Good morning, everyone.

This meeting will come to order.

I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for Thursday, March 12th, 2026.

I'm Supervisor Matt Dorsey, Chair of this committee, and I'm joined today by fellow committee members, a Vice Chair Bilal Machmood, and Supervisor Alan Wong.

Together, we'd also like to welcome our colleague supervisors, colleagues, Supervisor Danny Sauter and uh Supervisor Merna Melgar, who are joining us.

Um our ever capable clerk today is Ms.

Monique Creighton, whom we thank for staffing us and keeping us on track today.

And as always, we want to express our appreciation to the entire team at SFGov TV for facilitating and broadcasting today's meeting, and especially our producer today, uh, Mr.

Eugene Labadia.

Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes.

Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices documents to include to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk.

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 to speak on your right.

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

First, you may email them to myself, the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee clerk at M O N I Q U E.

T-O-N at SFGOV.org.

Or you may 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 submit public comment in writing, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file on which you are commenting.

Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of March 24th, 2026, and let's otherwise state it.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Would you please call item number one?

Yes, item number one is an ordinance amending the administrative code to require the Department of Public Works to perform evaluations and report periodically on mechanical street sweeping operations, including submittal of written performance reports to the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor, amending the health code to revise and clarify clarify outdated terms concerning refuse receptacle requirements and authorize a process for the imposition of administrative fines and affirming the planning department's determination under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And as I mentioned, we are joined today by District 6 Supervisor Danny Sauter.

Supervisor Sauter is the sponsor of this first item, and I believe we have staff from the Department of Public Works to answer any questions following their presentation.

But for now, Supervisor Sauter.

Thank you, Dorsey.

Thank you, Chair Dorsey.

Thank you for having me in this committee this morning.

Colleagues, I want to share just a little bit about this what is before you.

The ordinance before you is the first piece of my legislative package, the Clean Streets Act, which is designed to improve the cleanliness of our streets and public spaces.

It contains changes to the administrative and health codes.

You can think of it as cleaning up our codes so that we can better clean up our streets.

First, on the administrative code changes.

We are proposing that the Department of Public Works submit a report on the city's mechanical street sweeping operations at least once every ten years.

This idea was a BLA recommendation from a October 2025 audit, which found that surprisingly, mechanical street sweeping in San Francisco is not currently evaluated to determine optimized route scheduling frequency and labor needs.

It also noted that routes have not fundamentally changed since the last optimization efforts in September 2008.

And I think we can do better than this.

And we are still stuck with that decision today.

There are many neighbors, many of my constituents who want this service.

So we are asking the Department of Public Works to consider certain metrics and present findings and recommendations on how they may improve the performance of street sweeping operations.

Some of these key metrics include number one, effectiveness and efficiency of mechanical street sweeping equipment.

Number two, estimated the average quantity of debris collected per block, season, mile or supervisor district.

And number three, number of requests and complaints from the public concerning street sweeping operations.

The deadline for this first report would be on March 31st, 2027.

To arrive at these particular performance metrics, we consulted with the department, and I see Ian Schneider here from Public Works.

Thank you for your work on this, Ian.

We wanted to make sure it would be feasible and realistic, but also productive to improve outcomes.

Second, our change in the health code, which proposes a clear layman's definition for the term putrescible, which I don't know about you, colleagues, but is not a term that I was particularly familiar with, and I don't think the average everyday resident or small business owner is either.

So we would uh define this term as it is used in healthcode section 283, which is where the city lays out the standard for properly storing and containerizing garbage for collection.

The proposed definition aligns with state law and will automatically incorporate future changes to the state law definition.

This category of waste deserves more attention because we are seeing incidence of dump food and other foul decaying matter on our public streets and sidewalk.

Um, colleagues, there is an amendment which I have circulated.

I would like to uh respectfully ask the committee to adopt one non-substantive amendment to section 283 before sending this file to the full board, which is as follows deleting subsection C, which you see on page six, lines two through five.

Uh so given all that, I'm available for questions, but I hope to have your support in sending this file to the full board with recommendation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Sauter.

I don't see anyone um on the roster with questions.

Is there anyone from a department who Supervisor Sutter who you want to have present?

Okay.

All right.

This seems pretty straightforward.

May uh Madam Clerk, maybe we open this up to public comment.

Yes, 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 two minutes.

Mr.

Chair, it appears we have no public comment for this item.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Public comment on this item is closed.

And Madam Clerk, I would like to um make a motion to amend this um item uh in the manner that um Supervisor Sauter just read into the record and then send it to the full board with our positive recommendation.

