Inside the cycle: Drug arrests, jail, and (sometimes) treatment

Good afternoon!

Abigail Vân Neely has an important two-part report today on what’s happening after Mayor Daniel Lurie promised to “break the cycle” of addiction.

The SFPD has cracked down on low-level drug offenses, and now two-thirds of the people in jail on any given day have substance-use disorders. But read about why the crowded S.F. jail has become a revolving door for drug users.

And see how one man’s long journey from arrest to addiction treatment highlights the city’s complex and overloaded systems—inside and outside of jail. Will drug users be able to navigate them before relapsing and getting arrested again?

Perhaps the mayor’s decision to move control of street outreach teams to the Department of Public Health will help. Io Yeh Gilman writes that the city is reshuffling leadership in homelessness and health care services.

Take a look at Junyao Yang‘s story about the latest drama in the race for D4 supervisor, where political group GrowSF is backing the mayor’s appointee Alan Wong. Candidate Albert Chow claims that GrowSF’s directors tried to convince him to drop out, suggesting they could get him a seat on a city commission.

More soon,

Sara

Four young people stand in front of bookshelves in a library, facing the camera and posing together.

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