Good morning.

This meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the November 6th, 2025 regular meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I am Supervisor Jackie Fieler, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair Janie Sauter and Supervisor Mahmood today.

Our committee clerk is Monique Crane.

Thanks to Eugene Levadia of SFGov TV for staffing this meeting.

Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please sign up to speak on your right.

Alternatively, you may submit public comment and writing in either of the following ways.

Email them to the government audit and oversight committee clerk at M O N IQE.

C-R-A-Y-T-O-N at SFGOV.org.

You can submit public comment via email.

It will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file.

You may also send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office in City Hall.

Number one, Dr.

Carlton B.

Goodlit Place, room 244 San Francisco, California 94102.

If you have documents you would like to be included as part of the file, please submit them to me before the end of the meeting.

Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices to prevent any interruptions today's proceedings.

Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisor Agenda of November 18th, 2025, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And Supervisor Cheryl is unfortunately unable to join us today, so I will move to excuse Supervisor Cheryl.

Yes, and on the motion to excuse Supervisor Sheryl, Vice Chair Sauter.

Chairfielder, Chairfielder, I have three eyes with Member Sheryl Excused.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, please call item one.

Yes, item number one is a hearing to address concerns raised by community members of neglect, abuse, and civil rights violations at Taylor Street facility, located at 11 Taylor Street, operated by Geo Group Inc.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And before I hand it off to Supervisor Mahmoud to uh lead this hearing today, I would like to thank Victoria Westbrook from the Adult Probation Department, Nadia Iqbal from the Public Defender's Office, Chris Karuba and Sylvia Olugo from the U.S.

Probation Office and Pre-Trial Services Agency, David Blackwell, Molly Rose Graves, Mario Richard from GEO Group for being here to present and answer our questions today.

My thanks also to Dakota Rose Austin and Andrew De Leon for giving public testimony on behalf of Melvin Buluan and community advocates for fighting for justice and accountability.

Supervisor Mahmoud, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Fielder.

This hearing is convened to address serious and ongoing concerns regarding the conditions, oversight, and restrictiveness of the facility located at 11 Taylor Street, operated by the Geo Group, a multi-billion dollar private prison group holding billions of dollars in contracts with immigration and customs enforcement ice across the country.

Our focus today, though, will be narrow on allegations of neglect, abuse, health, and safety violations, and potential civil rights violations.

We will also examine whether the Taylor Street Center functions as a carcel facility in practice, despite being classified as a community reentry center.

This hearing was called in response to public comment earlier this year at the Board of Appeals and the reentry council, as well as the testimony before the Board of Supervisors by the Bouan family concerning the death of Melvin Bilwan in July 2025.

I want to make clear that in San Francisco, we recognize the potential of justice-involved individuals and believe in second chances at life.

Values of equity, community, and inclusion are woven into the fabric of what makes this city a beacon of hope for so many.

We're also city that believes in fairness.

And so the purpose of this hearing is to ensure transparency, accountability, and justice for those affected by GEO operations, to clarify the roles and responsibilities of oversight agencies and to provide an opportunity for multiple stakeholders to present their perspective and participate in an open dialogue regarding these community concerns.

As Chair Fielder mentioned, we are joined by several city departments, Geo Group and Taylor Center, Taylor Street Center representatives, as well as community members.

It's important to note that while my office requested the presence of an engage with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, CDCR.

Local representatives for the department declined the invitation to participate in today's proceedings.

Noting that, I'd like to begin by calling up Victoria Westbrook with the San Francisco Adult Probation Department.

I have a presentation.

If you guys can put it, thank you so much.

Hi, good morning.

I'm Victoria Westbrook, the re-entry division director at adult probation.

Thank you, supervisors for inviting us here today to talk about our portfolio of re-entry transitional housing.

Currently, we have 13 transitional housing programs across six different San Francisco districts.

We partner with six community-based organizations for these programs and currently have 380 beds of transitional housing.

We also have 20 beds of residential detox and drug treatment at Salvation Army's Harbor Light.

So our programs are all drug and alcohol-free.

They have different eligibility, different levels of structure.

What we know is that the re-entry population is not homogeneous and one size does not fit all.

Participants can stay up to 18 months, and the providers that are collaborating for this program are Westside Community Services, Positive Directions Equals Change, Sister Circle, and Solutions for Women.

The CW Hotel is a clean and sober transitioning housing program provided by Recovery Survival Network that is for any justice-involved adults who are committed to living clean and sober.

The MINA Project is a culturally responsive dual diagnosis transitional housing program with on-site supportive and clinical services.

All of our programs are housing programs, they're not licensed facilities or drug treatment programs.

This program is a partnership between adult probation, the Department of Public Health, Westside Community Services, and UCSF Citywide.

Through this dynamic and unique partnership, participants receive on-site clinical services, case management, reentry planning, benefit acquisition, and assistance with permanent housing placement.

This program clients can stay up to 24 months, and eligibility is for justice-involved adults who have a history of mental illness and/or substance use disorder.

Priority is given to justice-involved adults entering, exiting drug treatment programs, mental health diversion, and those from our Latinx community.

The Billy Holiday Reentry Navigation and Stabilization Center is a culturally responsive reentry navigation center.

This is our lowest barrier to entry program.

People are coming into this program directly from the streets, homelessness, and from custody, among other places.

So they clients receive case management, re-entry planning, assistance with permanent housing placement, benefit acquisition, and next step resources, including drug treatment and transitional housing and services through our community assessment and service center.

Our CASC is kind of the hub that all of our re-entry programs stem from.

It is a one-stop shop behavioral health focused reentry center.

So the length of time that people can stay at this program varies, but the average person stays there 17 days or less before being placed either into residential drug treatment or into the next housing program that is suitable for their needs.

Any justice-involved adults who are unstably housed, struggling with addiction or mental illness, and those being released from San Francisco jail are all eligible.

The Her House Expansion Program, we also call it the WTRP, is a structured gender responsive, culturally responsive, peer-led therapeutic teaching community and transitional housing program for justice-involved women and children.

The mutual self-help community has a recovery orientation focusing on wellness, coping strategies, pro-social living, and leadership.

It infuses a strength-based approach into the program's culturally responsive guiding principles of respect, interdependence, and accountability.

The model embraces peer-to-peer support, which creates a sense of family and fosters a support network that reaffirms pro-social values and behaviors, and participants develop the skills necessary to take on challenges, overbecome barriers, overcome barriers, and become empowered to take charge of their health and wellness.

This is a collaboration between West Side Community Services, Positive Directions Equals Change and Sister Circle.

Clients can stay here up to 24 months, and the eligibility is for justice involved single pregnant or parenting women.

The Drake Hotel provided by Tenderloran Housing Clinic, is a clean and sober transitional housing program that provides on-site case management and supportive services, is open to any justice-involved adults, and the program length is up to 18 months.

The Leroy Looper Graduate Program, also provided by Tendelorian Housing Clinic, is a clean and sober transitional housing program designed to house clients who have successfully graduated either from a residential drug treatment program or other more restrictive, structured and intensive transitional housing programs.

Program length is up to 18 months, and eligibility is justice involved adults who have successfully completed residential drug treatment or another housing program.

The Positive Directions TRP Academy is a culturally responsive peer-led abstinence-based therapeutic teaching community and transitional housing program.

We say, you know, all of our housing programs are drug and alcohol free.

They encourage and support recovery, but this program is actually abstinence-based.

All of our other housing programs, clients can be on medical assisted treatment, but in this program, MAT is not accepted.

Of course, they can be on health meds or mental health meds, just no medical assisted treatment.

In this therapeutic teaching community, the first six months is very heavy-duty programming, and then after clients complete the first six months of programming if they do well and they're interested, they can stay in the fifth phase transitional part for up to another two years.

And this is provided by Westside Community Services.

The Normal Hotel provided by Recovery Survival Network, is a clean and sober transitional housing program with on-site case management and supportive services that focuses on housing stability, personal development, and additional opportunities which lead to self-sufficiency and independence.

This program is only open to justice-involved adults 18 to 35 years old, and the length is up to 18 months.

The senior ex offender or SCOP Transitional Housing Program is provided by Bayview Hunters Point Senior Services.

It is a clean and sober transitional housing program offering on-site case management and linkage to supportive services.

And this is only open to justice-involved men ages 35 and up.

The provider is Fat Chance Community Services, and this is open to any justice involved men, but priority is given to 290 registrants, and the program length is up to 18 months.

The Joseph McPhee Center is a recovery-focused transitional housing program that offers on-site supportive services and case management connections to workforce development opportunities and cultivates a transformative community based on the principles of recovery, accountability, and service.

It fosters lifelong change by promoting positive values and behaviors through peer interaction, instruction, and community service.

This is provided by Salvation Army.

The program length is up to 24 months, and justice-involved adults who have successfully completed a residential drug treatment program are eligible for this program.

So our transitional housing programs are a vital part of our re-entry care and treatment network that we've developed.

As you can see, that the CASC re-entry center is in the middle of this network.

That our CASC provides on-site employment services, education services through five keys.

We have numerous groups and classes, both therapeutic, like Thinking for a Change in Anger Management, as well as pro-social groups like yoga, walking, art, and music.

Through we also do eight we partner with HSA to come and do benefit enrollment at the CASC, and pretrial diversion comes on Wednesdays to provide housing access services.

So through our one stop behavioral health focused reentry center, as well as all of the other programs that we fund in our reentry program and service portfolio, we address the criminogenic needs that keep people re-offending and recidivating.

And it's important to understand that, like, because we've gotten questions before, like you're a law enforcement agency.

Why are you providing housing when we have the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing?

It is true, right?

But our housing is different.

We don't just give people four walls and a roof.

They are transitional housing programs that are addressing the criminogenic needs that our people face and the criminogenic risks so that they can successfully exit the criminal justice system for good.

During last fiscal year, I just wanted to share some of our re-entry outcomes.

So the CASC, we had over 16,000 visitors, which equated to 270 unique clients.

So from that, those numbers you can see that our clients come repeatedly to the CASC as they stay engaged in the services that are on site and the groups and classes.

421 people of San Francisco adult probation clients engaged in the CASC's clinical and re-entry case management.

98 engaged in psychotropic medication management through our psychiatric nurse practitioner, 205 participated in drug treatment services, 155 in residential treatment, and 50 clients through outpatient services, and 901 justice-involved people participated in employment services with goodwill.

In our housing, we housed 1,160 people.

In our 14 housing programs last year, we had an additional program that was a pretrial pilot program that ended in fiscal year 24-25.

122,187 bednights of homelessness was reduced through our housing programs.

Almost all of our transitional housing programs clients are required to save once they start working.

Of course, we don't keep the money, the provider doesn't keep the money.

They get it back when they leave the program.

And our participants saved over $718,000 last fiscal year.

Participants in housing completed over $1,500 housing applications and 190 housing program participants exited to permanent and stable housing.

Thank you very much.

And if you have any questions, I'd be more than welcome to answer them.

Thank you, Ms.

Westbrook, for your uh testimony and presentation.

Um the purpose of calling uh your department was to understand in some respect a baseline for what the city provides for re-entry and what you consider to be best practices for a re-entry program.

Um that context, just immediately starting off, um, does ADP hold any contracts with the Taylor Street Center today?

No, we don't.

And you never have?

No, we never have.

Our housing partners are Tendeloin Housing Clinic, West Side Community Services, Fat Chance, Um, Recovery Survival Network, Salvation Army, and I'm forgetting one.

But no, we're not in contract with GEO.

Understood.

Um, so then understanding the baseline of the programs and the care that you provide in your department, um, going through some of the components that you've mentioned about criminogenic needs, how important for the success of reentry would you say that it is for a reentry program to have services that address current genic needs?

It's absolutely vital because without, you know, our people come with a whole bunch of backstory and a whole bunch of um different issues and challenges.

It's not just that they committed a crime.

Like there were things that led to that climate crime.

They have mental health that is unmanaged, they have addiction issues, um, maybe they have a lack of education, maybe they have a lack of of legal employment.

Um, they don't know how to live in pro-social ways.

So without addressing these risk and needs, success is not possible.

Understood.

Um, and on that point, um, I noticed in a lot of the facilities that you are presented about, there was often an average uh program length of 12 to 18 months.

Um, in your experience, uh, is that enough time?

Do they need more time?

And can a program be successful if they are providing the program for less than that time?

So a number like a few years ago when we only had like one or two transitional housing programs.

Our program length of stay, um, it was only open to our clients, and two, it was only for six months.

And what we found is that reentry like recovery is not a straight line.

So people can be going along, they can be doing good, and then something happens.

They lose a job or they relapse, and then they're it's time for them to get out of the program.

So, what we found is when we have housing programs that provide the structure and the continued support addressing those criminogenic risk and needs for longer periods of time, at least 12 months, 12 to 18 months, that our outcomes are much uh greater and uh for our clients.

When was that change made?

Um we started transitioning during the pandemic, actually.

And what kind of outcomes did you see as a result of that longer length of stay?

We have increased number of people exiting to permanent housing.

Amazing.

Thank you.

Um, some other kind of clarifying questions about um just transitional housing programs.

Um, your transitional housing programs are they licensed facilities as transitional housing?

No, they're not like licensed drug treatment or like uh dual diagnosis treatment centers.

They're transitional housing programs funded by us but provided by community-based organizations that have expertise with dealing with our population.

Are they considered group housing from a planning designation at all?

I mean, I guess some of them are um some buildings are like hotels, master lease buildings with individual rooms, or maybe there's two people to a room.

Other of the smaller programs are like houses, and they're considered more of communal living because it's like a house setup.

Um, do you know if they have are they officially classified as group housing though?

No, they're officially classified as transitional housing.

Understood.

Um broadly in terms of inspections, obviously, things come up.

When it comes to inspections and compliance, um, who does ADP report to?

So, I mean, we are in alignment with the controllers' um program monitoring guidelines, but we we have monthly reporting from all of our programs.

We also have annual and biannual reporting that um with respect to performance metrics.

We have we go out to sites formally once a year, but we're in our housing programs multiple times throughout the year.

And those reports available to the controller or to which there, yeah.

Last year we sent, I believe our finance department sent them to the controller's office.

Appreciate it.

Um lastly, then what kind of restrictions exist in these programs that you offer uh or support curfews, room checks, and and why?

Yeah, so yeah, these are programs.

People sometimes they come to us for housing, and they're surprised to know that these are programs with rules and guidelines.

So there are curfews.

There are um no visitors, drug and alcohol free, um, people are allowed up to two bags of belongings.

Of course, no violence, no threats of violence, no stealing, none of those kinds of things.

All of our programs, some of them have many more program requirements for groups, but all programs have a requirement of clients attending at least two groups a week of something that is helping them, whether that's a therapeutic group at the CASC, or maybe they attend NA in the community, or maybe if they um have DV stipulations, they might be attending their DV group.

Um so at least two groups a week, but many of our programs have considerably more programming requirements.

And the curfew is what hours are they typically?

So they differ by program.

Um, usually the first month, there's a reduced time limit.

I mean, a reduced curfew, and then after they are out of that like probationary period in the first month and they've shown that they can adhere to the program rules, it'll extend.

Some of our programs, the curfew is eight o'clock at night.

Some of them will extend that have like our more less structured program closer to independent living.

Um, they'll have curfews of 11 or 12 on the weekends.

Um, but like one of our providers likes to say, there's nothing that anybody needs to be doing that's good for them after eight o'clock unless they're working on the streets.

So these are programs.

You're supposed to be doing something in them.

That's the expectation.

Understood.

Um my colleagues have any other questions as well.

Um thank you, Vitoria.

Uh, next, I would like to call Nadia Iqbal from the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.

Good morning, supervisors.

Thank you so much for having me here.

