On May 26, 2022, 12 days before the eventual recall of then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Brooke Jenkins lambasted her former boss for failing victims of crime.
Referencing a San Francisco Chronicle column citing five DA employees who said Boudin had ignored victims, Jenkins tweeted that Boudin was “twirling his pen, no eye contact” during a meeting with the mother of a murdered child: “These are the Black voices that he ignores and tries to silence because they don’t feed his agenda,” Jenkins wrote.
In a subsequent tweet, Jenkins referenced reporting from the Chronicle that found 20 out of 42 staff employees in the DA’s Victim Services Division had left the office. This, Jenkins wrote, revealed Boudin’s lack of commitment to crime victims.
“This is precisely why he must be recalled,” she wrote.
Now, more than two years into her term and a day before Jenkins faces a re-election vote, her own Victim Services Division has seen an exodus even larger than that under Boudin — and has recently been plagued with missteps that critics dub major mismanagement.
Twenty-eight of the 48 staff members of the Victim Services Division have left Jenkins’ office since she was sworn in on July 8, 2022, according to the DA’s office — eight more than the number that quit under Boudin over a shorter time period, and which Jenkins said mandated his recall.
The Victim Services Division had 48 employees, meaning 58 percent of the office departed under Jenkins’ tenure over 849 days, compared to 48 percent that left Boudin’s office over 869 days. The unit currently has 43 employees, according to the DA’s office.
“Morale is at an all-time low,” said one former member of the unit, citing the high level of turnover. Like other former and current members of the office, they requested anonymity for fear of professional retaliation. “We used to be about helping victims of violent crime connect to services and start their path to recovery. Our unit is no longer about that.”
Instead, the former worker said, the unit has become less structured, and advocates and leadership alike are “checked out.”
Added another former member: “They lost a lot of good supervisors, a good assistant chief, and then it just went down the drain.”
The Victim Services Division helps to support victims; victim advocates call the family members of homicide victims, for instance, and seek to assist them however possible. That can include helping victims with restitution, compensation and guiding them through prosecution.
In total, at least 128 people have left Jenkins’ office, according to public records.
Asked to weigh in on the exodus, the DA’s office said those leaving were doing so for “advanced career opportunities” or because the city instituted new “telecommuting standards.” The victim services’ job, the office said, requires “working directly with victims in person more than previously” and has become more taxing under Jenkins’ tenure.
“Under DA Jenkins’ leadership, this job has become more demanding, with advocates now required [to] engage in a way that was not required in the past,” the statement read. “This shift in standard is also likely to have been too much for those that grew comfortable with the hands-off approach taken by [the] previous administration.”
Current and former members of the DA’s office, however, countered, and said staff now provide less support to crime victims. “There were a lot of complaints, victims were not getting the services they needed, they were getting too many cases to advocates, and the people they were hiring were not experienced working with victims,” said one former member of the victim services unit.
“The unprecedented turnover of staff — especially of victim advocates — is a stunning indictment of the mismanagement under Brooke Jenkins that is harming victims of crime every day,” added Ryan Khojasteh, a former prosecutor under Boudin who is now running against Jenkins for district attorney. “Victims are now being victimized a second time by not receiving the services they need.”
DA’s office temporarily lost California victim services’ grant
Adding to concerns of mismanagement within the Victim Services Division was the loss of a state grant in the summer, which prevented DA staff from accessing a system to compensate victims of crime.
The DA’s office in late June temporarily lost access to funding from the California Victim Compensation Board, which awards contracts to local DA’s offices to pay victims of crimes.
The state agency lets victims of crime seek compensation for certain expenses, like medical care resulting from an injury or funeral expenses resulting from a death. The expenses must be submitted through a portal called CARES, and DA staff lost access to that portal from July 1 to July 16.
According to public records shared with Mission Local, the DA’s office failed to furnish the state board with the required documents in a timely fashion. It was the first time Jenkins’ office was responsible for renewing the state contract.
For those 16 days, staff members were unable to submit any victims’ claims through the state system.
“We will not make the June 30th deadline. Cares [the victims compensation portal] will not be available to SF claims staff on July 1, 2024,” wrote Karima Baptiste, the chief of the Victim Services Division, in a June 26 email to staff. “Please work on all work that needs immediate attention: Priorities: Funeral Burial, Relocations, any income losses that can be concluded by noon Friday June 30th.”
Several current and former members of the DA’s office said the application should have been routine. The California Victims Compensation Board had informed the DA’s office how to apply on Feb. 23, according to an email to the office.