Could we have a roll call on that motion?

Yes, and on the motion to the amend this item is presented and forward to the full board with positive recommendation.

Member Wong.

Member Wong, aye, Vice Chairman Mood?

Vice Chairman Mood, aye, Chair Dorsey?

Aye.

Chair Dorsey, I have three ayes.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion passes.

Congratulations, Supervisor Sauter.

Thanks.

Um Madam Clerk, can we please call item number two?

Yes, item number two is uh ordinance amending the health code to require that every dog in San Francisco with certain expect exceptions be spayed, neutered or chemically sterilized rather than requiring such procedures only for pit bulls to establish a process and fee for applying for an unaltered dog permit and a process for granting denying or revoking such permit with a hearing following a denial or revocation to regulate the transfer, cell, and breeding of unaltered dogs and to establish penalties and conditions on impoundment of violations of the mandatory spay neuter or chemical sterilation requirements.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So this item was introduced by the City City Administrator's Office, and I want to acknowledge the work that has gone into bringing it forward.

My understanding is that the department may also be working on some amendments.

Um I have talked to some folks about this and as a as a new uh in the last year, dog daddy myself.

I am emotionally invested in this, and I think we all want to make sure that this is successful to the extent we can find consensus on this.

I would like to make sure we do that, and I think that's a view that um my colleagues share.

So I am planning to continue this item to the April 9th meeting of the public safety and neighborhood services committee to give us a little more time to um to just iron out this uh piece of legislation before I make that motion, however, Madam Clerk, can we please invite a public comment on this item?

Yes, members of the public who wish to speak on item two should line up along the side by the windows.

All speakers will have two minutes.

Hi, supervisors.

My name is Lucas Illa.

I'm with the Coalition on Homelessness and I am a D9 resident.

Um I just wanted to um point out just a possibility, and I want to be sure that this bill isn't um going to be intended to remove dogs from unhoused San Franciscans um ownership or possession.

Um that is a common fear amongst homeless folks.

These are companions.

Um I just would like to see language in the bill uh really lay out um fee waivers and any barrier that is cost prohibitive of San Franciscans with dogs to spay and neuter their dogs for free if they qualify for that if they are low income or if they are homeless.

So thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments.

Do we have any additional public speakers on item two?

Mr.

Chair, that concludes public comment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Public comment on this item is now closed.

And I would like to make a motion to continue this item to the April 9th meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee.

Madam Clerk, could we have a roll call in that motion?

Yes, on the motion to continue item two to the April 9th meeting of this committee.

Member Wong.

Member Wong, I, Vice Chair Mahmood.

Vice Chairman Mood, I, Chair Dorsey.

I Dorsey, I have three eyes.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion passes.

Yes, item number three is a hearing to discuss the conditions for women in custody at local jails, including personal safety, programming services, and resources available.

Examine the oversight of hiring and assignment process for jail staffing, complaint process for women in custody, and disciplinary policies and procedures for sheriff deputies who commiss who commit misconduct.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Uh, this hearing was called by Supervisor Chen, and I would like to welcome her among our special guest stars to today's meeting.

Um before I pass it over to Supervisor Chen, I also want to note that other supervisors have expressed this um this hearing healing and may join us uh during the discussion.

I want to welcome their participation in today's conversation.

Late last year, serious concerns about the conditions facing women in custody in our local jails were brought to light.

Um these concerns raised important questions about safety, dignity, and accountability within our jail system, and underscored the need for a public conversation about how the city must move forward to address these issues.

And with that, uh Supervisor Chen, welcome.

The floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair Dorsey.

Um good morning, colleagues.

Uh, thank you again to Chair Dorsey for scheduling this important hearing, especially during women's history month, and thank you for all my colleagues who are attending, including my co-sponsor, Supervisor Munar Myoka.

When I call for this hearing, it was a in the light of atrocious allegation of sexual misconduct committed against to at least 20 women being held in Sam in a San Francisco jail.

This incident is currently under investigation, and as such, we are not able to discuss it today in this hearing.

However, what we can discuss and what it's clear that we need to discuss are the general conditions of the jail and the impact of those conditions on women in custody.

I want to thank the community partners who are here today and have taken the time to share their expertise to educate me and my staff and to provide a strong voice for women who have experienced an unsafe condition while in custody.

I also want to thank the city departments who are here to answer my questions and our questions today.

My goal for this hearing is to have a transparent and public discussions about what reality of what women in custody experiencing in our jail system today.

We have three presentations and we will open up for questions.