My name is Nadia Ickball, and I'm a deputy public defender with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.

For the past 18 months, I have been the staff attorney from the public defender's office working in the parole court.

Before I speak about my clients' experiences with one one-eleven tailor specifically, I'd like to share with you all how parole court works and also share the many systemic challenges that my clients face who are on parole.

So parole court is where all petitions to revoke parole are handled.

Partitions to revoke parole are otherwise known as parole violations.

These petitions or violations allege that a person on parole has violated some rule or condition that has been set by their parole agent or by the parole board.

There are two main types of violations that include either technical violations where a person is alleged to have broken a rule, such as not checking in with parole on time, or a new law violation where the person is alleged to have committed a new crime while on parole.

The maximum jail sentence for each petition to revoke parole in most cases is 180 days at the local jail.

Most people in California who are on state parole are on what's called mandatory parole.

That follows the completion of their state prison sentence.

In theory, this mandatory period of supervision after prison is to help people safely transition from prison back into the community.

During the past 18 months that I have worked in the parole court, I have seen firsthand the failures of this system.

In far too many cases, parole has been a hurdle instead of a facilitator to reintegration.

I have witnessed countless examples of clients that instead of receiving guidance and support face a system that is punitive, impersonal, and impossible to satisfy.

Parole agents are often overloaded with cases.

They are disconnected from the people that they are meant to supervise.

Many individuals on parole feel that their agents don't care about their progress or their efforts.

Instead of being treated like human beings trying to rebuild, they are disrespected and regularly reminded that they are under the thumb of the state, constantly under the threat of return to jail or prison.

Even for small mistakes, like not being home when a parole agent comes by or other things similarly out of their control.

It feels like parole is designed for failure, a trap that pushes them back to jail instead of giving them a fair chance to succeed.

One of the biggest challenges that my clients face upon being released from prison after serving their time is where they go next.

Despite the fact that many folks have places to go or families that are more than happy to take them in, parole often requires six months to a year be spent in a halfway house.

Parole decides which halfway house and what county the person has to live in before or after they have satisfied their halfway housing or other requirements.

Ostensibly, halfway houses are meant to provide structure, accountability, and access to resources.

That's a great idea in theory.

However, halfway houses like 111 Taylor are run by corporations like the Geo Group that are driven by profit over people and are more like extensions of prison than a stepping stone to re-entry.

The Geo group has a well-documented record of human rights abuses, including medical neglect, inhumane conditions, and mistreatment in its for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers.

Based on my conversations with my clients and photos I've seen from inside the walls of 111 Taylor, the inhumane conditions in facilities like 111 Taylor include overly strict curfews, constant surveillance with round the clock head counts, crowded dormitory settings with little to no privacy.

All of this results in extremely limited opportunity to rebuild and live life independently.

There are restrictions on when and where one can go, the types of jobs one can have, whether one can drive a car, who one can speak to, including a prohibition from speaking to media without approval.

Our client, Mr.

Melvin Bulawan, who tragically died while he was a resident of 111 Taylor, was one of many who have plainly stated that they would rather be in prison than live at 111 Taylor.

This is a huge problem.

The prioritization of profit over life, dignity, and the safety of the community were highlighted in a short film made by our office in partnership with a local production company, Even Odd.

It's called 1-11 Taylor, Transitional Housing During the Pandemic.

This film shows the inside of 1-11 Taylor and what it was like for one of our clients during the height of the pandemic when Geo Group had no COVID protocols in place.

They crammed people into dormitory rooms.

To make matters worse, 111 Taylor, like many halfway houses, is located in an area where drugs, violence, and instability are a part of daily life.

For someone trying to stay sober, find a job, or reunite with their families, this environment can make success seem impossible.

If our goal is true rehabilitation and reintegration for folks who have served their time and are coming home from prison, we must think carefully about where we place people or require them to go.

We need transitional spaces that are safe, clean, and connected to opportunity, not despair.

For a person fresh out of prison, environment matters.

Requiring someone in this position to live in a halfway house like 111 Taylor is like asking someone learning to walk again to start on a tight rope.

And then not only being surprised when they fall, but punishing them for it.

So my experience as a public defender working with people who desperately desire to reintegrate into society and move forward with their lives is that we must do better.

We have to invest in safe supportive housing that helps people thrive, not just barely survive.

We need programs that focus on stability, education, employment, and mental health.

We need environments that encourage accountability without recreating incarceration.

We need to build pathways, not pitfalls.

Every person who succeeds on parole is one more person contributing to their family, their neighborhood, and our collective future.

Next week on November 13th, my office will be holding a press conference with nonprofit group Impact Justice to announce the expansion of an innovative community-based housing program for formerly incarcerated individuals.

It will be called the Homecoming Project.

The project pairs people that are released 10 or more years after they've been in prison with hosts who can offer free housing for six months and community navigators who support the participant with creating an independence plan.

In that plan, they set goals and meet and plan how to meet them.

Hosts will receive a stipend of up to 1,550 per month from impact justice.

While it is an opportunity that comes after and it does not replace the required six-month to a year stay at a halfway house, that uh the homecoming project is an example of a safe, warm, inexpensive community-based housing program that can serve as a model for reforming the current halfway house system.

Thank you so much to Supervisor Mahmoud for including the public defender's office today and for asking us to share the experiences of our clients on parole and the detrimental impact that mandatory parole and forced placement in prison-like conditions such as 111 Taylor has on them.

I am happy to answer any questions you have.

But before I end, I just want to also note that we are supportive of the community's call to no longer have the GEO group run this facility in the city and to instead transition this site to a community-serving site that honors the legacy of our transgender community in San Francisco.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Cabal.

I have a couple questions about some of the concerns you've raised or you heard from some of your clients.

But starting off, you mentioned a documentary.

Yes.

My understanding is Rebecca Young with the Public Defender's Office helped create the short documentary about 111 Taylor during COVID, and she noted that some of her past clients were forced to live at 111 Taylor even though they had a safe home to go back to.

And that the clients in turn contracted COVID there due to a reluctance by the facility to adhere to COVID safety policies, as the documentary purported.

Is this consistent with the experience of other clients in the public defender's office as well?

Yes, absolutely.

I have a number of clients.

One that regularly comes to mind, who was told that he had to stay at 111 Taylor and he didn't have a choice.

He was desperate to stay anywhere else.

He was looking into senior housing in Santa Clara.

There was other programs in other counties, but he was dismissed, and he was actually punished for leaving the county to look for housing elsewhere.

Understood.

With also what was observed in the documentary, from your perspective, would AB 3228 be applicable?

A law that holds private operators liable for civil rights violations during COVID.

I would have to review a bit further before answering that question, but I would be happy to get back to you after this hearing.

Sounds good.

Just for context for those in the public, AB 3228, is a state law that holds private operators liable for civil rights violations during COVID.

It's relevant in light of ongoing reports of neglect and death in custody of such a facility.

So I certainly do think it would be appropriate for groups that did violate this AB 332 to be held liable in some way, shape, or form.

So my hope is that it would be applicable, but I would have to review further to see if it actually is.

Understood.

One of the mentions of reports in the documentary and what you noted as well were dense bunk bed sleeping arrangements.

From your perspective, does that constitute overcrowding?

Absolutely.

I think that when someone leaves prison and they are trying to make a life for themselves or become independent, it is important for them to have more space.

I mean, 14 individuals in one room in a dormitory setting, that leaves no privacy, that leaves concerns where you know, if you are allowed to have similar to probations halfway houses, maybe two bags of personal property, your personal property may be at risk, you may not want to leave things behind, you may be carrying it around all day, and that's just one of the concerns.

And then personalities, right?

We have people with different personalities.

Some of the folks that come out of prison have been institutionalized for a very long time and they need space to grow, not to be thrown back in to the same.

So you're saying that from the reports from your clients, there was up to 14 individuals in one room at 111 Taylor.

I have heard that, yes.

Has your office received or documented complaints from clients?

How many clients do you know have documented complaints about 111 Taylor in your customer?

The issue with the documented complaints is that often people are afraid to speak out against parole and often do so directly with me on the condition of anonymity.

Um they don't want retribution, they don't want their parole agents to decide that hey, this guy's a complainer because then they get punished, they get a violation, they end up in jail.

Um, in terms of even though they haven't documented the complaints, wanted to get a better understanding of the types of complaints that um your clients have been describing to you.

You've mentioned um overcrowding, um, restrictions on job types, car prohibition, and speaking, uh, the curfews.

Do you know what hours were reported for what kind of curfews were being enforced at 111 Taylor?

I don't know what the current requirement is.

However, I've had clients who have been trying to get employment that is restricted because of the curfews.

Um, often 111 Taylor and parole agents are unwilling to hear or make any exceptions for family visitations or employment.

Um so that was the reason for the overly strict um curfew concern.

Understood.

Um, have you seen any barriers to residents in accessing legal counsel as well or filing grievances?

I know that individuals have attempted to file grievances, those that are willing to document, but they again are concerned about retribution, they are concerned about whether anyone will even bother with their complaints.

They're also concerned that the grievance process is often an administrative internal process with parole that will go nowhere.

As far as contacting legal counsel, I have had individuals say that it was not possible to leave 11 Taylor because they couldn't get a pass for one reason or another to come to the office.

Um, however, not I've never had anybody say that they couldn't call me necessarily.

Understood.

And lastly, given the concerns that you raised, what reforms or policy changes would you recommend to protect residents' rights and prevent future harm?

I think there needs to be a significant level of oversight.

I think there needs to be limitations on the number of people assigned to each room.

I think there needs to be a different setup entirely.

I mean, the location is a problem.

Changes the motivation behind what's going on inside those walls.

That people can't freely speak to media is concerning.

I mean, there shouldn't be limitations like that, because it it very blatantly seeks to hide injustices and abuses.

So I think we need to start over.

Actually, on that point, you've mentioned a couple times the sphere of retribution from clients you've heard coming out of 11 Taylor.

How common is this fear of retribution at other facilities in San Francisco that you serve clients with as well?

I have not had any client report the fear of retribution with regard to other facilities.

It's largely with 111 Taylor where most of my clients have been placed, and directly with parole, either the board or parole agents.

So just to be clear, you're saying 11 Taylor is the only facility that your clients have reported for your retribution.

That is the only facility, yes, that I've received complaints about.

Thank you for the context.

Colleagues have any other questions.

Yes, thank you so much for for coming to present.

I was gonna ask if we were to prioritize funding for a better housing program for your clients, um, what would that look like?

What are the key characteristics of programs that are safer and sets them up for better success?

There is a program, a not for profit that I've recently heard of that one of my clients that actually um I had referenced earlier was originally being required to live at 111 Taylor, is now living at.

It is the uncuffed program.

I know they have an office in Vallejo and they provide housing in various Bay Area cities, I think as well as Southern California.

And what they offer is I believe they have a trailer park where they offer private trailer spaces to individuals, and folks are allowed to live there.

The rent is subsidized, so either they pay a small amount or they don't pay anything and they're able to save their money, and I believe they have the opportunity to then purchase um units in this area so that they can grow and have something that belongs to them and give them motivation and a chance to succeed in life and be away from the hustle bustle of very busy areas like the tenderloin where there is a lot going on.

Thank you.

And I had a question about housing programs and rule violations.

Are there usual steps by housing program for uh rule violations by a program participant?

And in your opinion, should we prioritize returning these residents to prison for repeated rule violations or should it be a last resort?

Return to prison should always be an absolute last resort.

Um I believe there are many other ways to address perceived rules violations, but I think we also need to address what a rules violation should even be to begin with.

So I think we have multiple layers before we get to return to prison.

Thank you so much.

Those are my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next, I'd like to call up Chief Karubakatz and Chief Luga with the United States Probation Office and US pretrial service agency.

Good morning.

Thank you for having us.

My name is Chris Karuba Katz, and I'm the Chief Probation Officer for the United States District Court, United States Probation Office.

And my colleague.

Good morning.

My name is Sylvia Olugo.

I'm the chief Pretrial Services Officer for the Northern District of California.

Thank you for having me here.

We're here to uh explain the differences of our office and our jurisdiction and our connection to the residential reentry center.

The Northern District of California encompasses 15 counties along the northwest coast of California, from the Oregon border at the north all the way to the south of Monterey County at King City in the south.

We do venture east as far east as Alameda County, Sarah McClare County, and Conchacosta County, and Napa County, but the rest is all of the western counties.

We have four courthouses along within our district.

We have one here in San Francisco, just up the street, one in Oakland, one in San Jose, and one in McKinleyville, which services also Eureka.

Our office, we uh the United States probation office is not routinely supervising folks on a traditional term of probation.

We the federal system abolished parole many, many years ago, and so what we have now is what's called supervised release.

So we supervise anywhere between 15 to 1700 cases on supervision again throughout all of those 15 counties.

I do want to highlight the very remarkable difference between my colleagues' agency and mine, and because his agency comes first in the judicial process, I'd like to pass it to him and then I'll come back and explain supervised release a little bit more.

Thank you, Chris.

So the pretrial services agency is responsible for bail activities in the United States courts.

When somebody is arrested, we go into the jails or the U.S.

Marshall lockup and we interview them and we attempt to gather information to help the court make decisions about bail.

It is our goal to help reduce unnecessary pretrial detention.

That is one of our primary goals.

And in that process, we supervise individuals in the community.

My relationship with the Taylor Street Center is in that regard.

We the Taylor Street Center is one of the alternatives to detention that we offer the court for supervision.

If somebody is on supervision and they do well, and just so we're clear, doing well means showing up for court and not getting rearrested.

They make their appearance before court and uh eventually our sentence with the assistance of my colleagues' uh office.

During the course of supervision, our officers go out into the community and we visit individuals at their place of residence, at their residential programs, at their place of employment.

If there are violations, we report those to the court and uh we work with the court and the community and the defendant to try to keep the person out of custody.

I'm more than happy to speak a little bit more about my role with uh the Taylor Street Center.

I've worked with the Taylor Street Center for approximately 31 years.

I first uh went to the Taylor Street Center in 1994.

They were under different ownership at the time, and they've had a couple of owners since then.

When we send somebody to the Taylor Street Center, we uh advise the Taylor Street Center staff what the parameters of supervision are and what the parameters of their stay are.

Now it's important to know that when we place somebody, when the court chooses to place somebody at the Taylor Street Center, that is a bail condition of last resort.

If the Taylor Street Center were not available, that person is likely to be detained.

When we uh, so during the course of supervision, our officers have countless visits to the Taylor Street Center.

We meet people in the community in the center in the facility.

We also do tours with our judges of the facility.

So whenever we have a new judge, so that the judges are aware of the type of facility that they are potentially sending somebody to.

We arrange for them to meet with the Taylor Street management and have a question and answer session, and then the judges tour the entire facility and are made aware of all the various programs available.

The Taylor Street Center is makes themselves available and accessible to our office when we ask.

And I think I've mentioned in the past that about 10% of our drug court programs, drug court program graduates have started at the Taylor Street Center.

And these are individuals that were they not released on bail, they would not have been able to begin their journey that got them into a residential program and eventually got them diverted from prison altogether.

When uh there are issues at the Taylor Street Center, our office responds to those on a 24-7 basis.

And we work with the Taylor Street Center to try to keep the person at the facility because we know that if they're not at the facility, they're gonna be at a local jail.

I'm happy to turn it over to my colleague or to answer any questions that you have.

Okay, I'll jump right in.

Thank you, Sylvia.

So once someone is sentenced in the United States District Court, and that could be in one of 94 districts across the country.

If they receive an imprisonment sentence, they are designated and put in one of however many Bureau of Prisons facilities.

One of the avenues for release is the Bureau of Prisons sends inmates to a residential reentry center up to six months in advance of their release.

So many of our clients that eventually end up on supervision with us start at a residential reentry center.

