    San Francisco + Golden Gate Bridge


    “Our vision is to help government clear all eligible criminal records starting with convictions under Prop. 64,” said Jennifer Pahlka, executive director of Code for America, a non-profit with the goal of making government more efficient, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
    The November 2016 passage of Proposition 64 prompted San Francisco’s District Attorney to announce in January that his office would dismiss and seal more than 3,000 misdemeanor marijuana convictions dating back to 1975. As of May, the DA has only been able to prepare 962 motions to dismiss, with the courts granting 428 of these according to the Chronicle.
    Dealing with the city’s 4,940 felony marijuana convictions, however, is more difficult. District Attorney George Gascón announced a partnership with Code for America to use a computer algorithm to identify which felonies the courts can reclassify.
    “A lot of what we do is antiquated….We’re very excited to partner with Code for America,” said Gascón at the press conference. By using this new algorithm, the DA’s office will not have to use attorneys to pull the file and review each case.
    In contrast, it costs Contra Costa Public Defender’s Office over $400,000 a year to clear about 1,100 convictions in 2016, according to Safe and Sound a report by Californians for Safety and Justice.
    “We heard from prosecutors around the state…(they) don’t have the resources” to review, reduce or seal decades of marijuana convictions, said Gascón. With this algorithm, that argument goes away.
    Gascón said he hopes their work will serve as a template that other jurisdictions can use to review past cases in states where marijuana is now legal, reports the Chronicle.
    Criminal justice reform advocates have long complained that marijuana convictions disproportionately affect the poor and people of color. In San Francisco, even with similar use patterns, Blacks were more than four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession as Whites according to as 2013 American Civil Liberties Union study.

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    San Francisco offers safe injection sites

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    If you can’t stop using heroin, San Francisco is willing to violate state and federal law so you can do it safely. In July, the city plans to open two sites that will allow shooting up under secure conditions.

    San Francisco + Golden Gate Bridge

    “I’m fully supportive of the city moving forward, just like we did with needle exchange before it was technically legal,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) said in a San Francisco Chronicle  column. “We need to do everything in our power to keep people healthy, to get people off the streets so they’re injecting in a safe space indoors instead of on people’s doorsteps or in public parks and to make sure we can intervene quickly if they overdose.”

    Intravenous drug use is against both state and federal law, but Wiener has a bill that, if passed into law, would protect anyone associated with safe injection sites from facing state charges. The Assembly passed the bill last year, but it is two votes short in the Senate and would still need Gov. Jerry Brown’s approval.

    “We consider the use of clean needles as a public health issue”

    Still, San Francisco isn’t waiting on the state law or worrying about Pres.Donald Trump targeting them.

    “I’m more worried about people dying in our streets,” Barbara Garcia, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said in the Chronicle article.

    The total drug-overdose deaths was 64,070 in the 12 months through January 2017.”  The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 27, 2017 wsj.com/usnews

    “Opioids, such as fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone and hydrocodone, killed more than 34,500 people in 2016.” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 27, 2017 wsj.com/usnews

    An estimated 22,000 drug users openly shoot up in public areas, often scattering dirty needles on San Francisco sidewalks. Public Health officials expect 85 percent of San Francisco’s intravenous drug users to use the safe sites, keeping dirty needles off the streets and saving the city $3.5 million a year in medical costs. Medical and social services will also be available at the safe sites.

    With 343 homicides in 2017, Baltimore “had the highest murder rate in its history, and by far the highest among the nation’s 30 largest cities,” according to The New York Times 1-17-18

    The concept isn’t new. Canada, Australia and Europe provide safe injection sites. Also, cities like Seattle, Baltimore and Philadelphia are considering opening their own.

    The public supports safe injection sites. A survey conducted in January by David Binder Research surveyed 500 registered city voters in English and Cantonese. They found that 67 percent of respondents back the idea while 27 percent opposed.

    At San Quentin State Prison, state certified drug counselors, who once used drugs, support safe injection sites.

    “Ideally we opt for total sobriety; however, we recognize that harm reduction is beneficial in the initial stages of recovery,” said Martin Walters, 50, incarcerated. He’s a California Association for Drug/Alcohol Educators (CAADE) counselor. “We consider the use of clean needles as a public health issue, like preventing AIDS, rather than addressing addiction. But, it’s a great start.”

    Quinton Walker, 60, agrees. In the past he used heroin and nobody could tell him anything or do anything to get him to quit until he had a realization that the drug was going to kill him. Thereafter, he sought help and beat his addiction. Now he’s a CAADE counselor.

    “I don’t think people are going to start using drugs because the needles are free,” Walker said. “I think the sites will keep people alive until they reach the point in their lives where they find hope and are ready to seek help quitting.”

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