With that, I would like to invite Julio Arayo, the executive director of the Young Women's Freedom Center, and also the follow with uh Zendaya Blossom, the National Organizing Director of TGI Justice Justice Project to present.

Thank you.

You got the presentation.

Your presentation is not there.

Is this the community presentation?

It's it's in the file, but we are did you bring it on the thumb through thumb drive?

We're asking for them to pull it up, but usually we ask that you bring it on the thumb drive.

Just give us one second.

Peace and good day, everyone.

Um my name is Andrea or Z.

I use she they pronouns.

I'm here, system impacted, have loved ones who are currently incarcerated, and a survivor.

In honor of Women's History Month, I'm here in the service of trans people currently in prison.

I currently run jail groups and services within SF County.

Also fondly known as Miss Majors Black Trans Cultural Center.

We can go to next slide.

Um also want to thank firstly our community support.

We have over 30 organizations here to support the dignity and human rights of survivors of violence based on gender, gender nonconforming, variant trans, and all women who are marginalized.

I also want to thank you, Supervisor Chen for calling this hearing, and thank you all supervisors Walton, Chan, Melgar, Fielder, and Sauter for co-sponsoring this.

This is essential.

Today we'll cover the jail conditions and community recommendations.

We're a leadership and advocacy organization for formerly incarcerated, incarcerated, and people that are impacted by the underground street economy.

Myself uh coming in as a young person.

And yeah, so um I'm gonna share with you a little bit of my story.

But at first, I want to um, if we can just say their name, Amonti Haley.

Amonty Haley.

Amansey Haley was somebody that uh died inside of the facility of um the women's county jail, and uh just acknowledging her family and her life during this day.

Um if you can see in the side of this picture in the very middle, you could see a picture of me over 16 years ago.

Uh um this is a picture that they took of me at booking.

And the reason why I surrounded myself um with pictures of my life uh afterwards is I want to pay a lot of homage to every all the community providers here in the P San Francisco Public Defender's Office and everybody that supported me on my journey afterwards.

A couple hours prior to this picture being taken, I was sexually assaulted, and I was brought into the facility.

I wasn't given a rape crisis kit, uh I wasn't given a rape kit.

I wasn't given any prophylactic or any medications that could help me inside of my journey after being uh sexually assaulted.

I was brought into the facility.

Uh I was asked to uh strip, take down all my clothes, open up every canal of my body, open my mouth, bend over, all the things that happen when you enter inside of a facility.

Afterwards, I was uh uh I was crying, I was in distress, and I was asked to uh take a shower and to be quiet.

Afterwards, I was handed garments that were oversized.

I was given blood stained uh undergarments and underwear and asked to put them on, and if I didn't put them on, I would have received some type of violation.

I then laid down on my bunk and they told me to be quiet.

And there I was uh very emotional.

It was a very emotional, confusing time for myself.

When I was released, I was released at midnight and with no services, no transportation in the middle of the night, only to be uh brought right back into a very traumatic environment.

And so um you know, uh 16 years later, you know, I um I still go in and I provide services inside of uh the jail, and I sit in circle with women and gender expansive people on the inside, and even years later, they still tell the same story.

I want you to let you know this is a very vulnerable population.

Ninety percent of the women and gender expansive people pre-incarceration or experience sexual assault or abuse prior to uh anything of when they enter inside the air.

We want to also honor that each slide that we have on this presentation could take up a whole hearing.

But in the interest of our people's voices and public comment, we will be simply sharing quotes for each human right concern we have today.

The first one being access to sunlight and the outdoors.

A lot of times folks that we work with in the inside say we're not even able to open a window, so we're breathing recycled, dusty air through vents that are moldy and dirty.

This has been a reoccurring thing that's been happening that is still current day that if you're known to be raising concerns in the jail, your request for psych appointments will be delayed or ignored as retaliation.

Even when you put the grievance in through the medical records.

We also have concerns around facility environmental and sanitation, access to clean clothes.

There's been um folks who've come forward saying that they haven't been receiving new bedding or clothes for three months at a time last year in 2025.

Some of some of the things that Zinn um just mentioned are a di a direct violation of Title 15.

Title 15 is in place to make sure that there's uh humane uh care for folks on the inside.

And so um we're not just bringing up uh stories of folks, we're uh bringing up direct violations.

Um I'm gonna talk about the conduct and procedures of the strip searches and the use of uh the use of force.

So one of the folks have uh um let us know that they had been sexually assaulted by deputies several times.

Uh this person also stated when I reported it through PRIA, which is the Prison Rape Elimination Act, one of my abusers, a senior deputy who was who the jail relied on for overtime shift was allowed to continue working with women.