There are very few available residential reentry centers across the country.

So 11 Taylor not only services clients that were sentenced in Northern District, but also the Eastern District of California, Nevada, and Hawaii, because those jurisdictions do not have a facility like this.

Now, Eastern District borders us to the east and goes all the way to the Nevada border, the Oregon border, and down to Bakersfield.

There is a residential reentry center on the south side of their district.

What this provides for people who are still under Bureau of Prisons jurisdiction is an opportunity to start meeting with our officers.

So start talking with our officers about the expectations of supervision and about giving them a safe, structured, and supportive transition.

Taylor Street aids in every facet of re-entry while saving increased expenditures to taxpayers.

It's not perfect, but it provides us a secure place for people to come back to our communities for them to become employed, for them to become citizens that can provide positive things to our community.

Taylor Street epitomizes the spirit of San Francisco of inclusivity, and it provides housing to people convicted of crimes where they are not welcome and they are not safe in other cities.

They provide a strong partnership not only to us, but it also to other community partners, much like Miss Westbrook spoke about.

But it also allows us to mitigate any potential failures.

With our partnership with the staff at Taylor Street, we're able to intervene in a much different way than was described by state parole.

We are not like that.

We are very different than state parole in that our whole goal is to keep people in the community and to keep people out of incarceration.

We work very closely with the Federal Public Defender's Office to partner a sort of triangulation with the judge to keep someone supported and out of incarceration.

While we also have to mitigate risk, we work really hard before we send someone back to prison.

It's usually by that point, it's the absolute last step in the whole process.

Um this partnership with Taylor Street is unique in the sense that we understand that GeoCare owns Taylor Street.

But if you met meet the staff, and in particular, Maria, who runs is the head, we have an incredible relationship with them.

We don't pay for our clients to live there.

They graciously allow us to place people there who absolutely need it.

And without it, like Silvio said, these people would end up back in prison or worse, homeless.

And while we understand that nothing is ideal and perfect, without this resource, the federal defendants and clients on supervision would be truly at a loss for where we could place people and also to keep the community safe.

Thank you for your testimony.

Um and for walking through uh your experience with the Taylor facility as well.

Um, what we're in part here to discuss is the nature of the services based on what we've heard complaints about at the facility, as well as what is what type of services are being offered and how is it being operated at 111 Taylor?

Um so taking a step back from that a little bit, how would your agency define a carceral facility?

I I would I would define it as prison.

Um and what are the characteristics of prison?

I would define it as an ab uh a location where you cannot leave when you want to leave, or when you cannot leave.

Um it is not a uh a jail I would say is a locked facility that uh is unable to um a locked facility where you uh there are guards that do not allow you to leave.

If I may add, uh I would say 95% of our escapes come from the Taylor Street Center because they're allowed to walk out.

They're there is a way to walk out.

And I would say the same for uh participants in the pretrial program.

Uh they are allowed to leave.

The staff will not stop them from leaving.

They can walk out, and we're notified, and then we have to determine what action to take at that point.

Noted, we'll get to that a little bit.

Um definitions a little bit more, how do you define a detention facility?

The same as a prison.

Okay.

Um what kind of restrict you just talked about what uh people be able to leave.

What kind of restrictions and disciplinary policies are typically in place at a reentry facility, and how do they differ from the policies that you see at this facility instead?

Yeah, I'll be very, very frank with you.

We do not have normally jurisdiction of a person on in the reentry center when they're still under the Bureau of Prison's jurisdiction.

So the rules are the Taylor Street rules.

When we ask one of our clients who's at rock bottom and needs to go into the facility, they abide by the Taylor Street rules.

We do not dictate those rules.

And if I can add to that, and the pretrial side, um, we dictate the rules.

Pre-trial services dictate the rules.

We tell the Taylor Street Center what the curfew is, for what instances they can leave, when they need to come back, what is needed to verify their departure and their return.

You know, the reason that they're returning.

What are those rules?

Well, it depends.

For us, it's an individualized assessment.

For some individuals, it may be they're not allowed to leave the facility except for medical and legal purposes.

For other people, it's a curfew that allows them to come and go, seek employment, re-engage with their family, uh, whatever the case may be, and uh and allows them to address the particular uh programmatic needs of their release.

Um, that logic.

Have you you talked about sometimes judges visiting and some components?

What over sometimes uh all of our new judges visit the program?

What regular oversight or inspections have you conducted on the one-eleven Taylor site that maybe we're not supervised or we're done independently?

So we contract, we pick you back off the Bureau of Prisons contract and the Bureau of Prisons does all of those oversights, but we regularly visit the program.

Uh our officers visit the program to meet with clients.

We have uh regular meetings, whether it's for our judges or with the management team, we're allowed to go into the facility whenever we ask for a tour of the facility, we're always accommodated.

How many um and when was the last Bureau of Prison site visit or inspection?

I don't have that information.

We're partially here today in light of uh the death of uh individual Melvin Bulloon.

Um how many complaints, injuries, or deaths have been reported to your office from one-eleven tailor, and how does that compare to other re-entry facilities?

Uh to answer your question about the last Bureau of Prison Review, I believe it was definitely within the last year.

We do we are able to uh comment to the Bureau of Prisons when they do their audit and review.

Okay.

I am not aware of any of our clientele being injured or suffered uh fatal um outcomes in at 11 Tater Taylor.

Likewise.

So despite the clear evidence of even reports with Melbourne, you've never heard of your clients having similar cases.

Correct.

Now, if I could give you a footprint, uh this year alone, only 44 of our releasees have gone through the one-eleven tailor program.

So our footprint out of 600 new people on supervision in our entire district.

Okay.

Um it was mentioned earlier by you that U.S.

probation doesn't pay.

Correct.

Uh 111 Taylor, but the geo group does.

So how does that function?

What is the incentive for geo group to do that?

So, what when we it's not actually geo care, it's it's called a public law placement through the Bureau of Prison's jurisdiction with the with the halfway house.

Can you explain a little bit more about that?

I really honestly cannot.

I would have to add defer to Maria on how that works.

Um getting in this concept of free to leave, you mentioned people are free to leave, but it isn't a free to leave situation.

So if someone leaves 111 Taylor, parole is notified, and the person is likely punished with a violation or jail time.

Um so how do you explain qualifying this as a free to leave facility?

Well, I think what you you were asking though was about the difference between prison and incarceration detention versus a halfway house or this setting.

So in a jail, there are keys, there are locks.

If someone were to try to exit, they are allowed to be manhandled and cuffed.

Um so there's a really stark difference at a halfway house.

There is no hands-on, there are is no manhandling that we're aware of or handcuffing.

Um the incentive is to stay so that you can remain out of prison or jail facility.

Um, and you know, another marked difference is you know, the the even the the clothing that people wear for at the halfway house versus a jail setting or a prison setting.

Now, again, there are parameters and the consequences losing that option of a place to live.

And so uh that is the consequence, but oftentimes people still walk out.

Um, one of those conditions that I think is is kind of um unique to our clientele might be access to certain materials that might have been like a telephone or electronic device when they their crime was perpetrated by an electronic device.

And so a lot of times we have to work within parameters to try to not only prevent them and help them not commit a new crime, but also get on their feet.

So we'll often um facilitate them getting a phone that's monitored by a third party so that we can just allow them to have access to the internet and telephone calls.

Uh but sometimes the monitoring software slows the phone down and limits what they're able to look at.

So they'll sometimes get an unauthorized device.

What happens in that it's a gateway to more crime.

It just is.

And unfortunately, a lot of that crime is against children.

So what geocare is able to do for us, if we get tipped off that, hey, one of your people who we've allowed to stay out of prison and sit, you know, in the community, work for work, um, see family, all of those things might be engaged in activity, we're able to partner with them and intervene before the person commits a new crime or gets to prison.

So sometimes that alone will motivate a person to say, forget it, I'll walk out, and they can walk out without someone putting their hands on them.

Now, to be clear, when someone leaves the facility or absconds supervision on supervised release, we do issue warrants.

However, if they call us and say, you know what, I just couldn't stay there anymore, I need to go somewhere else, we'll work with them as long as there's communication.

So a warrant may be issued, but it is not an automatic return to prison in the federal system.

Taking a step back, in can you explain what children are potential victims of crime in the case of this?

Yes, those convicted of sex offenses and child pornography cases.

We we have a large community of people who are convicted of child pornography possession or distribution at the 111 Taylor Street because they're not accepted at other parts of the country.

Understood.

Um backing up again into this concept of um not free to leave or free to leave, but this concept of a carceral definition, obviously, there's many different types of handcuffs people can interpret de jure de facto, and being a threat of violation of parole is one other method of a handcuff.

Um we have a letter from the pretrial services, which describes from your office, describing um how you view 111 tailor, which you've noted that it you're using it as a facility to house high-risk and high need individuals on pretrial supervision while they are pending trial.

Um you note it as um in the context of what they would normally be in detention.

Um we also know that um by some interpretation then you could say that uh if they are normally put in a detention facility and they're being put into facility that um has limitations on their mobility and their inability to leave in some context.

How do you explain the consistency with AB 32, which prohibits private companies from operating um carceral detention facilities that provide that by definition, as you describe, have limited mobility of their rights of where they can live.

I don't believe I'm qualified to answer that question.

Yeah, I don't because I I'm I don't we don't operate in a state system and I'm not familiar with A B 32.

I can describe AB 32 for you if it helps.

Um AB 32 states that private companies in California operating carcel facilities, um, uh it prohibits effectively prohibits private companies from operating uh carcel facilities.

Um public perception, however, uh kind of indicates that carcel extension of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Services guides that effect.

So it's pretty straightforward.

So what are you asking of me?

Um by certain definitions of what a detention facility or carcel facility is defined as, your letter indicates that this facility is being used to house people on pretrial and ex that would normally be put in a detention facility.

California prohibits via AB 32 uh private companies from operating facilities that function like a detention facility.

In your opinion, based on describing it as an alternative in that context to what would normally be used as a detention facility, and you describing it by definition a carcel facility as someone that limits people's ability to kind of operate and have a full functioning life, how do you feel this is in compliance with AB 32 in that context?

Well, I need to clarify, I'm not I don't believe I described it as a carceral facility.

When I say housing, it is a place that somebody can be housed in the community as an alternative to incarceration.

But you define carceral facility as something that limits their ability, mobility in some certain contexts, and by definition, just independently by definition of that, and we also describe that 11 Taylor limits mobility of individuals and as an alternative to detention.

So in some respect could be constituted as a detention facility.

Yes, they limit ability through accountability.

So they don't physically limit ability, they don't tackle somebody as they're walking out.

The important thing is they tell us when somebody uh operates outside of the boundaries that we've set.

Would CDCR be able to speak to that in your opinion?

I don't know.

Okay.

That is all my questions.

Uh thank you.

Do my colleagues have any questions as well?

Um I believe you said that you've worked uh with 11 Taylor for about 30 years through a lot of different operators.

Correct.

Can you share how you've seen the conditions change there over time, maybe the practices of this operator compared to others, and then just the the physical conditions in that building three or thirty years?

Yeah, no, I'm happy to share that.

So fortunately I have not seen a significant change in the actual facility other than the difference between uh prior to when a fire occurred, I think that was maybe 10 or 15 years ago, and then after the fire occurred, and there was uh a remodeling of some sort, um, and I think they use that opportunity to reorganize some of the space to provide more programming for the staff.

Um, it has always been dormitory housing.

There are some, I one or two, possibly one or two individual rooms, some rooms that are uh you know duo, and I've seen some of our folks housed in a variety of those types.

I have never uh I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I have never experienced uh a room that has more than six people.

Uh and so I'm not familiar with, I know one of the people who testified here said there was uh some claim of 14 individuals in a room.

I have never witnessed that.

Um I know that they provide food and housing.

They provide particular services to our clientele that help them with life skills and vocational skills.

Um the actual facility itself is generally clean, uh it's well managed, it uh it's secure.

We have had incidents in the past where there have been arguments between uh residents and we've been able to watch video, so we know that uh they're doing a nice job of of uh ensuring that they have control over the space.

And that's important to our judges because they make really difficult decisions.

Pre-trial services is the front end of the criminal justice system.

Judges are being asked to make decisions without all the information that say a parole office or probation office would have at the at the uh mid-range or back end of the criminal justice system.

So the judges the reason we go and and have the judges toward the facility is we need to make sure that they're comfortable with where they're sending folks.

So uh we haven't had any concerns from any of our judges regarding excuse me, regarding uh uh the actual facilities, our staff haven't come back and complained about the facility and its uh uncleanliness or concerns about um housing.

Um certainly there are gonna be instances where people are not comfortable with the particular housing setup they're assigned, and they always have the ability to communicate with their officer to try to advocate for some other arrangement, and in our experience, the geo uh the uh Taylor Street uh management have always been open to our requests to the extent that they're able to.

Um when I started in uh first started in the uh in the system, and I uh had a my first opportunity to go to the geo center, they uh used to house uh women and infants in the program, and that eventually uh went away.

I can't speak to why that was.

So that's probably one of the changes that I've noticed.

But um what I think is important for this committee to know is that I have not seen a significant change in the management quality of housing and oversight provided when management has changed.

And I think part of that is I'm sorry, when ownership has changed.

So ownership has changed over the years, but the facility itself has always remained a suitable place for us to place our individuals.

And beyond, you know, kind of observing that on these tours, what sort of data and reports are you uh and information are you collecting to compare this to other facilities, or is that all just inferred based on the observation?

Actually, there's not a whole lot we can do to compare because there are no other facilities we can contract with to do the specific uh requirements of oversight that that the TLB Street Center offers.

If we um what we do look at is some potential other housing options, much like uh has been reported here in this committee, but we do not have any other options when it comes to this type of housing that provides this level of oversight for individuals on supervision.

But regardless, I mean, again, beyond just taking a tour.

What sort of information do you have?

You know, you're looking at incident reports, you're looking at um, you know, information provided by the city in terms of building violations.

I mean, are you taking any of that into account?

No, we are not looking at any of that.

Um, because we contract with the Bureau of Prisons or we piggyback off the Bureau of Prisons, we uh communicate with them to help us identify if there are any any of those kinds of issues.

And I'm not aware of any of those issues.

Um, thank you so much for answering our questions.

Does Geo Group receive federal funding in such a way that supports operations at 111 Taylor Street, including through BOP, ICE, or DOJ?

So I can speak about my office.

My office does pay the unlike my colleagues' office, my office does pay the geo, the Taylor Street Center uh a daily rate to house people there.

We contract, as I mentioned, we piggyback up the Bureau of Prisons contract.

Bureau of Prisons does provide funding as well for uh that contract.

Um what federal regulatory bodies, if any, inspect and verify the services and facilities at 111 Taylor?

Is there documentation of the last inspection?

That would be all through the Bureau of Prisons.

How do operations at 111 Taylor differ from a correctional or custodial facility?

I think as my my colleague mentioned, that uh there although there is a high level of oversight at the Taylor Street Center, um, they are not nobody's gonna stop them from walking out.

Uh they also don't they can wear whatever they want.

There's no uniform type of clothing.

Um some of them are depending, at least at the pre-trial side of things, uh depending on the risks and needs of the individuals, some individuals can come and go as they please.

There's no restrictions on them.

Uh, because the it's it's only used for housing in that particular instance.

In some instances, there may be quite a bit of restriction, but uh we believe that there's quite a distinction between the Taylor Street Center and say, for example, Santa Rita Jail, which is one of the facilities that the US Marshals contract with or San Francisco County Jail, because they there's less restriction on the types of visitors they can have.

There's easy access to their uh attorneys.

Uh they have uh programming readily available in the in the in the um at the center.

And so I believe those are some examples of differences between a cartial housing situation and Taylor Street Center.

