The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office announced today that it has reopened two more dorms in a once-shuttered San Bruno jail annex and expects to open a third next month, to accommodate a population that has jumped over the past two years.
One of those dormitories will be specifically used for addressing people with substance-abuse issues, providing case management and referring them to outside services. The expansion will increase the jail capacity by 180 beds, a sheriff spokesperson said; the annex, which first reopened in 2023, will hold a maximum of 300 people.
The department said its jail population has increased by 35 percent over the past two years, and currently its average daily population is more than 1,200, compared to 800 in 2023. Today, 1,231 people are in jail. Most are jailed in San Bruno, with a smaller number at the jail near 850 Bryant St.
The announcement comes a month after District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey proposed a police quota of 100 arrests per day, and the opening of “drug jails” — and a day after the police department announced its plan for a pop-up jail and treatment center on Sixth Street.
The Sixth Street center is partly meant to facilitate arrests next to one of the city’s thorniest drug markets, and could swell jail populations even more.
The city has been trending toward more arrests and easing restrictions on law enforcement. Mayor Daniel Lurie emphasized public safety during his campaign, and has made it a top goal of his administration. Last year, voters approved Prop. E, which expanded police powers and limited oversight from the civilian police commission.
In October 2023, the department announced the reopening of the 300-bed annex at its San Bruno jail in response to a growing jail population. At the time, only two of six dorms there were opened, and the daily jail population was around 1,100.
The city’s jail population has trended downward over the past 20 years: In the late aughts, more than 2,000 people were incarcerated in local jails each day, and this slowly decreased before a precipitous drop in 2020. Between 2020 and 2022, the jail population hovered around 700.
As more people with substance use and mental health disorders fill the jails, inmates and deputy sheriffs have described chaotic and violent conditions, involving frequent lockdowns, injuries and hospitalizations.
Sheriff spokesperson Tara Moriarty said the department oversaw a six-month renovation of the annex last year, allowing it to open the three additional dorms. She said the annex has one remaining dorm, which will remain closed for now.
One newly renovated dorm at the annex hosts the sheriff’s Roads to Recovery program for 60 men, and will permit outdoor recreation, according to a statement from Ali Riker, the sheriff’s director of programs.
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said the unit will provide “cognitive behavioral classes and communal support they need to get back up on their feet.”
Lawlessness is lawlessness
Anarchy is Anarchy
Race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for lawlessness or anarchy
If someone violates the law and is sentenced to jail then they go.
The jails may need more staff . But criminals lose their freedom.
Jails are safer then allowing persons to remain not incarcerated . They get food clothing shelter services medical care and job training
Sf has proven , people do worse being left on the streets .
Dont commit a crime .
If you dont like the laws then vote to change them.
If people were Angels we woulnt need laws and jails .
Now do Trump, the convicted felon and traitor who tried to overturn our election.
Sounds like San Francisco is going straight to shit. Expanding the jail population simply because they refuse to do what the people insisted upon with taxing giant corporations and using the money to build housing for these folks. That new undercover Republican mayor is to blame. Now it’s becoming new York they arrest people just for being homeless or drug addicted while the cartels go free ! It’s asinine!! What a fucking waste of tax dollars!
near record low crime rates and theyre expanding the jails, near record high muni ridership and theyre cutting service…
My thoughts exactly. It’s so basdackwards
Comrades,
My opinions at 80 with 60 years working with gangsters …
Decriminalize Drugs which takes cops and dealers out of equation.
Establish some sort of UBI for the Downtrodden.
Time for First City (other than Stockton for 3 years and it cut crime rate by 50%) to try this in California.
Turns out that you save big by giving them around a grand a month which is lots more than they got stealing cosmetics and selling them for 10% of value and most of them then actually are motivated to begin the treks back.
I have thoughts on Vendor spaces (think ALL of perimeter of Armory which Lurie and I cleared of scaffolding hope that helps)
go Niners !!
h.
Decriminalization is the only real path forward acceptance assistance and not giving them a criminal record they’ll never get a job with that.
If you needed more proof that Lurie’s plan for addressing homelessness was largely carceral, here it is. spoiler alert, address social problems like homelessness, drug addiction, etc. via the criminal justice system does not have a track record of long-term success.
Good. Chesa Boudin’s pro-criminal philosophy still has acolytes here, but the rest of us want to see criminals behind bars.
Chesa Boudin is LONG GONE. Look to crooky Brooky owned by broligarchs and billionaires. Ask her about her $150K “CONsulting” fee
Actually, Boudin took office as the pandemic hit and CA courts MANDATED a 50% reduction in inmate populations, along with holding restrictions for only violent offenses – that’s from the courts top-down to the rest of us, including Boudin, who had no choice but comply. Taking the (liar) Jenkins’ talking points verbatim doesn’t tend to work out verifiably. And if they’re being arrested for drug possession crimes which we’ve seen are not “cured” with prison stays, that will only ensure more of the revolving door cycles your ilk LOVES to complain about. So good news, you’re going to have plenty of material to be upset about in perpetuity.
Such a sad, awful step backwards. Something has gone terribly wrong when we feel the need to cage more of own people. Jail or prison should be an absolute last resort. But here we are using it as a first resort, ramping up jail capacity for people with addiction and mental health issues, without ramping up treatment or affordable housing.
And it’s not like this is a new idea. We tried to arrest and jail our way out of the public health problem posed by addiction. It was called the war on drugs, and it failed. It didn’t make anyone safer. Too many of us have forgotten that.
Systematically promoting crack distribution in poor areas and then arresting predominantly people of color for this and minor pot use is totally different to current fentanyl epidemic. These are individuals fluctuate between overdose and withdrawal coinciding with meth intoxication. Waiting for a moment of clarity to pursue addiction resources is committing them to dying in the streets. Yes this plan is harsh but probably the best step to get people services.
I would like commenters to point to a case where a city, or county — or any jurisdiction they like — successfully incarcerated their way out of a problem.
Cynthia: So you’ve never been anywhere then.
May I suggest you drive across the country? Most other cities don’t tolerate open-air fentanyl markets.
Actually I live in Louisville e Kentucky now because my dream was to be a homeowner. Now my dream is to return to sf because there’s no freedom here and tons and tons of violent crime, people get shot every day in my neighborhood road rage shootings every month or so, most recently shooting a six year old girl and the driver for supposedly cutting him off I miss the safety of sf and I lived in the tenderloin for five years and the Honduran community downstairs that sold meth and fentanyl were never violent they just hung out and made their sales. Like a store. I suggest you take a drive across the country or hang out in a southern city and watch people go to prison for five years for smoking a blunt in Nashville or Atlanta or Louisville it’s sad all these peoples lives wasted
Should be easy to find an example, then. (Which you haven’t done.)
Hillsborough, Palo Alto, Pleasanton, Mill Valley, Ross…
So you’re saying those jurisdictions don’t have crime? Really you think that? Lol.
I asked for a place that successfully arrested their way out of a drug problem. Which means that they first had to have one. And that the way they solved it was through incarceration.
You all are really, really having a hard time coming up with an example. And the people choosing the Philippines have a major problem.
Cynthia what’s your proposal? Just leave criminals to terrorize the public?
Can you answer my question?
El Salvador
I’ll add Singapore to the list as well
Yet Singapore still has drugs for sale.
(For the record)
As far as drugs go: Thailand, the Philippines.
You’re saying neither country has a drug market? Are you high?
the Philippines is a great example of a country with a draconian approach towards drugs and a widespread major drug problem. incarceration has only shown time and time again to be counter productive.