As public officials race against time to slow the coronavirus, typical political processes are being swept aside. This is no more in evidence than with the release of as many prisoners as possible.
The San Francisco County Sheriff’s office has released inmates nearing the end of their sentences, and prosecutors and public defenders are diverting nonviolent offenders to parole or house arrest. Time is running short: With one deputy sheriff already testing positive for COVID-19, the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street is now under quarantine.
In some ways, these emergency measures are doing work that San Franciscans just a few months ago voted for. District Attorney Chesa Boudin won a bitterly contested race in November with pledges to end cash bail, close aging facilities, and pursue other sweeping reforms. He didn’t need a pandemic to bolster his point. For example, inmates at the 60-year-old County Jail №4 sued the city for spills of open sewage in their cells and recently settled the case.
Instead of the sheriff releasing inmates on parole and electronic monitoring, we’re forced to file motions.
— SF Public Defender Mano Raju
During the campaign, Boudin’s positions and history drew the ire of the police officers’ association and others. Now, on the issue of crowding, there is broad consensus under emergency conditions. Social distancing everywhere is crucial to public safety. (“By staying apart, we stand together,” public health director Grant Colfax said recently.)
Boudin said in an interview with Forbes this week that proper social distancing was virtually impossible in most jail cells.
A record low
Last Friday, the sheriff’s office, which runs the county jail system, released 26 people whose sentences were nearly at the end. By this Tuesday, the county jail population was down to 925, one of the lowest incarceration rates in the country — and the lowest on record in San Francisco, according to sheriff spokesperson Nancy Crowley. “Nonviolent people, unless they have been deemed a threat to public safety by the courts, would have to be released,” Crowley told The Frisc.
Half the inmates who received early release last week did not have secure housing. Crowley said that the Sheriff’s Office found housing for them.
http://www.thefrisc.com/coronavirus
The record low of 925 is also lower than the 90% capacity goal recommended by a working group on criminal justice reform convened in 2018 with the district attorney, public defender, and sheriff’s offices. But with coronavirus bearing down, the public defender’s office wants the sheriff to move faster.
The office has filed 39 motions to release inmates, including those it has identified as “medically fragile.” More could come soon as they identify high-risk inmates. The process takes several days and is leading to “people not released as quickly as they should,” Public Defender Mano Raju told The Frisc.
The sheriff could be releasing people on electronic monitoring or parole, Raju said. “Instead of doing that, we’re forced to file motions.”
After the pandemic
Some officials are looking beyond the pandemic. With the Hall of Justice under quarantine, District 1 Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer introduced legislation this week to close County Jail №4 inside the Hall of Justice permanently, within six months, and to prevent transfers to other counties.
Fewer and Boudin said in a press release this week that current conditions, even with an historic low population, were unacceptable. “We do not need to rely on the unsanitary and seismically unsafe County Jail 4 to house people — it is a danger to all of us,” Boudin said. (His office did not respond to a request for comment.)
The next day, Mayor London Breed offered cautious support. “The Mayor is supportive of closing County Jail №4 and has set a deadline of July 2021 for that to happen,” Sarah Owens, a spokesperson for the mayor, told The Frisc. “We are open to [closing it sooner] as long as it is done in a responsible way.”
Courts statewide have delayed civic trials, and prison facilities have suspended visiting hours, but the situation for inmates remains dire. Last week, 40 groups led by the ACLU sent a letter urging Governor Gavin Newsom to immediately parole all prisoners who are either ill, over age 60, or with scheduled release dates within the next two years, while also expediting review processes and commutations.
But in a news conference Monday, Newsom ruled out the release of violent offenders from state prisons, where one inmate and five employees have already tested positive for COVID-19. State prisons remain at an estimated 30% over designed capacity, a rate of overcrowding that advocates warn could accelerate infections. A state pandemic task force convened by U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller is scheduled to provide guidance on early releases by the end of the week.
Diego Aguilar-Canabal is a freelance writer based in Berkeley, CA.
Correction: Wording in this story has changed to clarify that the sheriff has not unilaterally released inmates.