Um the job postings at 11 Taylor Street require staff to conduct quote Pat Downs head counts and breathalyzer tests.

To your understanding, is this in line with the group housing facility like 111 Taylor?

It is, and and that's what makes this facility for us um something we're willing to use because what we're looking for, you know, this is a a place where it is the place of last resort.

So the judges are very concerned about somebody causing problems in the community, creating harm to the community.

So there there's much higher level of oversight, and those are components of that oversight.

Breathalers coming in and out, control on medication, uh, an awareness of whether the person is there or not there, and if they depart, they'll notify us that they've departed.

Thank you.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you.

That's all our questions.

Thank you.

Um next, I'd like to call Maria Richard, facility director for the Taylor Street Center.

If we may, we're gonna both present here.

I'm Molly Rose Graves, I am the partnership development director for geo reentry services in the West Coast, and then I have with me Maria Richard.

Yeah, I'm the facility director of the Taylor Street Center.

Uh 11 Taylor Street has been partnering with criminal justice agencies for 40 years.

Speak into the mic, please, Roger.

11 Taylor Street has been partnering with criminal justice agencies to deliver residential reentry programs for 40 years in the San Francisco community.

This is 40 years of partnerships in the San Francisco community with essential supports such as medical care, mental health care, employment services, and other pro social supports that help reintegrate people into their communities.

As you have heard from U.S.

pretrial and probation, and I think our partners with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would agree.

The goal of our partners and our program is to get people home as soon as possible and to keep them as tied into the community as possible.

I appreciate Ms.

Westbrook's comment earlier that the needs of the population returning to the community is not homogenous.

Taylor Street is not the only program for people re-entering the community.

It is an option, a much more structured option, but an option for those who may not be able to be placed in another program.

Over 95% of individuals incarcerated come back to our community.

Research shows that without significant support and structure, this population is at great risk for homelessness, return to drug use, and re-engaging with antisocial peers in the community.

Long periods of incarceration disrupt family and social support systems, which in turn greatly harms economic stability and housing for returning populations.

When you look at our CDCR parole population, where over 43% of our residents are over the age of 60.

This is especially significant.

They have served long sentences and they have few places to return to, and they've lost much of their social support systems.

The program at Taylor Street provides an opportunity for a stable and supportive foundation for residents to connect with services in the community and rebuild lives.

So just to start, I'd like to say that I've been working at Taylor Street since January of 2000.

So this will be 26 years in this January.

I'd like to stress that the participation at the center is voluntary.

We reach individuals reach out to us or request to come to our facility, and they are sent the rules and regulations and informed about the type of program.

If they're coming directly from the street, their probation officer or pretrial or parole officer will tell them about the program.

We meet with them within 24 hours and explain the basic rules of the program.

And then within 72 hours, we have a very individualized meeting that goes over case management orientation.

Within five days, we do a criminogenic risk assessment that determines the risk level plus the needs of that individual.

And we develop an individualized program plan for each person coming in that's based on their risk and needs.

Most of the time, there the program is between six months to a year that can be extended if the individual requests to be able to stay at the program, and that's very common for individuals that spend a shorter amount of time there, and then they request voluntarily.

They don't even need to have a court hearing, they request voluntarily to extend to the program up to usually a year.

By design, the program is very structured and it's very purposeful.

The time that they do have in the community gets increased as they meet certain milestones.

So you come into the program, and the main focus at first is going to be to secure employment, education, volunteering, you're able to go to medical, you're able to go to court, you're able to go to religious and different types of programming as you go through the program.

Your privileges get more and more to be able to go home, go on social passes, all the way up to spending the weekend at home on a home pass, and then the ultimate level is actually to be able to go home and be supervised while you're actually in the home home environment.

That's that's the goal.

Um importance of reentry, the staff really do comprehensive case management.

We work really closely with a lot of the community providers.

Our goal is to help connect people with resources in the community that are going to be there well beyond the time that they're at Taylor Street.

We have an excellent connection for, work very closely with Marin City Health and Wellness, Dolan Mental Health, Bayview Transitions Clinic to make sure that the medical, behavioral, and dental services are provided.

For employment, we have a connection with a variety of employment resources.

We're so fortunate to be here in San Francisco.

We partner with five keys, Ascend and Achieve, Co-Tenderloin, Urban Alchemy.

I mean, that's just to name a few.

Our employment rate is usually up in the 70 to 80 percent, and that is really one of the main foundations of the program for them to go out every day and start looking for work, gain work.

Once they get work, they save for their release, and 100% of that money goes to them to release.

We have a partnership with UCSF to provide digital literacy and education.

We have interns, we have volunteers that come in, and our staff are really dedicated re-entral professionals that really find joy in helping individuals get their first job, their first house, reunify with their family, connect with their family, and really work with individuals to get back into the community and be able to live very productive lives.

We do work with individuals who have violated and they're not necessarily always happy to come back to the facility, but we work with those individuals to be successful, and the majority of our participants have an incredible amount of gratitude for the services that were provided there and the stepping stone for them to get into the community and to be able to participate in full life experiences.

Many of our individuals do get to transition into the different facilities that were provided here in San Francisco, and there's a ton of residential programs.

We have an extensive oversight and auditing process.

I know you asked a lot of those questions.

We have our customers' annual audits.

We have unannounced interim audits at least three or four times a year.

The public health department comes in on an annual basis.

The fire department comes in.

We have quarterly testing of all of our NFPA 101, fire alarms, fire extinguishers, all of those types of things.

We have unannounced inspections by most all of the regulatory agencies here in San Francisco, public health, vector control, fire department, and we have both formal and also informal inspections.

We're accredited by the ACA association, and we also have every three years a third-party PRIA accreditation that comes in, that is the Prison Rape Elimination Act, and they come every three years to ensure that we're holding, you know, the highest levels of care of our participants.

We also undergo for fiscal is a Sarbanes Oxley audit, which is a third-party audit that holds accountable anyone who contracts with the federal government.

In addition to BOP and US probation CDCR on a regular basis, we also have a quarterly community advisory board meeting, and these agencies, just a list of some of those, which is date parole and federal probation.

It's also a transitions clinic, co-tender lawn, five keys, performing solutions, fat chance, Lou Gordon from RSN, Farming Hope, Glide, St.

Anthony's, United Players.

These are just some of the agencies that work with us on usually a daily basis, but they also come to our community advisory board, give us feedback of what we can do.

As a transitional provider, we are connected to a lot of the housing agencies so that we can really help to find permanent housing solutions, and we connect with a lot of our entities for that.

We also have a very robust volunteer, and we volunteer with the city clean team.

We've been doing that for probably over 15 years, once a month, planning trees and being involved in the city clean.

We also participate in numerous volunteer activities throughout the city.

United Players is one of our main agencies that not only do our participants volunteer, but they also mentor a lot of individuals coming out, and not necessarily just from our program, but from other programs as well.

And I think were you gonna as we wrap up our time here?

We just want to take a brief minute to reflect on the impact of this program.

One on 11 Taylor Street every year allows hundreds of federal and state justice-involved participants to come home sooner or to avoid being placed in a correctional facility altogether.

On the federal side, the Second Chance Act and the First Step Act both help open the door for participants to be able to return to the community sooner through residential reentry and home confinement programs.

On the state side, having a placement in a reputable program has allowed many inmates to be successful when they go in front of the board of parole hearings to secure parole.

In 2024, over 400 new participants were served in the program, and 78% of those who discharged were discharged successfully.

Most of them were able to leave the program with a permanent housing pathway as well as a financial head start from the nest egg they built up while working and living rent-free.

These nest eggs are consistently in the 2,000 to $5,000 range, with some residents able to save upwards of tens of thousands of dollars.

All of these stats speak to the great work we at 111 Taylor Street in collaboration with our community providers do to help re-entering people build productive lives, find employment, and become contributing members of society.

I hope you have the chance to read the many letters of support that we received over the summer from our partners in the community, former residents, and some of our employees on the impact of the program.

I wanted to conclude with a summary of one of the letters that talked about the difference that the program makes is that the program didn't just help the person find a job.

She offered guidance, encouragement, and access to resources that empowered me to rebuild my identity, my career, and my purpose.

If we can return dignity and purpose to people, we strongly believe that they will continue to be successful when they return to the community.

Thank you for the testimony.

To reiterate the reason why we're here is to better understand the living conditions and the state of the facility at 111 Taylor today, based on uh the numerous testimony we have also received about complaints within the facility for the last uh year and for years prior.

Um, I want to laser in initially on um some of the testimony we've already heard about some violations or notices of violations.

Um, and I'll start with um in the public defender's office.

They were referencing a documentary about infection control procedures, and how during COVID, there were certain issues that were happening and maybe lack of compliance there as well.

So, what infection control procedures exist to prevent outbreaks of flu, COVID-19 or staff infections uh today?

So, to note like during COVID, we actually worked extremely close with the public health department.

We had weekly calls with all the other residential programs.

We are not a residential program, but they allowed us to go on to the calls which would be like the highest level of care for any type of community living.

And we had visits from the health department, and we worked really close with them.

They on every visit commended us on the extensive types of protocols.

So we have any individual who is requesting to see the doctor, obviously, they're going to get their medical.

If they do have a communicable, such as COVID or the flu, then we can remove the other participants out of that room and have them go into another room so that we don't spread infection.

We have probably like three or four times a day, we have chores, so we're cleaning environments.

If we do have cold season, we're cleaning everything from doorknobs and the rails up the stairs and all of those things.

So I did see that documentation.

They we were not consulted or talked to during that, and some of that stuff was very one-sided.

We had very um clear COVID guidance from both San Francisco County as well as the BOP to handle such a uh unprecedented situation like COVID.

And what do you make of the claim during the documentary that the and what we heard from uh the public defender's office that 14 people were in one room, which would be in violation of COVID protocols during that period of time?

So we we don't have a room that has 14 people in it.

So I'm not sure where that information is.

Did you at the time during the okay?

So you're uh disagreeing what was reported and recorded in the documentary.

Yes, there's not a room with 14 people.

Um further into uh violations that have been documented, so we have multiple reports that we've provided to my colleagues and to the clerk about notices of violation from the fire department, as well as from DBI notices of violation, reading off some of the notices of violation that we have seen issued.

Um, there are obstructions to fire escapes.

Um, this notification of violation was issued just a couple months ago, and I do not believe it has been responded to or acknowledged.

Um there's also notices of violation from the fire department about other obstructions to fire escapes.

Um we have notices of violation from the Department of Building Inspection as well, and I believe other components which note that going back even several years, uh, multiple rooms one, two, three, four, five, six with possible rodent entry in the kitchen, um, numerous cockroaches uh were noted as well, and then a couple months later, uh similarly several indications of rodent uh holes and gaps and pest control.

Um, in light of those notice violation, what is the current status of these violations that have been issued so far?

So, with just to start in order, we did have a visit from the fire department, and they did originally write up the uh fire escape violation.

They also there's a new ordinance that we weren't aware of that the outside um fire, I think they're called the it's the um it's the fire spot where the fire department hooks up the hose that those are no longer allowed to be plastic and they're no longer allowed to be brass, they have to be specifically made out of a steel product that the fire department has a key, and there's one entity that provides that key.

We immediately, the day that we got that violation, we reached out to the fire department, and those both were closed.

The health department as well as our contractor requires that we do have vector control, which requires screens on those windows, and the fire department signed off on that.

So that was the question is that we had screens on the fire escapes, and that was the original, but the fire department did clear that because we are required to have screens on those windows.

So that was cleared, and then we immediately contacted the company that produced the um the I don't know what's called lid that are outside.

They're pretty much going door to door and upgrading this new this new requirement.

And it was the first time we had ever heard of it.

We got right onto it, and we responded to that.

As per any type of vector control, I mean we have a pest company that comes out once a month.

If it needs to, twice a month.

If we have some type of situation, we will do weekly.

We are in the tender line on the corner of Turk and Taylor, and there is an issue with vector control in our neighborhood.

The public health department has uh always come out, and if they see something, we would respond to it immediately, and it gets closed immediately.

So if you have those reports, you'd see that within days they came back and that they were rectified.

So we don't have any open um complaints about that.

And like I said, we have you know, based on the season of the year, we'll increase the vector control coming into the facility, and we have uh whether it's weekly, biweekly, or monthly, will be um based on what's going on at the facility.

I would qualify, I also live in the tender law, and I don't say living in the tender lawyer is an excuse for why you should tolerate rodents in your building.

No, absolutely not.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't have rodents in my building, so I don't think people who live in one-eleven tailor should either.

No, I agree with you.

I don't agree that they should.

I'm I'm saying that it has been, and this is the health department reporting to me that it is a challenge because we don't control either side of our facility, and so we've had to seal off from other directions, and we've been extremely responsive to any any complaint that we have.

No one should have to live with any type of issue, and that's why we have a very um robust vector control pro uh program.

Looking on Yelp though, even there's comments recently um uh even recently about the quality of food being worse in prison or worse than prison, and then there are still ongoing problems with mice and cockroaches.

Um, so why do these problems continue?

We do not have a documented problem with um any type of mice, and we have had to get treatment for cockroaches, but as soon as we identify it, like I said, you have notices of violation from DBI several years back, which document problems with mice and rodents.

I had stated that we currently do not have any problem with that, and we haven't had problems in a few years.

We we rectified the issue, they were able to locate some areas that were coming in from our neighbor's house, and we closed those up and we sealed and made sure that we dealt with that immediately.

So, you know, we're any time that we have any issue because we are not gonna be perfect, but every time we have any issue, if it's any type of violation, we're going to address that immediately.

We heard earlier that um probation pretrial are not aware of any of these issues.

Um, do you notify them when you have certain issues about living conditions like these and getting filed official violate notices of violation from different city departments?

So the contract that we have is with California Department Corrections and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and yes, we do notify them of any type of violation that we have.

We would we would notify them in how we rectified the situation.

But U.S.

probation, US pretrial, and CDCR, they don't they don't get that information?

CDCR does, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons do.

I don't have a direct contract with probation or pretrial, it piggybacks on the Federal Bureau of Prisons contract.

So our contract is with CDCR for a re-entry transitional housing, and it's for with the Federal Bureau of Prisons for a community re-entry program.

And clarify for me, pretrial was saying that they pay you money.

They do pay us, but they piggyback on the BOP contract.

So they pay for their beds, but the oversight is the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Um will you commit to providing unfettered access to from city inspectors to regularly come into your facility to check for these living conditions?

Absolutely, yes, they they do.

They they do they don't have need a an appointment and okay, noted.

Um another component of violations that we've heard, and you indicated yourself was around the PRIA reports, which are Prison Rape Elimination Act reports.

Um I have also provided copies to my committee members and the clerk that over the last year there's been 4989 allegations of sexual abuse and harassment involving detainees and residents and inmates for geo group nationally.

And when we look at the 111 Taylor facility, the 2024 PRA report notes two ongoing cases of staff on inmate sexual abuse.

Can you tell us about these cases?

Uh and how are they going so far?

So I can't talk about a case that's in progress, but we have I can tell you our our policies and procedures.

We have a zero tolerance for any type of inmate to inmate or staff to inmate sexual harassment or sexual abuse.

So there is a zero threshold.

Anything is reported and it's going to be investigated by the proper um authorities.

So if you have zero tolerance, does that mean that the members who were accused of this are fired?

Well, there has to be an investigation that shows that there is some type of what is that investigative procedure and how long does it take?

It's pretty detailed and it depends who's doing the investigation.

So if an investigation is assigned to um our local entity or if it's assigned to the customer, we have to follow the Bureau Prisons, and they send the referral to OIA, but I think they send it all the way up to OIG to see if there would be any criminal charges, it then gets assigned to OIA who determines what entity will investigate it.