So not only is sexual misconduct happening on the inside and reported, but it's not taken seriously.

Another person reported that I was released at 12 a.m.

just like I said 16 years ago when I was released in the middle of the night.

Women are the last to be released.

I was released in uh the middle of the night with no transportation, no services, except except that I needed to report to ACM right away in the morning.

And for folks who don't know what ACM is, that is um case management.

Um why does this matter too?

Um we also are talking about the medical impact of folks having their gender affirming care discontinued.

Mood swings when being released to the public in the middle of the night is not the best way to make sure that people are fully reheal rehabilitated, supported, um, if that is the goal for um the system.

And in honor of Mulan Williams, who starred the hashtag as a queer trans black girl, do black trans lives matter, especially in a city that's looking to be the greatest city in the world.

What are some of the other um issues that come up with this um is also we do not have the slide for this, um, but it's um tr it triggers trauma for survivors of domestic sexual violence, it can create PTSD, panic attacks, and at the end of the day, long-term mental health harm.

I'm not sure if y'all can see this slide on here, but this is the slide.

So if you move out of the area for any reason, a flashlight is in your face, and you're being told and yelled at to get back to your bunk.

As a result, we're standing in our bunks for eight hours a day with little to nothing else to do.

Okay.

Wait, is it behind yours?

Sorry, sorry.

So right now, San Francisco is in a really vulnerable state right now, and we talk we talk a lot about public safety, but this includes public safety.

You know, we can tell tell a lot about a society is how they treat their prisoners and people that are incarcerated.

And why this is an issue is because trauma increases instability and recidivism, right?

So we want to make sure that we're uh driving solutions that and not causing further harm to folks because it helps San Francisco be even more healthier.

Harms, uh re-entry and family instability, undermines trust and public institutions, and community-based care, um community-based care improves outcomes.

Like the picture that I showed before, we have a ton of folks that have come through our all of our organizations that are now like really uh uh grounded in solid foundations, and it's not from the system.

I can tell you it's not.

It's from community care.

I don't know what the last one is.

So here's some of our recommendations that we have for you as well.

And off of what Leah was just saying, I also went through the young woman freedom center program in LA.

Um and was able to you want to move closer, closer to the mics.

The committee.

My apologies, supervisors.

Um I was saying I also was a person who went through the young woman freedom center and LA as well as Gender Justice LA community coalition.

So I'm a possibility model for black trans girls on what things can look like outside of these systems.

Um for community recommendations, we are asking folks to allow folks to access sunlight, restrict restrict strip searches to individualize reasonable suspicion, protect and secure body camera foot footage, and ensure accountability and transparency.

Lastly, we just want to thank everybody uh for all the community support.

Folks, I know that folks took off of work today because this is a very important issue.

Uh women's incarceration, we are impacted on both ends of it.

When we enter into the facility, we are often the only folks that we don't get visits.

We don't we don't get visits like everybody else, and also how incarceration impacts us as we we often take care of the loved ones on the inside too.

So we're impacted on both ends of it.

So I wanted to thank everybody here that comes out and shows up for women, gender expansive people, and trans people.

Uh we have over 30 organizations here to support the dignity and human rights of survivors of violence, gender-based violence, and gender nonconforming variant trans and women of all marginalized experiences.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just want to remind the members of the audience we do have a board rule uh regarding applause or audible expressions of support or opposition.

So I do ask that if you don't like which if you like what you hear, thumbs up.

If you don't, thumbs down, please.

Thank you.

Next, uh may I call the sheriff's office for their presentation.

Good morning, madam chair, members of the uh committee.

Uh just give us a minute here to set up our presentation.

Uh I do want to mention one thing while we're setting up our presentation, and uh that is in reference uh to what was just said in the previous presentation.

Alexander Solitsnin uh said in the quote the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

And this, I appreciate the opportunity to open the doors of our jails and share with you how we operate what we do, the conditions of confinement that people find themselves in when they are incarcerated.

And truly opening the doors isn't just about being here in a committee, being called to present the information, but it's also about opening the doors, literally having people come in to observe directly what those conditions are, uh offering that opportunity as well as uh making sure that we have other presentations.

Uh and I appreciate a lot of members of the audience today have been uh asking for more information, and we have had the opportunity to share that information in different forums.

We just had a meeting recently.

Uh we look forward to opportunities where we continue to present and provide information to individuals uh who have not experienced uh being incarcerated, uh, who do not know what goes on.

Um we want to be able to share that perspective, not just with those who have been in incarcerated, but as well as the processes that we are held to by.

