Felicia “Opi” Oprah Freeney, a lifelong Bayview-Hunters Point resident who pushed for the closure of San Francisco’s juvenile hall by sharing her experience as someone who was once inside, died on Sept. 1 in Los Angeles. She was 22.
She will be honored in memoriam today at a Board of Supervisors meeting, seven years after a memorable appearance in the same room.
“There are 333 bricks in room 503 and 336 in room 513,” said Freeney on May 16, 2019 during a moving public comment at a board committee, just a month before supervisors voted to shutter juvenile hall. “I noticed because I’ve been locked in these cells.”
Freeney, who was 15 at the time, said she had been to juvenile hall 12 times since the age of 12. Being treated like a criminal and being around constant fighting and suicide attempts only made her issues worse, Freeney told the board.
Despite the board’s vote to permanently shut down the center by 2021, juvenile hall remains open because the city never created an alternative detention facility.
Freeney, who went by “Opi,” was recalled by her friends, family and community as a joyful, bright young woman whose life was tragically cut short — and a fierce advocate for justice system reform. Her cause of death is unknown.
“I want people to remember my girl as a loving, caring soul, who advocated for her community and advocated for herself,” said Dominique Brooks, Freeney’s best friend since childhood. “I want everyone to remember her as a bright, intelligent, smart, wonderful, powerful individual.”
Growing up together on the corner of Oakdale and Baldwin Court, the pair were inseparable. Brooks saw her best friend navigate everything life threw at her: Freeney became a mother in 2020 at just 16 years old, and navigated the death in 2022 of both the father of her eldest child and her mother.
In spite of so much pain and suffering, Freeney remained a positive influence. “She would do anything for anyone around her,” said Brooks. “Opi will give you the shirt off her back if you don’t have one. Opi would give you her last dollar. Opi would literally go hungry to make sure that the person she cares about is fed.”
Describing her youth, Freeney said she got involved with the wrong crowd from a young age, and her attempts to defend herself landed her in juvenile hall. During one stint, Freeney told those close to her that she was assaulted by a male guard who grabbed her by the ponytail and slammed her to the ground. After this incident, Freeney decided she’d had enough with the system and vowed to speak out about the abusive conditions inside.
Freeney’s positive outlook on life and desire to make a difference in her community eventually led her to the Young Women’s Freedom Center in 2019, a program that provides support, mentorship and employment to young women and trans youth who have been in the juvenile legal and foster care systems.
“San Francisco youth should know about her life,” said Julia Arroyo, the organization’s executive director, who worked closely with Freeney during the campaign to close juvenile hall. Freeney worked with the center as an organizer when she was just 15, mentoring other youth.
“The way the juvenile probation system moves now is different. It is different from the time that she experienced it, even though it is still hard, it is still dehumanizing. It is still a harmful practice that San Francisco is using. But her voice created a lot of change.”
Her work to close juvenile hall led her to meet and work with District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton.
“Young people can and do make a difference. And she definitely did that.” Walton said. “It’s tragic to have lost her at this young age because she is definitely somebody who represented what you could achieve at a young age, and of course, the possibilities for her were endless.”
As Freeney undertook this work she discovered another one of her callings — a love of writing.
Freeney in 2019 placed as a finalist for her poem in Strategies For Youth Voices writing contest, a national competition. In her poem she wrote about a brutal encounter she had with San Francisco Police Department in 2018, when a police officer purportedly slammed her unconscious during an arrest at the age of 14.
“Sometimes I just think to myself, I think about how that day could have been different,” reads an excerpt of the poem.
“I try to make it a more positive outcome. But every time it hits me harder than you did. I don’t cry about it. Do you? Did you think about me that night? I probably would of thought about you, but I had a headache. You probably remember that day more clearer than me.”
Freeney had been studying to complete her high school GED at Five Keys Charter School when she died, and dreamed of one day becoming a social worker.
“She wanted young people who experienced difficult circumstances to know that their voice matters,” Brooks said.
Freeney leaves behind her younger sister, who those closest to her said was like her first baby, and her two children: a daughter, age 6 and a son, age 4.
“My girl was loved by everybody,” Brooks said. “I know me sharing her story would make her happy.”
Friends and family have established a GoFundMe to cover costs associated with transporting Freeney’s body back to San Francisco and burial. Brooks says remaining funds will go toward supporting Freeney’s two children and her sister.