Normally it is the residential re-entry manager's office that will investigate those types of complaints.

Um how are you supporting the victims of these um crimes at this time?

So if any if somebody makes a complaint, then there's an immediate referral process to if they want to have any mental health, or if they do need medical, and then they can have ongoing mental health treatment that's outside of our facility.

We also, if there is an open allegation, that we check in with that person on a weekly basis to make sure that there isn't any type of retaliation.

I know the public defender talked about individuals complaining about something and being concerned that there'd be retaliation.

So we have a retaliation log that we keep, and this would be if a staff came forward about something or a resident came forward about something, that we would check in with them on a weekly basis until the investigation is completed.

Historically, how many staff members have you disciplined or fired for uh as a result of a PRA report?

I don't have that that information.

You don't uh how long have you been working at the one?

I've been working there for 25 years, yeah.

Can you offhand know how many staff you've actually fired for a PREA violations?

I know that I could say that I've placed on administrative action in 25 years, probably I'm just gonna guess there's maybe been 10 cases that have been investigated.

I don't know how many of them have actually been terminated for further action for an action.

So you can't speak to how many people were actually held accountable for those reports.

I can't I'm not prepared right now to provide that information to you.

Yeah, so right, not at this moment, and actually I would prefer to give you factual information.

We do have a reporting mechanism, and we do report to the census bureau, and we do post how many allegations every year and what the results of those are.

So it is public information.

I do know that during our last audit that we had I want to say eight or ten um commendations for the processes that we do have at the Taylor Street Center that are um were noted as outstanding um guidelines to prevent uh any type of PRIA incidents.

And the two cases from last year they're still pending.

Um I'm not sure which cases you're talking about, so I can't, I couldn't tell you whether those two cases are are pending.

Um, if they're from last year, I would imagine that they would be closed by now, but I again I don't have that information.

I'm not prepared to share that specific information.

Okay.

Um, let's get into how you're uh classifying residents at um one-eleven Taylor and some of the complaints that we've heard in that context as well.

Um how does Geo Group classify the individuals at 111 Taylor?

Are they residents, clients, or inmates?

Um we call them participants.

Um, there I would say I don't know if it's a legal definition, but we refer to them usually as participants.

Um I asked this in the context of again a question that we asked earlier to pretrial services was that um their letter in and of itself says that they're using your facility to house high-risk and high-need individuals on pretrial supervision pending trial in extend of a what would normally consider it a detention facility.

Wouldn't that be designating your facility?

Is it where an individual is awaiting trial to be considered a detention facility?

Not by the definition that we have as a community program.

So we are it's being an alternative means that you're placing that person in the lowest uh possible uh home like setting.

So if you if they someone has to be in jail, they can they they're gonna stay in jail.

If they need a detention center, they're not gonna come to us if they are required to be in a detention center.

Our program is an alternative to sending people to jail or keeping people in a secure confined, if you want to use the word carceral environment.

They come to us to actually be in a community environment where they have access to their family, where they can get a job, where they can go to church, where they can um get their medical care taken care of, and all of those things are in the community.

So that's that's not really in my definition of what a detention center would be.

It's an alternative to that as a slower, a lower um environment than a so your definition of classifying this as not carcals because it's voluntary is what you're saying.

It's voluntary, they go outside.

They have access to work, they have access to medical, they have access to go practice their religion, they go on social passes, they um go overnight and spend the night at their family's house.

Like though all of those things to me are not uh, wouldn't you say that's not true though, in the context because it's it's not voluntary to stay at 111 Taylor if you're on state parole.

Um my understanding is the board of parole often requires halfway house and transitional house upon release from prison, including to 111 Taylor, and there's reports of not having a choice about going to 111 Taylor because they're on state parole, and in that context, it is not voluntary that they're staying at that facility.

Is that correct?

That is not correct.

They do have a choice of whether or not they choose to come to 111 Taylor.

So even if they're being sent there by the Board of Prisons terms, they're going they they have mailed us a letter and they've requested to come to our program over any other program.

Then they take our letter, our handbook that they receive, and they would go to the Board of Prisons terms to say, hey, I want to go.

If I am found suitable for parole, I would like to go to the 111 Taylor Street Center.

So you're saying people from state parole, in your opinion, that is still voluntary when they're being required by state parole to see the halfway house.

Yes, because they don't they could choose not to come to our program.

They they have the right to not to come to our program.

And once they get there, if they don't want to be at our program, they have an avenue to say, I don't want to be here, I'd like to transfer to a different program.

And there's programs like ours, even though there isn't one specifically in San Francisco, there's pro other programs like us thro throughout the state that they could request to go to if they found that that would be more suitable for their needs.

Diving into some of the living conditions a bit more.

Um I can't answer for that other than the fact that the people that sh that they're seeing are um going to be going through the court process for for violation.

I I don't I don't know what access she has to other clients going to other different programs and what their circumstances is.

I couldn't really answer that.

Um so then let's go into the services that might indicate um what people are afraid of.

What protocols exist today for medical emergencies at 111 Taylor?

So for a medical emergency, you can call 911 or you can ask a staff to go to the hospital if you don't need to be transferred by an ambulance.

We send our individuals to St.

Francis out to CPMC as well as San Francisco General if they have an immediate medical or medical emergency.

Otherwise they have hopefully are the established care with one of the many providers that that provide medical care for our participants ongoing.

So you're outsourcing that care.

Is there any medical licensed professionals on site to support individuals at the facility?

There is not.

No, we do not provide any medical care or any mental health services or substance abuse services on site, those are contracted out.

Um we heard from the adult probation that it's important to provide services to help with the criminogenic response.

Um if you don't have those types of programs or services at the facility in light of certain incidents that happen, how are you supporting individuals to through re-entry that have obviously severe medical needs?

So we establish medical care through transitions clinic through Marin Medical.

Um we have urgent care services through Concentra as well as St.

Francis Hospital if they need something urgent and it's not to the level that they would need 911.

I don't think that any of the reentry centers in San Francisco have on-site medical, because that would be a whole different level of of programming.

We do a criminogenic assessment of every individual coming in, and we do assess their risks and needs, and then their individual program plan is going to be determined based on that.

If someone has medical issues, then that would be their primary um plan to get access to that, and depending on which program they're in and who's paying for it, it would determine which which location they have.

So we we have connected services.

We also have uh through our BOP pretrial and probation, they have contracted services for both mental health and for substance abuse treatment, but that's just not provided at our center.

We do provide other services at the center to address their criminogenic needs, but those individuals they still get those criminogenic needs met.

It's just in the community, not on site.

What services do you provide for mental health or medical services then?

If there's not any medical services, what are you providing for mental health services?

So Dolan Mental Health provides mental health services for most of the feds.

I think either HOPE services or there might they might have a new contract for for the probation.

And then some of our local providers, like West Side Crisis as well as transitions clinics, they have you know caseworkers and individuals that will hook people up to mental health services.

So when someone comes in, they're assessed if they need those types of services, and then they go to those services on it, whether it's a weekly, um, some of our individuals are in groups and in individual uh based on their case plan, and like I said, that's outside.

So through Dolan mental health, marin um wellness transitions clinic, and then the outpatient mental health for CDCR residents.

If they don't qualify for whatever reason for those programs, then we would send them to local local uh supportive.

So it seems like it's a lot of outpatient work.

So given this curfews in place at the facility, do residents have the right to see doctors or refill prescriptions without geo approval.

There is not a curfew to get medical, there's not a curfew for work, just that that I know I heard you say that, but individuals have their plan set based on that individual program plan.

So people can leave geo facility at any time or night to get prescriptions or medical services.

If if it's an emergency, absolutely, yes.

We have people that would leave um at any time that would need to get.

What if it's not emergency just to get their prescriptions?

Um no, you wouldn't leave at you know two o'clock in the morning, Walgreens isn't open.

So you would we get we you would request to get your requests.

Some people have curfew at eight o'clock, as we heard, so could it be Walgreens is still open?

So if someone needed an emergency prescription that day, we would send them out to get that prescription.

But not if it's not an emergency.

Yeah, not if it's not an emergency.

They can't get the prescription if it's not an emergency.

It would wait till the next day.

Yeah.

Got it.

Um what measures are in place to prevent overdoses or respond to drug related incidents on the facility or for members who are in the facility?

So one of the reasons you talked about the headcounts, one of the reasons we do head counts is actually wellness checks.

So the staff are trained to make sure that individuals when they come into the room are well and they are breathing.

Um all of the staff are trained in Narcan if that is needed, and we have if we need to administer NARCAN, they're also all trained in CPR on how to respond to different medical emergencies.

Um for a participant that is is currently currently there, we would we would use the same medical services as any other program.

Understood.

Um going to a comment you made about chores for residents, are residents compensated for the chores that you're asking them to do.

They no, they are not.

So individuals are placed on the chore chart based on when they first come into the program.

They're not asked to do anything that we would pay an individual for.

So we're talking about sweeping the floor, wiping off the kitchen tables, things like that.

They they're not doing um any type of labor.

Cleaning is labor.

So the the chores are done with the staff and they're assisting.

Just like in everyone's home, you would be if you lived in a home, you're gonna be responsible for cleaning your house.

So those are the type of household chores that that you're doing.

We're not having them do things outside of just basic uh daily cleaning of the facility.

It's the only thing they're involved is cleaning.

Anything else?

There should not be, no.

So it's you are making them do unpaid labor to clean the facility.

They are they are participating as part of the program in doing chores that are within the house.

They need to keep their own room clean, they need to clean their own bathroom, and they clean the areas that they use.

They are performing unpaid labor.

Got it.

Um we receive reports about, we just mentioned about food and some of the issues with their reports of maggots in the food and frozen meals.

Does everyone have access to a full kitchen as required by SF planning code for group housing?

The food is provided by an outside provider to all of the residents.

So they can use microwaves, they can heat up food, they have a toaster, they can bring in their own food that's already prepared, but the actual food we're we're feeding 200 people with a lot of different dietary needs, and so we provide the food for them, and many of them don't have funding for for food, so we provide meals for them.

I there's never been a situation that I've ever heard of in the 25 years I've been there where there's been maggots in the food.

That's I'm not sure where that came from.

It's been reports about that that we've heard, but um, so you're confirming that everyone has access to the full kitchen at any time.

There's it's not access to a full kitchen, they have access to receiving three meals a day.

Is there a kitchen at the facility?

There's not a like a kitchen with a stove, and there's no.

You do realize a designation for group housing means that every resident in the facility is supposed to have access to a kitchen.

Yeah, but they have so by definition.

Yeah, I just want to be this program has been in place since 1989.

It is a non-conforming use, and so the we we understand that if we were establishing this program today, it might need to look a little bit little bit different.

Um but as a non-conforming use.

Um that requirement.

Um you're not complying with that requirement.

We are in non-conforming group house.

Um going back a little bit on kind of so are people required to clean this communal kitchen area as well?

No.

Not in the actual kitchen, no.

And in general, are there repercussions for people not performing the chores as you qualify them in that context?

If someone is assigned a chore and they don't do a chore, um, yeah, they could get uh I mean, I don't know what you mean by consequences.

You're saying it's a requirement to do the chores to be part of the facility, so what are the reports?

For those individuals that are placed on the chore chart, yes, that's their requirement to participate.

Um the getting into then the qual the actual type of facility as well.

Um, uh concern here is that there may not be enough time for residents to actually get the care they need as a re-entry facility.

We heard from adult probation that they found that the best practice is to have 12 to 18 months.

My understanding is the length of stay here is six months.

Is that correct?

Um there's no specific set length of stay except for the CDCR contract, it is set for no more than one year, which would be 12 months.

There is a process to request additional time if they have not been able to secure housing in that time.

But each individual person comes in with a a set plan, and if they have a home to go to that's found suitable, then we're gonna try to get them home sooner.

If they don't, there's people who have come there for a four month placement or six month placement, and then they request to stay an additional year at the program to help them secure secure housing, save money, get through the SSI process or whatever it is that whatever goals that they have that they're trying to meet.

So it's not a set six months program, that's just that that's the average stay.

But the max you have is 12, and we've heard from other reports that 12 to 18 months or longer might be necessary to actually support individuals, so why aren't you allowing people to stay longer?

So normally for CDCR, there this is a stepping stone for them to come into the program, and then if they need more supportive living, we work really close with the Cask Center and all of the different housing programs.

If they if they need more additional housing programs for the the Bureau prisons, there is not a set time.

They could be sent there for anywhere from uh six months, three months, even sometimes we've had the second chance have we've had people who have been able to be in this program for two years, so it's not a set amount, it's based on that individual person.

Got it.

Talking through revenue uh for the facility and kind of conditions for the in for the residents, what are the revenue sources for this facility?

So it's the CDCR contract and the Federal Bureau of Prisons contract.

Those are the two contracts we have.

Do you require?

Do you require um people who stay there to pay rent in any circumstances?

No, they do not.

So they have a savings um uh plan that they're required to pay into, and they 100% get that money back.

Uh, but for the period of time that they're staying there, they don't have access to that money.

It's there's different programs.

So for the CDCR program, they would request if they wanted to say you save $5,000 and you wanted to take $2,000 out to purchase a car or to buy something, there's access to get that money back.

The goal is to save money for release, and but they do have access to the money.

The federal program, they save their own money in their own account.

Um we don't we don't have it in a trust account.

Uh the federal, we the federal program, we monitor and hope and encourage people to save money for release, but they don't have to, they don't pay anything to our program for rent.

If you're holding money for them in some respect and you're qualifying your place as group housing, um wouldn't it be constituted that the residents there are tenants of your facility as well?

The money that they're holding is going specifically into a fund that is their savings, it's not an interest bearing account, and they have access to that money.

The goal is to assist them in saving and giving it back to them, so they're not paying rent.

But if people are staying at your facility and you're f and um they're holding you're holding money on their behalf as well, there could be construed that they have some measure of tenants' rights.

And if you're forcing them to leave within six to twelve, six to twelve months, regardless of how long time they've had to develop those skills, um, what would you say to those who say that that could be deter construed as wrongful eviction?

Um I can't really speak on that behalf.

I think that that's something that would be more for um either the zoning department or our our legal to do that when when we are holding their money they can request that money and we give it back to them when they leave so it's not considered rent they're not paying rent while they're there.

Lastly I'll kind of close up on sort of questions we've asked a couple times that we've heard that you have limited mobility in certain context um there's not difference in opinion on whether it's voluntary to stay at this facility as reports we've heard um how do you justify geo continue operations under the prohibition of private incarceration contracts under AB 32?

Yeah so AB 32 review is is limited to correctional programs again that is subject to the determination of CDCR on who they contract and what legal pathways they have to contract with different providers I know that they have reviewed that on their end and made a determination and we've relied on their guidance as far as compliance with AB 32.

Okay that's all my questions for now thank you supervisor mahmood um I have some questions regarding the tragic death of Melvin Boulog one regarding his death what safety and mental health protocols were followed in the days leading up to his death so certainly Maria can talk about in general um our mental health precautions but we cannot comment on any specific individuals case that's a just a matter of policy and and a matter of our our contracts we we have to defer to our customers on specific individuals' cases but we can sorry uh we have to defer to our customers uh to our to CDCR and the Bureau of prisons on what can be commented about specific cases um so we can talk in general around our our mental health precautions but um we can't comment on an individual case I can just add if an individual is taking mental health medication that we do um just verify that they are taking it on a daily basis so we hold those meds for them we don't administer them but we do hold any type of psychotropic meds at the uh monitor station to make sure that those individuals are taking meds on a on a daily basis if they're supposed to be doing that so they also have the case manager that checks in with them and our staff are you know trained to um to be aware of if there are changes in individuals' behaviors are something that we should be concerned about.