I think uh it was referenced in the last presentation.

Title 15, Title 24 are the conditions of confinement that are dictated by regulation by the state that we adhere to, and some of the challenges that we have as a sheriff's office here in San Francisco with making sure that we meet those requirements as well as meet the expectations of the community itself in regards to how we create an environment that is uh supportive of individuals that are incarcerated.

So our presentation today is going to be structured around the questions that were provided by the committee beforehand.

I appreciate the structure that we have here.

So we'll try to follow that, and I know that there are going to be other questions and uh that are going to be related to what we provide as well as some of the questions that we received last night.

I'll I'll try to address those as well, Chair Chair Chen.

Um the first part of what we're going to present is in regards to the state of our jails in regards to confinement specific to women and the trans population that we are uh we are charged with custody and care of.

We're going to cover what was asked about lockdowns, uh and I'll just kind of go through the presentation button.

Next slide, please.

What I do want to say is uh for a moment, just to paint a picture of the infrastructure that we have right now.

And as you look at this slide here, this is a mix of what we used to have and what we are currently using uh to help support the increase in our population.

And as you can see in the slide, uh the days of a jail where there are cells and bars, uh the days of a jail that is configured like the old San Bruno County Jail 3, we literally knocked down and we do not have that kind of condition anymore.

Um back then, we started to phase into a dormitory style uh configuration for people who are confined and incarcerated.

Uh you could see a picture of that lower right of the slide.

We actually still use that facility now to support the increase in population.

It's called the Annex out at San Bruno, uh, and that's a dormitory style environment.

Right now, it's specific to our male population, uh, but I do want to point out that that was part of the structure that we went to.

Next slide, please.

Here you see a picture of what our current configuration is in regards to any sort of housing unit, uh, the majority of which we use are going to be what we call pods.

And the pod environment has a mixture of both locked cell doors for individual housing units as well as open dormitory style housing, as you can see on the lower level here.

Uh they're what we call quads, four uh bunk, four-bed area housing uh with open no door, no cell doors, no bars.

I do want to say that this is a system that we have under reduced flexibility, which means that uh over the years we've closed jails, we've closed uh the old style that we referenced in the previous slide, and we are limited in the amount of space that we have for the current numbers that we have in our population.

Most of what I'll talk about this afternoon, uh excuse me, this morning will be in reference to specifically our uh women and trans population and not in reference to our male population.

Next slide, please.

And what we've done recently uh in regards to addressing that issue uh in terms of housing and confinement.

Um, one thing that was brought up in our recent jail tour that we provided as a result of uh let me give some context here.

Um obviously we're here because the uh events of May of last year regarding a specific housing search of our women population, uh including strip searches as was referenced previously, uh, led to concerns about all conditions of confinement for our population.

So what we had done as follow-up, not just with our administrative investigation was to be responsive to the letter that was provided to us as well as the press conference and the issues that were raised at the press conference.

Uh we opened up the doors, we had a tour conducted, uh offered that up to not just members of the board, but also members of the community and affected parties.

Uh we did follow-up with that on a meeting that we just recently held this week.

Um but what I do want to mention is that during the course of that initial tour, uh, we had the ability uh to engage with and talk to members of the population uh in these housing units.

And one of the concerns that was raised was uh the lack of space.

And so my team, which is represented behind me, uh were able to come up with a plan to address that concern.

We were able to expand out, and as I mentioned earlier, we don't have a lot of space.

And uh even in County Jail 2, which is located at 425 7th Street, uh that is the main facility that we house our women and trans population.

Uh we only have six pods there, and of those six pods, we now, based on this slide, we show uh how we've expanded out the housing configuration for that population uh that now exists in three of those six pods.

So for a third of the population currently there, uh we've been able to uh reconfigure and place individuals in separate places and spread out the population to address some of the concerns that were brought up.

So I wanted to point that out one because that was a collaboration between uh our population, community members, and our staff in order to address a concern uh and bring that uh response to fruition.

Um this slide actually also has a number of references to other information regarding how we manage uh individuals through our classification process, some of the unit focused programs that we have available for individuals, because as we create separate cohorts of individuals within our housing units, uh we also have the ability to create cohorts for programs and participation in programs and services.

And some of that is outlined here in this slide.

Um I'll keep this slide up as we talk about lockdowns as well, uh, because there was an interest uh regarding lockdowns and what that term means and what that means in terms of uh effects on our population.

Uh one of the first questions that was posed by the committee was how frequently do lockdowns occur?

And what are the reasons why a lockdown could be initiated?