The victim services system was eventually restored on July 17. In a statement, the DA’s office wrote that “there was no impact to victims of crime” and said, for its part, that a new requirement that the Board of Supervisors sign off on the contract slowed the process down. The DA’s office, the statement continued, would receive the full annual grant from the state for administering the program: $843,664 per year.
The temporary funding loss was at least the third such financial hit to the office over the past year.
At the end of 2023, the DA’s office lost $3 million in funding from the Crankstart Foundation for a restorative-justice program. Jenkins, after her appointment in 2022, halted adult referrals under the program.
In August, the MacArthur Foundation withheld $625,000 from the office under a grant meant to lower jail numbers because San Francisco’s jail population has risen dramatically under Jenkins’ tenure; the foundation questioned the office’s commitment to reform.
Jenkins has made victim services a central part of her tenure as district attorney and, going back to the recall of Boudin, emphasized her care for victims.
On her ballot statement for the upcoming Nov. 5 election, Jenkins notes: “I’m also proud to have expanded victims’ services being offered by my office.”
Wow, this is quite the revelation. Using Jenkins’ own logic from 2.5 years ago, she should be calling for her own recall. Right? At least there’s an election tomorrow. My household is voting for Ryan. Polls are open until 8:00 pm tomorrow. Make sure to vote!
There’s a reason why San Franciscans call her “Brooke the Crook.” Because she is one.
She campaigned on centering victims. That’s not the same thing as caring or actually doing any of the work.
When she had boudin recalled, and then suddenly got the police union support – and then people were like, “Hey, that cop who, on his third day on the job, chased a guy down and then shot him in the back as he ran away…. without even leaving the car, just pointed the gun out the window…. and was then arrested by another cop for murder… is this a quid pro quo?”
Jenkins: “uh… no”
And immediately after she got elected, she dropped charges. Same with the other cop who shot a dude, on video, while he was on his knees with his hands in the air.
That lady is the definition of what you do NOT want in government office.
Meh. I already voted for her. Her opponent is another one of these Pamela Price devotees who belongs in the Public Defender’s office. The public needs a prosecutor in charge of the DA’s office.
So you prefer corruption and hypocrisy (funded by Billionaires no less) to someone who would prefer to reduce recidivism, because you presume their politics are similar to someone else who you don’t like yet has nothing to do with them whatsoever. Great thinking there. Brooke Jenkins is just another unaccountable double-speaking Breed appointee who defers to Queen Corruption as job 1. If her own criteria for a recall of her opponent is met by her own administration, that ought to be a clue. Sadly, partisan politics blocks some from basic rational thought on any topic.
Ah yes, this story, the last desperate gasp of the few remaining Chesa narcs and cronies at the DAs office.
It’s simple, a vote for Ryan K. is a vote for Chesa and Pam Price. The suspect who slashed the woman’s throat on BART last week was out of custody on a deal brokered by Pam Price. Pam Price… someone Ryan K CHOSE to work for and patterns his approach after. SF won’t go back to Chesa 2.0, and we’re voting accordingly.
lol Jenkins, the lady who literally stabbed Boudin in the back? The one who released editied docs on Boudin’s cases and then said, ‘I’m not running against him, I’m just being honest!”. And later when someone said, “Are you getting paid?”, she said “NO WAY!”….. then declared a $100,000 ‘consulting fee’ from the Recall Boudin campaign. And THEN released the cop who shot the dude in the back, without even leaving the car, on his THIRD DAY on the job after saying, “Of Course I’m going to prosecute him” – yet the Police Union was all for her. “Is there a quid-pro-quo?”…. “Of course not!”. Then she released him and told everyone the arresting officer was ‘pressured’ into arresting him. ( That cop sued for libel, then got a settlement that was “undisclosed” and retired. )
If you think she’s some kind of Chesa crony, you’re delusional. She and her deal with the cops are the reason he got recalled.
Not that any of the alternatives on the ballot were much better
Chesa Boudin and Pam Price have absolutely nothing to do with Ryan, but nice try there. If making things up is your go-to, I’d agree that it’s entirely simple but I’d point out that overly simplistic thoughts aren’t actually always the most informed nor productive. Jenkins hasn’t lived up to her promises and her deference to a corrupt Mayor is evident in all she does. Whether or not she survives this round, she is legitimately and demonstrably unfit for any job requiring honesty and accountability. If her lies during the recall weren’t enough, her own criteria for recalling her opponent has now been surpassed by her own administration. Celebrate that as you like.