We have testimony from former residents that they've been locked out denied mental health support forced to live without kitchen access and punished for breaking curfew not to mention complaints of overcrowding poor living conditions of the facility have you taken any steps to investigate these claims to invite independent inspectors or auditors to assess these complaints.

Just as you know as noted we have a very detailed oversight from local county from the fire department the fire department determines the number of people that are allowed to be in the program and the health department makes sure that the living conditions are customers both BOP and CDC make sure that we have the right square footage in in rooms and that we don't have any situations with overcrowding.

I can testify to the fact that we have not been over our designated bed numbers that we're allowed to have any in any of the time that I've actually been the administrator there.

So we stay within those those guidelines and we have a lot of oversight that does come in the health department the fire department um the DBI, they don't they don't need an appointment to come into our facility.

It's not a secure locked facility.

People can come in to the facility, and any of those types of agencies come in on a regular basis, whether announced or whether it's a scheduled appointment to make sure that we have uh just you know the best living situations that we can for this for this program.

Have you been audited for denying mental health support by any of these departments?

No, I have not had any complaints that we've denied mental health services to anyone.

Have you had any complaints about people being forced to live without kitchen access?

I've not had complaints about that.

I mean, that's when they come to the program that they know that they have the access to the microwaves and the toasters, they can bring certain foods into their room and hold certain foods in their room.

We don't have it, you know, they can't bring perishable foods into their room, but I don't have any complaints about that in particular that they don't have access to a kitchen.

Um have you any had any complaints about punishments for breaking curfew?

Um complaints.

I mean, if someone is due back at a certain time and they don't return at that time, then there would be some type of action taken.

So if you're due back at the program at a specific time and you and you don't come back, it can be anything from notifying the your probation officer to not going on, you know, other social passes.

I mean, there could be a consequence for for that, or you could be you could be discharged from the program if you're due back at a certain time and you don't come back, that you're if you that your bed would be closed, or if you walk out and you just walk out the door and you're not after curfew that I don't know if there's are considered complaints, but there's there's a process.

There's I think in any type of communal living situation there are rules around when people can come and go and if they just don't return or if they walk out.

Um we've also heard reports of gender discrimination, especially from transgender residents who've been denied gender affirming surgery or blocked from certain spaces.

Have there been any steps to investigate or rectify these potential violations?

So I haven't gotten any specific complaints about that.

When we do have our PREA audits, they do look at that and and some of our accommodations were how we respond to different populations.

We do allow anyone who identifies as a female to be on the female wing, and so I don't know about denied to certain locations.

We have to be sensitive to the needs of everybody at the facility, but we do allow uh individuals to be housed or participate in groups based on the gender identity that they have.

Um what was the second part of that?

Did that answer your question?

Um the second part was have there been any steps to investigate or rectify these potential uh violations?

I'm not aware of any specific violation that wouldn't have been addressed.

I mean, there's a there's a grievance process, there's a residence council, people can write a riven written grievance.

There's different levels.

I have a very open-door policy.

So if someone has an issue, they can come and talk to me and we re-resolve it.

So if someone has a complaint and they're going to be talking to their case manager, the assistant facility director or me, we're gonna do what we we can to resolve it.

If it's a kind of system-wide, they usually bring it up at a resident council and then we make steps to resolve those those issues.

In the last year, how many residents have been returned to prison for rule violations at 11 Taylor?

I don't have that data.

Um I don't have that data in front of me.

Off the top of your head, do you have an estimate?

In the last year, um in 2025 or in the last full year.

Uh last full year.

Full year.

If I was to, this is a I'm guessing maybe 20, 25 people, possibly.

Um multiple city departments have opened complaints against this site from planning to public health, fire fire department.

Sorry, my question was have any departments opened complaints?

Um there has been a series of complaints that have been filed in the last like six months or so, and everyone that I know is either in the process of being resolved or has been resolved.

So the health department was called not too long ago and they came out and they had zero violations that they found.

The fire department came out based on a call complaint.

They had the issues that we talked about.

There's one outstanding, one outstanding permit that we're working on completing.

And I don't think that I have any other outstanding complaints.

But if a complaint is filed, then we respond to it immediately.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll be calling you back up in a little bit, but we wanted to next hear from community testimony.

Um Chairfielder mentioned the case of Melvin Belowan.

I'd like to start by calling Andrew Balowan to the testimony.

Supervisors, member of the public, and everyone here today.

My name is Andrew, and I'm the eldest son of Melvin Bulawan.

I've spent the last four months trying to find the words for what happened to my dad.

But there are no words that can capture the sound of his voice that night.

No words for the fear in it.

No words for the silence that followed.

On July 13th, my father called us a few days after being transferred from a state hospital to the private facility at 111 Taylor Street, run by Geo Group.

I'm scared.

I'd rather go back to jail than stay here.

He was gasping for breath.

He sounded like a man cornered, like someone drowning.

I called the facility three times, begging for a wellness check.

And three times they hung up on me before I could even complete a sentence.

The next morning, my father was found dead on the sidewalk near the building.

He died alone on the pavement, a block from where he said he was too afraid to sleep.

That call plays in my head every night.

The helplessness.

A system that hands over care to a private prison company that profits when people fail.

A system that calls punishment treatment and calls trauma transition.

That's not rehabilitation.

That's neglect.

And we are asking this board, this most venerable body here present.

To do what Geo Group will not.

To tell the truth about what happened, to demand accountability, and to end geo group's operation so no other family has to live what we've lived.

We need oversight.

We cannot rely on Geo Group to self-report.

We need transparency.

We need public programs that are grounded in care, not control.

Programs that affirm dignity, not compliance, that treat mental health and reentry as community responsibilities and not business opportunities.

My father's death should not have been possible.

He should have had case managers trained in trauma care.

He should have been in a place with licensed staff, not guards, and he should have had safe housing, not a corporate halfway house.

These are not the values of San Francisco.

He should have had a path home.

Instead, we got a phone call saying he was gone.

My father died in Geo Group's custody on his birthday, and his probation officer was not aware.

One would like to imagine that there would have been a response from Geo Group, but we were ignored.

And since that night, my sisters and I have been trying to rebuild some sense of peace.

But peace requires justice.

It requires this city to face what's happening behind those walls.

111 Taylor Street is not a home.

It is a carceral site operating under a false name.

It should not exist in a city that claims to value second chances.

When community takes the place of cages and curfews, and when love takes the place of fear.

And that is what our family wants to see at 111 Taylor.

Not another private contractor.

Not another cycle of harm, a place for healing, for care, and for people who have been through what my dad went through.

I want my father's story to matter.

And I want this city to say that Melvin Bulawan's life was worth more than a profit margin.

That his death means something, and that we will not keep outsourcing our responsibility to corporations whose business is suffering.

Our families deserve better.

San Francisco deserves better, and my father deserved better.

Let's make sure no one else has to say those words again.

Thank you.

From your perspective, you describe how your father suffered from mental illness and several different conditions.

Why do you think uh your father who had those conditions was transferred to a facility that we heard earlier lacked any ability to support him medically on that facility?

And were you given an explanation as to why?

For my recollection, I think it was just a matter of expediency.

They wanted to move him from Atascadero and into a facility and community as quickly as possible.

I consulted with Atascadero on a couple of occasions and said dad isn't ready.

Um I hadn't done my research on 11 Taylor Street at the time, but I also know that with the geographic area and the issues that the area struggles from, it wouldn't have been a good fit for him.

I advocated, my sister advocated that it would be in his best interest not to be in San Francisco, and those concerns were ultimately cast aside, and he was placed there regardless of our um consultation.

Sorry to hear that.

Um you noted how the probation officer was never notified of his of his passing.

Um were you or your family ever notified whether or not your your father had even been potentially discharged from the facility prior to his death?

No.

Good night.

We got we got the call from the San Francisco medical examiner's office, and that was the first time we learned that he had passed.

No, before then I'm sorry, I'm the mom of Melvin Bulhawa.

My name is Amelia Miguel, and I'm here to stand in front of you guys.

I don't know what to say, I don't know to think.

Because all these people who's helping us right now, or the justice of my son.

I'm not here to say anything bad or anything wrong that happened to my son.

But the thing that I'm here right now, that no one, no one else, again a mom that's standing like you in front of you right now.

I've been crying, not sleeping, since my son passed away because the day before he passed away, he called us that mom I want to go out to this place because I'd rather go back to jail.

And but I told him, and that be strong.

It's only one day we will see it's other because it's your birthday.

I said to him, okay, I'll try, mom.

But we are on three way with my grandkids.

That he's really they are giving him a medication that he don't like.

That's what he's always telling me.

No, you have your medication.

No, mom, I'm you know that when I was in atascadero, I don't I already avoid drink any medication because I know I can handle it now.

I'm strong.

I'm strong with my kids because my kids are already graduating her colleagues.

And you mom, I I'm sorry.

The last day that he would talk in Atastadana, I said I'm sorry, mom.

I'm going to do this in the right way now.

I hope I have a place that they are going to put me in a place that I can go with my kids now.

And now after the day that I talked to him, they told me that he's already in the street, passing away, and in that place that he's supposed to be same.

It's not in the place that he was to be.

Same when he was there, but is not this math, his math is not.

Only one I asked today.

I know my son is not in good health, but I know that place.

I thought that place is already the place that is going away back to that kid to his kids.

Because every time that we talk, every night I'm talking to him.

Mommy, I'm I'm sorry.

I am already going to do everything.

I'm not going to do any stupid anymore, mom.

I love you, mommy.

I love my face.

But now what happened?

No supports now, no more.

It's good.

Because of the neglecting.

Now I heard everything that this one eleven.

I think this was I'm already relief.

That it's happened this to my son because of this place.

They opened you guys open this case to my because of my son.

I hope all this problem in this 11 Taylor, it will be resolved because of my son.

Because of the death of my son, it's not going to in vain.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for helping us.

All the people who are helping us now.

I'm not standing there.

If not them and all of you in San Francisco.

My son grew up in San Francisco.

I work in San Francisco.

And I work in a big company in San Francisco.

We love San Francisco.

I hope this San Francisco will go back this game the way we are here when my son is growing up.

Thank you.

So sorry for your loss.

There's a lot of pain here, and we're here to hear more.

And get my answers for you as well.

So sorry.

Um I want to call up Geo Group to respond to some of the things we just concerned about, please.

Maria, please.

We heard from the family that they were not notified of either his potential discharge or that he had passed away.

And that neither the probation officer was notified either.

Why were those?

Why were they not notified either of those parties?

So I'm just gonna reiterate we're not um we're not able to comment on the specifics of an individual case.

If you have a question around general policies and procedures, um we what is the time frame of the general policy procedure by which you would communicate death of someone who is staying at your facility to either the probation officer or to a family member?

If there was a situation where there was a death at the facility, we would immediately contact the probation officer.

San Francisco coroners policy is that they contact the family.

We don't contact the family if a death occurred at our facility.

Why was the probation officer in this case not notified them?

So I can't talk specifically about this case, but like I said, if it had happened at the facility, we have a specific protocol.

So even though he was right outside the facility, as my understanding, the corner's report, you don't notify anyone in that context.

I'm supervisor.

You know, we're not gonna talk about the specific case in your office told us that we weren't gonna get into this issue, and you're doing it nevertheless.

We just we can talk about generalities, but we cannot talk about this particular case.

Okay.

Um the you noted how.

So we get that information directly from either parole or probation, whether the individual is on meds and when they come in and do an intake.

If they come in with medication, then we determine whether it's medication that they take and they hold themselves.

As I said earlier, if it is like a psychotropic medication or a narcotic, that we hold that in the um monitor station, and that we ensure that that person or verify that that person is taking their medication on a daily basis.

So do you regularly accept individuals with mental health care despite not having any medical staff or mental health care to provide them at your facility?

We do care for people with medical and mental health issues, and those services are all treated outside of our facility, yes.

Do you feel it's sufficient to treat or hold individuals at your facility if you're not providing them with the care they need to get better?

Absolutely, and if a situation comes up that that person needs a higher level of care, then we will consult with either the Bureau of Prison's probation, pretrial, or CDCR that that individual needs a higher level of care based on either a medical or a mental health ability.

There's many many people that have mental health challenges that don't need to be in a higher level facility.

But if we determine that that is the case, then yeah, we will do that too.

And in this, in the case of someone, again, speaking theoretically, who has bipolar disorder, um, a severe other set of mental indications, you felt that that that type of condition was so was appropriate to stay at your facility.

Despite not having medical care.

Any individual as we said, but if someone is being placed at our um location, that that usually has been vetted, and the parole agent or probation officer, pretrial Federal Bureau of Prisons is aware of what their needs are, and then would be placing them at our facility because of the level of care that they think that they need at our at our facility.

If it's above that, then that would be discussed with the with the parole agent or the institution would be able to give a recommendation as to what level of care someone needs when they're coming out.

But normally they wouldn't send us someone that would need a high higher level of care than at our facility, and like I said, if that's determined, then we work with them to find uh either higher level of medical or mental health program.

So that's all my questions for now.

Uh next we can call up Janetta Johnson.

Good day, board of supervisors, communities.

I um I speak as a black trans woman, the daughter of uh uh the legendary Miss Major, who is also known as Mama Major, who recently passed October the 13, who worked in this city and county for over 13 years supporting the trans community.

I speak from my live experience at 11 Taylor and the call, um call for truth and accountability and repair, and my condolences to Melvin's family and all the experiences they're going through.

This is a pattern of harm, not just an isolated event.

Our community deserves safety and dignity.

I was there in 2012 under uh federal early release.

Um high financial burden.

I don't know if that's changed, but there is a program fee for the uh people that are in there under the federal part of the institution, and it's generally unless it's changed 35 to 45% of your income.

That was my experience, and I had an entry-level position, which I couldn't afford to do anything, not even buy food because I was only making working 20 hours a week.

But um, and also it is a prison.

You get pat-down searches, breathalyzers, and surveillance and probation checks in check-ins.

You're often caught a prisoner or inmate, um, which is not very conducive.

It was not very conducive to my recovery and my, you know, trying to change and present myself in a in a different way.

Um, the emotional harm that is being treated as property, not as a person or a human being.

The conditions daily, the food is disgusting.

I'm telling you, and I spoke with the the food company, they are very much aware that they are serving people that are in prison, and they made it perfectly clear that they had no regards and that is what we deserve because we were in custody.

Um sometimes strip searches by men, um, the psychological impact that people are asking to go back to prison.

A lot of people opted to go back to prison because of the way that they were treated and disrespected and not regarded as human, more so coming into another space where they're being treated as an inmate.

And I also want to lift up Anya Street story and the quote her words about pregnant women and under federal custody, would come to geocare to give birth and be sent back to prison.

And I also wanted to, last time we had this convening, I had sort of kind of briefly mentioned to the director of geocare that I had an experience when I was in custody there.

And um, and she said she didn't know, but because I didn't talk about it, because generally when trans people report any type of abuse, it's usually they're put in the shoe or some type of combined space, which is called their protection, but you're not you're not in a place where you're protected because generally they put you in other situations, and also I had just talked to one of my friends who was also there, and neither one of us had had a conversation or disclose, but she was also essayed by the same staff person that was there.

Someone got attacked at geo care groups by the by a staff person of Will Gomez, and it is a litch, um, but trying to get their work closed from the dryer.

Someone got kicked out complaining about their how the food is handled.

It's very often if you complain about anything, there is retaliation and there is warning that you know we can easily just send you back.

The vision for 1-11 Taylor and what it could be, um, studio apartments and one-bedroom apartments for um people with mental health issues with mental health providers on staff, not a prison wellness floor specifically for people that have mental health issues and wellness issues, so they can be completely supported within that, and um also a clinic with inclusive site of inclusive medical care.