So lockdowns are a safety measure taken whenever we have different circumstances occur in the jail, one of which is uh response to an incident or a critical incident or an emergency, whether it's medical, whether it's criminal, whether it's uh natural.

Uh any time that there is an incident in the jail, we initiate a lockdown in order to make sure that everyone remains safe as we deal with the issue.

Uh lockdowns also occur uh when there is a lack of staffing to adequately manage housing units.

That can occur in response to the incidents that I mentioned.

That can also occur subsequent to an incident if we have a fight where there are individuals who are injured.

Uh we have to take our current on-duty staff and use that staff to bring those individuals to the hospital.

So that creates a below minimum situation for our staffing, which affects how we manage some of the pods and affects how we are able to deliver services.

So that may lead to what we call a lockdown situation as well.

Uh one of the other follow-up questions was once a lockdown is initiated, is it ever communicated to the women in custody why the lockdown was initiated?

While we don't share specifics with our population as to why something occurs, and I want to point out sometimes our own staff ask questions about why a lockdown is occurring because of the size of the facility and what the response is.

Uh we do communicate the situation and we try to communicate how long it will occur.

Those are the two main concerns for individuals uh who are in our custody and care in terms of how long this will affect them individually uh having to remain in their cells.

Lockdowns itself uh refer to the fact that people are limited in their free movement, which means they stay in their cells, they stay in their housing areas.

Uh I do want to point out though that when lockdowns occur, we still have legal obligations.

One is access to attorneys and legal counsel, the other is access to medical care.

Those are two situations where we do not have the lockdown affect that in terms of completely shutting down those avenues and we create situations where we can continue to provide those services.

That causes delays, and I am acutely aware of the concerns of legal counsel and medical staff in regards to how those delays affect their access to individuals, but it does not by any means mean that we prohibit access to individuals.

Um there are any questions in regards to lockdowns, follow-up questions or anything of that nature.

Can we ask questions after you finish the presentation?

I do have some uh related to lockdown, but uh why don't you finish presenting?

Because uh DPH it's here until a certain time.

So we want to prioritize uh DPH question and but we'll come back to you for questions too.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um if I may, also how much time do I have for the presentation cell so I can tailor it to the ET.

I I think you can just go uh finish your presentation as of now.

I we don't have a time limit for your presentation, but um just take time, but we would not ask questions until all the presentation are done.

Okay.

Thank you.

Be careful, Chair.

I'm a politician and I have a microphone in front of me, so that may be uh open invitation to continue to talk until lunch.

So I'll keep it, I'll keep it brief and informative so as to answer your questions and address the concerns and then the f and allow for enough time for questions.

All right, I'm gonna pivot now to programming.

If we could provide the next slide.

Um, I'm sorry, let me just reference this slide.

This actually is a visual for you to see uh how we have actually expanded out.

And so originally uh we had our population contained to one specific pod.

We've expanded that out and they are now expanded out into two pods, plus access in a third pod, our medical pod, which is C pod.

We have a cohort there, our psychiatric sheltered living unit and individuals who are there uh under different conditions.

Uh we also have our trans population, which was in APOD, if I'm not mistaken, Captain.

Um we have uh three pods where our population is now spread out, two of which are how we expanded our general population here.

And one of those concerns that was addressed was specific to the fact that we have to mix what we call our administrative separation population, individuals who, through their behaviors or history uh are not allowed to fully engage with our general population, and they're actually housed behind closed doors in individual two-person cells.

Uh there were some challenges with behavioral health individuals who uh uh were disruptive uh to the general population in terms of noise-made uh uh behaviors which inhibited sleep and uh just general disposition of the pod.

So that's one of the other reasons in which we were able to expand out this and separate out those two populations.

All right, next slide, please.

Um let me actually go to the next slide because I want to cover programming right now.

And so our in-custody programming, one of the questions was how many program services are offered to women in custody and in which service areas, uh how many programs are offered to the men in custody by comparison.

So I want to say that we do our best uh to make sure that we have programs that are offered to both populations regardless of gender.

Uh we have programs that uh duplicate those efforts.

Uh we have programs specific to gender, uh specific to women and the trans population, which I'll go into detail in a moment.

Uh the one area where we have a program which is not duplicated for women or the trans population is our cover program, which is our community of veterans engaging in restoration.

That's our veterans of uh program.

Uh we don't currently have a model serving our women or trans population for that.

Uh but that's the only program that we have uh that wouldn't be duplicated or uh tailored for both, regardless of gender.

How many programs are offered in person and how frequently?

How many programs are offered remotely and how frequently?

