A first-of-its-kind survey of people held in San Francisco’s jails found complaints of tasteless food, unsanitary living conditions, and violence, among other concerns.
“This is consistent with what our staff and our clients have been telling us throughout the years,” said Angela Chan, the assistant chief attorney at the Public Defender’s Office, pointing to a civil grand jury report from two months ago that found the city’s jails to be at a “breaking point” due to overcrowding, understaffing and poor transparency.
What is different, Chan added, is that the survey shows the issues her office has been seeing on a much larger scale. The survey was completed by around 500 of the approximately 1,200 people held in San Francisco’s jails between March 18 and April 24, 2026.
It is one of the first large-scale surveys of people in jail in California, and the first in San Francisco. If the survey is repeated across several years, observers feel it could provide a longitudinal method of tracking jail conditions over time.
While it’s not surprising that people held against their will in jail are, on the whole, displeased, the survey respondents note a troubling rate of violence.
Nearly one-third of all respondents — the vast majority of whom are still awaiting trial — alleged being seriously injured while in jail, primarily by either deputy sheriffs or peers.
The term “seriously injured” is not defined and, while respondents were allowed to provide additional information about any injuries they had suffered, that information is not included in the final report.
The survey also found significant differences in the experience of those incarcerated: 53 percent of female respondents reported feeling unsafe in jail, compared to 37 percent of males, a result which does not come entirely as a surprise after 20 women recently sued the city of San Francisco for allegedly violating their civil rights during a recorded mass strip-search.
“The survey provides valuable insight into the experiences and perceptions of the people who chose to participate, and we take that feedback seriously,” wrote Tara Moriarty, the spokesperson for the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office.
“At the same time,” Moriarty wrote, “the responses are self-reported, and should be understood in that context. The survey was not designed to independently verify individual claims or determine whether each response reflects current practices throughout our jail system.”
But the survey, Chan said, does make clear what concerns of San Francisco’s jail population are most pressing.
Respondents identified frequent lockdowns, poor nutritional options and barriers to legal support and health services as points of complaint, among other things.
“This is a resource to ask more questions,” said Jayson Wechter, a former member of the sheriff’s oversight board.
Looking at the distribution of answers based on locations and supervising officers, he said, the survey “can be studied scientifically” and may lead to more pointed takeaways on the concerns of people in San Francisco jail.
The survey was first proposed earlier this year by a representative of the Department of Police Accountability, with the intention of establishing a direct channel for input from people inside the city’s jails.
With the consent of the sheriff’s office, which runs the jails, several city departments collaborated to develop the survey, administer it through jail-provided tablets and compile the results in a report published on Aug. 24.
The survey, the report concludes, “paints a picture of an incarcerated population that rated most aspects of daily life in San Francisco’s jails poorly.”
“A first-of-its-kind survey of people held in San Francisco’s jails found complaints of tasteless food, unsanitary living conditions and violence, among other concerns. ”
This is new information? I think that most people know that jail is unpleasant and therefore make an effort to avoid it. The Four Seasons, it ain’t.
In other words, Bill here thinks that any and all type of mistreatment is fine because jail is supposed to be about mistreatment.
Right, Bill?