I saw the rooms, I stayed in the rooms, and also I wanted to name that a lot of things aren't truthful that was said specifically at nighttime at 11 o'clock, there is a shift where the people that are living in geo care get up and do all the floors throughout the whole place.

Nobody comes in do that.

The people that are inside the facility, there's somebody that washes clothes all night.

There's always work that you have to do, and upon coming into the facility for the first few weeks, you have to do laundry, you have to take a shift of cleaning up and all these different things.

And also um home monitoring, people can go to home monitoring, but the price of home monitoring is so expensive that nobody can afford it, especially if you're a person that is housed under the federal um situation, and um also they distribute the medications at night.

You get certain medications that you keep that are over the pretty much over the counter, but they distribute the medications at night.

You can't just you you have to go and they will put your medicines in a cup, and then you take your medicine from what they give you.

Um, yeah.

And also, of course, people are gonna come up and advocate for geocare because after spending X amount of time in the prison industrial complex, it's just like people still live with the mental health and the mental experiences that they've had within the prison system, and there's a fear and anxiety that people experience that they don't speak up.

And if they do speak up, it's because of fear, and they just have some concerns about repercussions.

And I'm not saying that it happens to everybody, but it happens.

And also, a lot of people have said, take me back to prison.

I'm not going to be here and treat it like this.

I didn't expect this.

I came here for reentry.

I didn't come here to be have correctional officers, which they're not officially correctional officers, but I think everybody in the prison industrial complex that are part of that system, they get their, um, they get their punishment out of you in different ways, and specifically case management.

There's always a constant threat to go back to prison.

And it's just, I just feel like the um the system should be dismantled, and we should provide better opportunity for communities and just um create a better space, specifically in the tender lawn, and not even bringing people back in the tender lawn, just dismantle the whole system, specifically coming out of prison.

I also have a re-entry social economic justice program, and I was motivated by my bad experience and the mistreatment.

And we at the Miss Major Alexander L Lee, T G I JP Black Transcultural Center, based on my experience, we created a uh reentry program where we support people in getting into permanent housing.

We support them by offering them a subsidy coming into the city to subsidize their housing.

We provide wellness services, we provide case management.

We also um continue to correspond with people that are currently in custody, specifically the trans GNC non-binary communities, so that they can come into a setting where there's a surrogate family, and there's a huge support system to support people transitioning out, and I feel like it's been a lot better and a lot more impactful with housing people in permanent housing because you can't get out and have a family, and you can't contribute financially to that family.

Just imagine a partner coming home where there's kids in the family and they go into this reentry program where they don't generate an income, or where they're charging you 35 um 35 dollars.

I mean, they charging you 35% of your income, and you have to transition out of that.

It just puts people in a compromising position.

Also, some people are fortunate.

They get out and they just go to work and they get two jobs, three jobs, anything to stay away from the facility, but that doesn't leave time for their discovery, their recovery opportunity, and that is the alternative that people take so just to survive the trauma and the experience that they had within that particular system.

Thank you, Janetta.

I appreciate it.

Uh, thank you for sharing.

Yeah, Janetta.

Thank you for sharing your experience and how to improve the system as well.

Um, would anyone from Geo Group care to respond to any of the um testimony given?

Okay, so in particular, I just want to highlight the field of reentry is a constantly evolving thing.

Um the um what was discussed around subsistence and having to pay subsistence was a Bureau of Prisons policy.

That policy is no longer in effect.

Um, all wages earned by participants go back to participants.

There is no fee for the program, and the same thing on home confinement.

There is no price for home confinement.

Thank you.

Um, to close out our testimony, I'd like to invite human rights activist Quinn Dior to the stand.

Chair Fielder, Supervisors Sauter and Mahmood, Cleric, neighbors, siblings.

My name is Quindy Orr.

I speak on behalf of the Compton's Coalition who seeks to protect the integrity of the historic site of queer resistance.

I speak after hearing from the family of Melvin Bulawan.

I honor them first.

We seek justice for Melvin Bulawan.

On July 14, 2025, Melvin told his son he was anxious and scared.

He said he would rather go back to jail than stay at 111 Taylor.

The next day, he was gone.

That is the truth we must face.

A man under the care of a city partner told his child he felt unsafe here.

He did not survive.

You have heard the agencies, you have heard Geo Group, you have heard from Ms.

Janetta Johnson, you have heard the family.

Now, hear the pattern.

People at 111 Taylor are searched at the door.

They blow into the breathalyzer every night, every time they return.

Staff do pat downs, staff search property, staff enter rooms at night.

People line up to enter and are required passes to leave.

Curfews keep people under control.

Probation officers move through the building at will.

People who finish their time still live under custody of the state and federal government and geo groups' carceral practices.

This is not re-entry.

This is incarceration by contract.

Kitchen access is prohibited.

People report spoiled meals and food poisoning outbreaks.

People report maggots, mold, and frozen food being served by people without food safety certificates.

Those staff members call them inmates.

This is negligence and psychological terror branded as care.

A trash suit, a trash shoot, fire force and evacuation.

Elevators break.

People with mobility needs get stranded upstairs.

Sewage leaks, mold, unlicensed electrical work, missing fire alarm upgrades.

You have the records.

While formerly incarcerated people, they have the scars.

Staff blocked them from using the elevator with other women.

Staff misgendered them and sexually assaulted many.

One woman had to defend her dignity on the Compton's corner itself, in the heart of the transgender district in a city that claims to protect us.

The people under federal parole tell you that they pay a large portion of their income to stay there.

People pay almost half their earnings to live in fear and eat unsafe food.

That is extraction, not support.

Listen to what people say when they leave.

Many people choose to return to prison rather than remain at 111 Taylor.

Not because prison is humane, but because this facility is that harmful.

Now stand picture in place.

Remember what this corner means.

In 1966, trans women and queer folks were brutalized for being visible here.

They fought back at Compton's cafeteria.

They said enough.

They claimed those streets.

That spirit lives there.

It is not a slogan, it is a duty.

The same building now houses a program run by Geo Group, the largest private prison corporation and top ice contractor.

Geo profits when beds are full.

Geo profits when control is tight.

Geo profits when services are minimal and costs are low.

Geo's model is custody first, care last.

Call a thing a thing, a for-profit, carceral institution operating at the birthplace of trans resistance, a program that failed Melvin, a program that has failed many others who told you with plain words that they were afraid.

Today is not only about outrage, it is about action.

Here's what must happen now.

The city must subpoena a geo group to immediately release all relevant records, including incident reports, PRIA audits, corrective plans, and inspection results.

There needs to be on-site verification by various city departments, including the fire department, building inspection, public health, adult probation, and the city's attorney's office with a public report of findings.

Third, there need to be an enforcement if actions uh excuse me.

There needs to be enforcement actions if violations are confirmed.

Fourth, there needs to be a transition plan for GEO's exit from 111 Taylor Street.

Oversight and funding must be transferred to community-based organizations that provide real re-entry and housing support.

And during that transition, all impacted residents need to be protected.

111 Taylor Street is not a legitimate reentry program.

It is a privately run carceral facility operating illegally under group housing zoning at a historic site.

Geo group's continued operation represents legal noncompliance, human rights abuse, and a betrayal of public trust.

The city must act to remove Geo Group, revoke its zoning status, and ensure this building serves the community.

It is harmed for too long.

We are not asking to close transitional housing.

We are asking to close a private prison in disguise.

Thank you, Quinn.

I just had a couple questions.

If you have a couple minutes.

Thank you.

My name is Wilder Zeiser, and uh the Competence Coalition has been conducting a series of surveys uh at the site for under one year, and on record we have a total of um, I believe we have five survey results of people who are submitted information that are willing to be named.

And we have a lot of uh survey results that from folks who per, you know, prefer to remain unnamed due to fear of retaliation by will goodness.

Can you quantify the not going to the details of them on it?

Yeah, for sure.

Thank you.

Um those that you're able to share, um, is it true that you spoke to individuals that are afraid to speak out and fear retribution, as we heard from the public defender's office as well?

Yes, supervisor.

In fact, on July 16th, everyone's phones inside of the facility were confiscated after the Board of Appeals hearing.

Um that was one report we got.

Understood.

Um, in addition to that, what are any most surprising findings you found from your work?

What I see is a pattern of abuse from Geo Group onto the formerly incarcerated people at 111 Taylor.

Um, some of the most shocking things are pretty consistent reports of sexual violence from staff members onto formally incarcerated people.

There's also a record of um a lot of trash pile-up and fires, insects, gnats, no heat or water uh hot water on certain floors, um, and and uh like food food poisoning outbreaks at the facility as well.

Understood.

Um thank you for answering those questions.

Uh geo group, would anyone like to respond to any of the uh testimony presented?

Um I think we've we've talked quite a bit um about the processes that we have in place to capture incidents, um, to respond to allegations.

Um, you know, we work with independent um pre-auditing, we have um mechanisms in place for that piece.

Um we welcome the food depart the health department in if there's concerns about our food quality.

We have robust policies in place to monitor food quality as it is, and it's these are these are things that we actively work day in and day out to prevent, and we have mechanisms in place to report the grievances.

Um we can't comment to survey data that we're not receiving, and we can't make changes to feedback that we're not able to to get or or to actualize a response on.

So did you confiscate all the all the residents' phones after the Board of Appeals hearing, I think?

Um there was no uh phone confiscation, confiscation facility-wise, yeah.

We did not confiscate people's phones after the the hearing that's not a statement no I mean we did we we do search people's phones that is part of the requirement that we have to search a phone and as the chief of pretrial said there are people there that have restrictions they're not allowed to have internet access and we do make sure that we're following along with that um but no we didn't confiscate any telephones based on any type of complaint that somebody made would not do that.

Here I return to you.

Thank you so much and those are all of our presentations all right um first off I just want to thank um the family of Melbourne for coming um thank you so much to the mother for coming and I'm so sorry you have had to come here multiple times to um share the story of your father's tragic passing and your sons but we very much appreciate you and I also do hope that this is the very last incident at 11 Taylor again I am so sorry for your loss and nothing will replace his memory but I hope it is a blessing and thank you so much for coming.

I want to thank Supervisor Mahmoud for bringing this important hearing to this committee I want to thank the city departments who presented today and all the community advocates who spoke as well thank you for tirelessly working to eliminate the conditions of 11 Taylor Street and to hold geo group accountable and demand answers about what's happening inside this facility I have serious concerns about how 11 Taylor Street is being operated we've heard about punitive treatment of residents who are no longer incarcerated and are supposed to be in transitional housing we've heard about discrimination against trans residents a shame that considering this is the site of an LGBTQ historical landmark Compton's cafeteria we've also heard about unresolved sexual assault cases by staff we've heard at length about the poor living conditions at the site itself and clearly the lack of communication about um what happens when things go wrong and each of these questions deserve answers on their own but also compel us to confront deeper questions of what re-entry and recovery actually mean so thank you once again to Supervisor Mahmoud uh for calling this hearing so that we can ask these crucial questions um I want to also acknowledge again the community advocates who have come out uh for speaking today and seeing the number of people that are probably gonna give public comment I unfortunately will be limiting public comment to one minute so that everyone will have a chance to speak on the issue.

For those who are here to read a written testimony on behalf of another person you'll be allowed um one additional minute in addition to your own comment madam clerk let's take public comment.

Yes um members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up now along the side by the windows all speakers will have one minute um a couple of special notes uh we do have a board will against audible applause or vocal expression of support or opposition if you like what like what you hear thumbs up or a poll thumbs down and finally by special arrangement we have a remote caller for public comment we'll hear from that caller first can we please be connected to the caller for the first two minutes the first one minute excuse me of public comment sorry excuse me before we begin um our deputy city attorney has noted that we actually cannot have uh an extra minute for someone delivering testimony on behalf of someone else who's not here so unfortunately everyone will be limited to one minute okay ADA caller you can begin your comments.

ADA caller, you can begin your comments.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

This is Delphine Brody with Conference Coalition.

Even while holding the money of people incarcerated in 111 Taylor Street facility, the geo group forces them to do untreated labor, subjects them to routine headcounts, cut downs, surveillance, and owner of drug and alcohol testing, constantly threatens them with parole or probation violation and being sent back to prison.

On top of these and many other intolerable conditions, do you also prevent people in custody from equipment the building unaided, even in the event of a fire, a major earthquake, or another emergency?

Obstructing self-preservation in violation of building code requirements.

Honestly so much all your comments.

Thank you so much for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

My name is Walder Zeiser, and I'm speaking on behalf of an indigenous elder.

Honorable Chair Fielder and esteemed supervisors.

Thank you for hearing my words.

I am Marcus Serona, also called holy old man bull.

I am Mustan Aloney and Blackfeet, and I'm trans masculine two spirit elder.

As such, I hope that my words carry some weight in your considerations.

I worked for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission from 2000 to 2010 as a discrimination investigator, contract compliance officer, and I'm basing my concerns about geography's operations at 111 Taylor Street for a number of reasons.

They have numerous allegations of civil rights violations.

They have numerous city code violations, zoning fires, food safety, human rights.

You'll hear from a grieving family of lost concern.

They operated at an ICE facility on Tahama Street in a sanctuary city.

And they seem to have a disregard toward warnings, or citation, simply put, I believe GeoGroup is acting with a sense of impunity, disregard to human safety.

San Francisco did the right thing.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

He'd get back to Geo Group at 11 o'clock at night.

The food to have been set out at 5 o'clock for dinner.

That was his only choice.

That's an example.

This idea of voluntary, you do everything you can to get into halfway house because you get between six months and a year and a half off your sentence.

You get home to your family quicker if you get into halfway house.

It's not voluntary put in the context of that reality.

Finally, if the standard of carceral is that you're not manhandled, that's a problem.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Soshi Dill.

Um I am an immigration paralegal.

Um, and I wanted to come and comment on the um things that I had heard.

Um, they uh geo group um at one eleven tailor has specific required phones in order to be uh uh um they have specifically uh branded partnered phones that they require residents to purchase in order to have access to a phone, which means they are then limiting freedom of full speech.

Um they also harm immigrants just like ICE.

Um Melvin's mother.

Her reality is the reality for thousands and thousands of individuals like her and her family who immigrated here, and who now have to profess their commitment to San Francisco as a city to receive help.

SF is where change has the power to set precedent.

I'm from a small town in the Central Valley.

There is no change that's gonna happen here or happen there that isn't going to start.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

I'll be giving a statement on behalf of Dakota Rose.

I remember being hungry, not allowed to cook for myself.

We were handed spoiled food from people who called us in maids, people without safe hand food handler certifications.

If I got thick, I'd be told to drink water.

Nobody's allowed to take pictures or speak up about the facility under threat of write-up retaliation and physical violence.

The staff reference people up on the regular like that.

I got kicked out after complaining about how they handled my food after they threw it on the ground and mocked me.

I watched male guards on their enter a woman's spaces without a notice on the regular.

I watched staff purchase stolen items, so drugs and organized sex work.

We were all forced into unpaid labor.

We people would not get people would get sent back to jail.

We had to give GEO group nearly every dime we earned to stay there.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Alex Tombs.

I'm a district five resident.

Thank you for organizing this uh hearing here today.

I just want to echo what everybody else has said.

Obviously, the litany of allegations against geo group are very alarming.

We had their negligence lead to the death of Melbourne Blowen.

We heard from Ms.

Pamley earlier, and we cannot allow the treatment like that to continue for anybody, whether they are resident there today, someone who could be headed there tomorrow.

I just want to say that something that is uh an historic queer site like 11 Taylor Street, having this sort of continuance of abuses happen there is especially uh something that doesn't sit well with me.

So, anyways, I yield the rest of my time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hello, my name is Tess Gibbs.

I'm going to read a comment from a friend of mine.

Her name is Simone.