So our programs offered in person, almost all of our programs for the women and trans population are offered in person.

Uh and in-person programs are when we have community providers, specialists, uh clinicians come in and present uh the program, present to a cohort of individuals and engage in group dynamics related to whatever the subject is.

That's the general nature of what our programs are when presented, and overwhelmingly, all of them are in person.

Uh we do have one remote program we have through our men's mentoring movement, which is offered up only to men.

Uh that is related to communications via Zoom meetings with members of the community.

Uh, but that's the only cohort that we have that would be separate and apart in terms of uh not being held in person.

There's also access to programmatic content through our tablet tablet program.

Uh all our incarcerated population has access to tablets.

Uh those tablets have information on them, but we don't deliver currently services directly related to programs or cohorts on those tablets.

Um is there a process for women in custody to request more program or programming in specific areas?

If so, what's the process and how frequently are the requests met?

So we have an entire triage process and we have an ongoing process with engagement from our program staff that divides into two components, our program coordinators who are actual members of our department and provide uh uh guidance, direction, supervision, management, and presentation of our programmatic content.

We also uh partner with community-based organizations uh that we bring in to provide programmatic content as well, and that is coordinated through those program coordinators.

Um there is an ongoing triage process for that.

There is an application process through our prisoner action request forms uh through the providers through the coordinators in order to uh make sure that people have the opportunity to engage in programs that are tailored to uh what their needs are.

And that is an ongoing thing.

It's not just a one-time only thing where we put people into programs, it's an ongoing process as people are incarcerated.

What programs, if any, are provided to women who are limited English proficient in what languages and how frequently.

So, in terms of uh language access issues regarding the population, we have a number of different avenues where we provide those services through five keys.

Uh they are provider for us uh with educational content as well as programmatic content, and they have processes to address any sort of any language access needs.

Our tablets have uh translation services within tablets, so they are not limiting access to content and they are uh able to allow access uh regardless of language.

Uh one of our actual program coordinators specific to our women cohort is uh uh Marcella who is uh Spanish speaking and is one of our uh glues to providing services uh and providing access to individuals, um, and she helps us with that specific to our women's population.

Uh and as well, we have language access uh with our religious services as well.

Are the program restrictions based on behavior or pod assignment?

Are there instances where women in custody will not be allowed to access programs available to others?

So, yes to both questions.

Uh programs are restricted based on behavior.

If an individual commits rule violations, if they are uh challenged with uh being able to behave in a cohort or a group environment, uh if they have a history of uh criminal or assault of behavior or any sort of behavioral health issues which would inhibit their ability to interact with others, that is absolutely a consideration that we take uh when we create cohorts and we allow access to programs.

Uh is it based on pod assignment?

What we've done actually in that last slide, when you saw that we've expanded how many pods, that actually allows us the ability to expand out and provide more program services to individuals.

And we're working on that right now.

I can't give you numbers in terms of participation, but I can say that that is an opportunity for us to expand out.

But in the past, it hasn't been because you're in a specific housing unit, you would not have access.

We've created a better dynamic to allow for the access, and we have been challenged in the past with allowing for that.

Um we try to minimize movement between pods uh just because of the concern for exchange of contraband or other materials, but uh we do our best to make sure that people are involved in programs and have the access to them based on their needs.

Have there been incidents where women who participated in a program were strip searched during or directly before or after programs?

The majority of our programs are uh provided by in-person individuals, uh, some of which occur in the actual housing unit in the uh group classrooms or rooms, multi-purpose rooms is what we call them inside the housing unit.

Uh that does not necessitate strip searches.

Uh I know in my experience in the past, when I actually worked at this facility as a deputy, uh, we used to strip search individuals after they went to or from anywhere outside of their housing areas.

We don't do that anymore.

Um there may be considerations taken if we have information or we are investigating individuals who participate in programs or provide services and we're given information.

Uh I think that is what happened last year during the strip search last year in May.

Uh so there are instances where that occurs in programs, uh, but it is not a common practice to strip search anybody when they participate in a program after they've participated in a cohort.

If yes, are you concerned that these strip searches deter women from participating in programming?

Uh where I think that I could speak to this uh more clearly is that there was a concern uh in one of our mail facilities that individuals were not going to legal interviews or uh meetings because they didn't want to be strip searched.

And so uh we've worked with and talked to the public defenders office and defense counsel about that.

Uh we've clarified some direction given on these instances, and we're still working on making sure that that occurs uh or that it is clear that we don't just automatically strip search somebody uh after they've had a legal visit.

But I don't believe that we've had any instances of that occurring for program cohorts.