She's a trans woman who stayed at 11 Taylor for multiple years around 2012.

She says during my stay at GEO after being released from prison was not what I imagined.

First, the food was terrible, and the monitors who worked there were even worse.

The food was disgusting, cold, worse than prison food, and sometimes ran out before you could get any.

It was so bad the others and myself would normally have to buy meals out just to eat, forcing us to spend way too much just to get an edible meal.

There was a monitor who would come into account and without knocking on my door, would open my door and had exposed himself to me while I was in the room alone.

As a trans woman, I was housed in the men's section on the second floor with no visibility in a room in the back hallway, no cameras near my room or the hallways.

He was supposedly checking to make sure I'm okay.

He did this repeatedly to me, as well as to other trans women I know.

Being released from prison and coming to a place where you think there is structure to help you get back into society.

This is not what I imagined.

It was a nightmare.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Monitors, not guards.

Disrespectful, have to fill out passes to your job, medical appointments, and whatnot.

Some of the time we would get lost in the process, and they would have us do it weeks in advance to have these appointments and everything else, and they tend to be lost.

My medication, life sustaining medication was given to other people that has similar, so I would run out faster.

And I had to go to an emergency in order to go to that emergency.

I had to fill out a pass in order to go to an emergency, and I had to get myself there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Nick.

I'm a resident of SF and a member of Critical Resistance.

The dealt of Mevin Bulan and every other death in Geo Group, BOP, CDCR, and our county jails are always preventable.

11 Taylor sits at the intersection of the BOP and CDR's culture of negligence and dehumanization, and geo groups' institutional greed and exploitation.

Prisoners are caught in this web of hell.

Currently in Sacramento organization, many more throughout California are working with legislators to cut CDCR's bloated budget by closing prisons and reinvesting in community-based programs of support in San Francisco.

Should be part of this movement too.

Also, as a sanctuary city, we should not allow GEO to operate in our city at all.

It's time to give Eleven Taylor back to community and make it a place of love and hope for our trans family and to the tenderloin as a whole.

Justice for Mel Melbourne Bulan and all those who have died in cages.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, I'm G.

I'm a genderqueer, and I'm speaking on behalf of my community, and I'll keep this to the point.

We shouldn't even be having to defend and speak out against this.

Keeping one-eleven tailor is a passive aggressive F you to my siblings, especially my trans BIPOC siblings impact at the most, who are on the front lines for liberation for us all.

Here's a statement from someone currently staying at 11 Taylor.

No hot water on the fourth floor.

Meals suck, and they're getting paid 500 a week for one person.

They bust your room 10 pm, 1 a.m., 4 a.m.

If you're trying to get people out of the carceral mindset, even though I'm free, I feel like I'm still locked up.

John Doe.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

My name is Ronica McLean, and I am a representative of the Ms.

Major and Alexander L.

Lee Black TJ T G IJP Black Transcultural Center.

Part of our mission is to end the human rights abuses inflicted on our communities by the prison industrial complex, of which Geo Group is an extension in the facility of 11 Taylor.

It's up to the city to hold them accountable for the human rights abuses and neglect.

Excuse me, at 11 Taylor.

This is a historic site of trans resistance that is now desecrated by Geo Group and has been described as just an extension of a prison and not a reentry center.

And there must be a full public report on what failed Melvin and an apology and reproduction for his family.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

It's no coincidence that Geo Group's uh is ICE, J Group is ICE's number one contractor for the concentration camps that ICE is filling with abducted people.

It's no coincidence that the same contractors in charge of harboring such inhumane abuses and torture across America is doing the same thing at their reentry center at 111 Taylor in a tenderloin.

However, the fact that Geo Group can do this in San Francisco without impunity, can do this unchecked, makes you, San Francisco government's collaborators in this human misery and murder.

We try when we tried to retract Geo Group's LOD at the Board of Appeals.

Why wasn't it a conflict of interest that the chair had been an Obama appointee as the principal legal advisor to ICE?

Why was he allowed to vote on whether ICE's number one contractor could continue their inhumane operations at 111 Taylor?

I said during that meeting that the board at the Board of Appeals that were making that they were making life and death decisions.

Little did any of us know that Melvin had died that same week.

That is so goddamn fucked up.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, I am Pia Le Toil Goga.

I am 22 years old and uh a lifelong resident of San Francisco.

What has happened at our historic trans Compton's cafeteria thickens me and should sicken all of you.

And especially you at Geo Group.

You have blood on your hands.

You have Melvin's blood on your hands, and you have the guilt of all the people who have been hurt and suffered at your facility.

Please, it is your obligation as human beings, not just elected officials and representatives of our people.

You must do something to stop this inhumanity.

I uh the city of San Francisco has blood on its hands for supporting this and the injustice that has existed in our city since the Spaniards landed here, and you are the same kind of people that took Native Americans and enslaved them in the mission system.

The same kind of thank you for your comments.

Justification.

Next speaker, please.

My name is Stevie Miller.

I spoke last time.

I was just left in March from uh Geo, and they literally did everything they could to prevent me from getting work.

They didn't help me find housing, they didn't help.

I did all that on my own.

I now work as a program monitor for sorts of plowshares, and we don't do a single thing that they do as a monitors.

And then also, too.

They literally, Maria flat out denied me using my medical past.

I had a doctor's note that I needed to go out for every to do every day for two hours to walk because my mental health was getting worse.

And she said that said, you don't need to do that.

The walking to and from your passes, that's good enough.

I got so bad that I had multiple breakdowns in the lobby, and I cut myself 2400 times.

Didn't even really react to that either.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

My name is Chandra Laborde.

I was the appellant of the Board of Appeals this summer, requesting the revocation of the letter of the termination that grants geo group every couple of years, so the zoning administrator gives it so they can renew the contract.

Both of them have acknowledged that the letter uh is a great area.

For 20 years, they have self-reported their operations with no investigation or oversight.

And it seems like over time the use of the building has been intensified.

This facility is not functioning as a transitional housing.

It is detention.

Why is this happening in an SRO in the tenderloin?

The Board of Appeals directed us to bring this to the supervisors.

I'm asking you to change the current definition of group housing in the planning code.

Since as it is now, it is allowing a private prison funded by our tax dollars to continue operating.

People who have completed their sentences should be free to come and go.

They should not be left to die on the sidewalk with no medical support.

This is not rehabilitation, which is what they're supposedly doing under AB 32, which has banned new contracts with private prisons in California.

Please file a resolution to remove geo.

Geo out of the bay.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

I am hopping fucking mad that Geo Group who runs immigrant concentration camps is still fucking allowed to operate in this city.

I am angry that people are dying there.

Rest in peace, Melbourne, the conditions within, and it occupies a space of trans resistance.

11 Taylor needs to be shut the fuck down.

These geo shitheads should be in jail and the space given back to trans community and create real healing spaces, whatever that might be.

Finally, I need to point out an inconvenient truth that the geo group is profiting off the same exact fucking policies that Supervisor Mahmood supports, like gentrification, destroying housing for a space for the salvation army, and relitigating the drug war, which will create more incarceration.

He's a fake pink washer and should buddy yourself.

I yield my time.

Fuck you.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, supervisors.

My name is Dr.

Dan Cabella.

I'm a resident of Tenderline and a member of Compton's coalition.

I come from a justice-impacted family.

Like Melvin's family, I also lost a father to the carceral management of his life.

When a family is telling you they are grieving, they are also telling you that something in the system has failed them.

I hope that truth rests on your ears after hearing their testimony today.

Thank you to everyone who is gathered here to demand justice for those most impacted by Geo Group at 11 Taylor because this is about life.

Ruth Wilmer Gilson reminds us that where life is precious, life is precious.

The where matters.

It calls us to build the structures that make life possible.

Resources, care, and collective power.

The where is created through struggle and through community, not granted through corporations like Geogroup, who profit from the slow violence of abandonment, where suffering itself becomes a resource to be extracted and controlled.

Melvin Boulon's life mattered, and the conditions that led to his death demand accountability and change.

If GEO truly welcomes oversight, as repeatedly said today, then the board must take them up with an invitation.

Not as a gesture of goodwill, but as a mandate for accountability and justice.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, Board of Supervisors.

My name is Nelson.

I'm a San Francisco educator, and I come from a justice-impacted family.

I'd like to take the time to again emphasize the discrepancy in what the SF planning department calls group housing.

I think after being here today, we can all clearly see that this building is being used as detention, not housing.

Yet the group housing label still stands.

Why?

It's to shirk legal accountability.

This is more than a semantic detail.

It shields Geo group from accountability and creates a major block to public review.

There is a complete lack of resources needed to support re-entry.

And personally, I'm very tired of hearing Geo's shameful excuses for how our taxpayer funds are being wasted in a cruel, dangerous and carceral program.

This is not the future I want for the children of San Francisco.

We can do better and we need to do better.

I implore you, Board of Supervisors, to take this opportunity to reassess Geo Group's use of this facility.

This operation must be brought into the daylight to protect our community and ensure fairness, safety, and dignity for the residents.

Long live Melvin Belowin.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you for your time, supervisors.

Just to get to the point, my argument, or I guess my what I'm just trying to disabuse everyone is is that uh Taylor Street and GEO group are two different um entities.

Uh all the answers have been provided by uh management from Taylor Street, but not from GEO.

And I I say that's important because we also need to disabuse disabuse ourselves of the fact that um they're projecting a healthcare um I guess model, GEO care.

However, it's all its funds are coming from incarceration and detention uh agencies.

So I just want to separate the fact that GEO care is still managing um detention and rehabilitation, uh, but it's not being tracked by any of the health care uh data open data portals like the California Health and Human Services open data portal.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Um yeah.

Umber is um Capirucho Flores.

Sudan Maribosa um uh ciudad de um vivo in 420 calle Eri.

Aqui cerca del Saigon Chiquita.

Um apoyar el La Casa de La Honda Mitad, porque necessitamos.

Which is a good comments.

Next speaker, you'll live in the game.

Hello, board.

My name is Fletcher Janice.

I'm a queer transsexual seeking to separate the reach of the carcel controller in our sacred spaces.

Honor the legacy of one eleven tailor, heed the word to the trans woman immigrants who have survived the facility.

Mind the gaps and geo groups loved care that is allowed death, despair and preventable illness, blessings of the chronically ill, incentivize occupancy numbers or a threat to the health and well-being of every person in the building.

I will not beg for basics.

I want to wealth bring with support and connections.

Melvin deserved the world.

He said he was anxious and scared.

Those in crisis deserve the warm and brace community, not restrictions.

What is the protocol for someone unable to connect to the present moment under surveillance?

Can one truly move from stress to healing and growth?

No, this is allegedly a re-editing program, but it looks like an operation of elaborate dehumanizations.

Do not turn away from ADA noncompliance, abuse and neglect.

Heal the deep wounds.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Toshio Maronic.

Uh, I've lived in the tenderloin since 2013.

And uh I'm a journalist, and uh when you hear the people at 11 Taylor are not supposed to speak to the press, that is a huge concern.

That means that Geo Group probably has something to hide.

Um beyond that, knowing what we know about Geo Group, I do not believe that they are compatible with San Francisco values, and I think that um I'm happy to be here with community who seems to agree.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Hi, my name is uh Nemo.

I go by Mama Ganush, I'm a trans um uh local resident of District 8.

Um I it seems like we're all in we're all in alignment, like everybody here doesn't like Geo Group.

They manage Ice Attention Center in a time where ICE was gonna take over San Francisco.

It seems like Supervisor Mahmud, Jackie Fielder, I love you, and Supervisor Sophie, you all agree on this.

Uh I'm curious what would be like the right action plan, and if we could expedite the removal of Geo Group uh and this private prison from San Francisco.

That's just my request.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Uh let's see.

Uh hello, um, my name is um Boudel LaFleur, I am a concern citizen from Oakland, and I'm uh also um part of the trans and non-binary community.

I'm also an ancestral worker, and I feel a lot of herd regarding what has happened to Melvin and how his family has taken a lot of emotional and psychological impact when hearing the news of their of his passing and geo group needs to be held accountable for their actions and it just I it's just a lot to just feel and I yeah, that's really much about it.

So yeah, thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, my name is Ren Schaefer.

I moved to SF right before the beginning of COVID.

I'm a member of Indivisible.

I'm amazed Geo Group was awarded this contract, considering the conflict of interest.

I know Geo Group is a private prison operator and a degree of compensation that they get for each head in their prison beds.

Uh rivals uh most Americans' yearly wages.

We've heard about criminogenic treatment programs and diagrams, but pictures or videos might have been more helpful.

Maybe you should subpoena those.

The prohibition of speaking to media is a huge concern.

This speaks to a great degree of what I'm hearing.

That's geo group runs this place the same way they run their prisons.

Uh they have recently been awarded huge contracts by the existence regime to help coordinate the campaign of mass detention of immigrants that often sweeps up American citizens with no due process.

My opinion is that SF should move to divest immediately from this organization.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Hello, um, I'm Ken.

I just moved to the Bay Area.

I work for a TJIJP.

What an introduction to the Bay Area, I must say, I am completely floored by the blatant human rights violations, disregard for care, and frankly, greed that has corrupted your entire organization.

And the affront to do this at an LGBTQ historical site is honestly so despicable.

And regarding the medical care, uh just the fact that you said that you contract or outsource health support, don't have it on site, and yet people who need that specialized care are coming to stay there and are scared because they are being neglected is so cruel.

Also, regarding the prescriptions, who is determining what is critical and an emergency to constitute a pickup.

You mentioned that people can leave to pick up their prescription if you determine it's an emergency.

Clearly, you do not have any discernment in the matter of emergencies because your perspective is skewed by your bottom line to the point that you're letting people get assaulted and murdered, put people over profit, and please get the fuck out of San Francisco.

Someone has to say thank you for your comments.

Do we have any additional public commenters?

That concludes public comment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Seeing no one else making public comment.

Public comment is now closed.

And I will pass it off to Supervisor Von Hoon.

Thank you, Chair Fielder.

I want to thank everyone again who's come out today uh to speak.

I know reliving these experiences isn't easy and it can be traumatic.

So I truly appreciate your willingness to participate today to openly share your perspectives and your stories and to advocate for positive change.

I want to thank the family of Melvin Bilowan, son, mother for being here as well.

What we've heard today underscores deep concerns about health, safety, and civil rights at 11 Taylor.

My goal for moving forward is to ensure that no facility, public or private, operating under the banner of reentry or rehabilitation functions as a de facto detention center without proper oversight, accountability, and respect for human dignity.

We owe that to those looking for a second chance.

We owe that to those who've been in the facility's care, and we owe that to those trying to heal and just make it in another day in this world.

This hearing was just the start of a dialogue between multiple stakeholders on this issue and the community, but not everyone was here, and there's still more to learn.

So if I may, Chair Fielder, I'd like to motion to continue this item to the call of the chair.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Yes, and on that motion to continue this item to the call of the chair.

Vice Chair Sauter.

Aye.

Vice Chair Sauter.

Chair Filder?

Aye.

Chair Filder, I have three ayes with Member Shirle excused.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, please call items two through six.

Yes, items two through six are five ordinances authorizing an approving settlement, settlement of lawsuits against the city.

Seeing no one on the roster, Madam Clerk, let's open up public comment on these items.

Yes.

Members of the public who wish to speak on items two through six should line up now to speak alongside along the side by the windows.

All speakers will have two minutes.

Seeing no public commenters, public comment is closed.

I now move to send items two through six to the full board of supervisors with positive recommendation.

Yes, and on the motion to forward items two through six to the board with a positive recommendation.

Vice Chair Sauter.

Vice Chair Sauter.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Madam Clerk, is there any other business before us today?

That concludes our meeting agenda.

Seeing no other business, we are adjourned.