All right, I'm gonna pivot now to staffing.

If uh we can save questions on the programs for later.

And I think later on in the presentation I'll have information regarding out of custody, post-custody services and programs as well.

So the next subject and category that you had listed was staffing, and specifically investigation of staff when accused of misconduct.

When a deputy or group of deputies is accused of misconduct, harassment, or other, what is the process to investigate, reassign, or penalize?

So you can see here this is a basic slide deck uh slide uh which kind of illustrates the process itself.

If we receive a complaint, which is either a direct complaint to our supervisors or deputies, or a written complaint through our uh action request forms or through our prisoner legal services or through our grievance process, or literally through contact to the Department of Police Accountability DPA, contact to our internal affairs unit, uh, contact to outside organizations or information provided to defense counsel or public defenders.

There's a number of ways in which we get complaints uh and we try to make that as open as transparent as possible so people feel that they know that they have the ability to complain.

Um we initiate initial investigations at the facility level.

Uh if it is involving criminal information, that will go to our criminal investigations unit.

If it involves uh, that's if it involves criminal conduct regarding our staff.

If it involves misconduct by our staff, uh which is not criminal in nature, that would be referred to our internal affairs unit.

Uh we also have the ability based upon the MOU we have with DPA to forward investigations to them based on certain categories.

Uh we actually engage with them to investigate things that aren't in our MOA as well.

And I want to highlight that Paul Henderson and his team have been very open when we have made requests for them to step in as a third-party independent body to investigate things that are outside the scope of our MOU.

Um Sheriff, may I ask you how many more slides is in your deck?

Yes, we can move faster.

I'll move faster.

I understand what you're saying.

This information shares with you the process itself.

I don't have to go into detail on the process.

I do want to point out that some of the concerns raised by the community and by individuals uh are directly related to uh whether or not there is an opportunity for retaliation.

And we do our best to make sure that based on each individual complaint uh to determine whether or not we do need to remove the individuals from access to each other.

Uh we're very sensitive to that.

We have a process in which we have the ability to move staff out of assignments, which would connect them to the complainants, and that's based on what the complaint is and the degree of severity.

Are there other reasons behind grievances or investigations that will lead to a sheriff being reassigned?

Uh by request, individual request.

Uh we have a satellite process, we have a number of assignments that individuals can ask to go to.

Um so yes to that.

Okay.

Facilities and sanitation.

Let me just right there.

The question was raised about whether or not there's access.

There's 24 hour Sir, may I cut you?

Can you not answer my questions that I we share?

But can you just go through your presentation and quickly maybe wrap up your presentation in the next five minutes to be great?

Sure.

All right.

Yes, we keep the jails clean.

Next one for health safety and medical.

Yes, there's 24 hour access to medical care for individuals, specific to anybody who uh has recently had a baby or is pregnant.

Uh we have specific care for that through OBGYN processes through our jail health services, as well as there was a question raised about whether or not that person is able to bond with the individual.

Yes, absolutely be able to bond with the baby.

Um we are actually working with some community groups on creating a better process where we can bring the baby back into the facility because there is a separation that occurs when the uh mother returns to custody.

Uh this is very rare.

This doesn't happen.

You last year I think we had one birth in jail.

So this is very rare, but we are working with the community on creating a better dynamic where there is continuous bonding and the ability to keep bringing that baby back in so that there can be continued breastfeeding because our current policy is to allow for express expressed uh milk uh in order for them to have that continued connection.

Um I already spoke about strip searches and let me close with this uh to focus on trans, uh our trans population, trans women.

We have a number of programs and services specific to that population.

I want to highlight that we don't just have that provided by our staff, but we engage with groups like uh community forward is one of our partners in this, uh, and they've gone out of their way to make sure that we have provided specific program content for our trans population.

Seeking safety is that program that we have.

Uh our sisters team conducts cohorts in that population.

The library, I want to highlight also the library comes in and does a trans representation in media in media uh program for our population.

And we also have a transjustice uh program in that population as well.

You gave us some questions at the end yesterday.

I want to address those as well.

This is in regards to allegations of sexual assault or pre-required reporting for us.

That's prison rape elimination act.

And we are very we adhere very strictly to those protocols whenever somebody does report a sexual assault or some sort of sexual misconduct.

Have there been any instances of sexual assault in the last year?

We're compiling that.

Last year in 2025, we had 18 reports.

I don't have the breakdown on that, but there was a follow-up question regarding what the process is in terms of making sure that we have services and referrals for the victim.

That happens at the time of reporting.

We're fortunate because in the jails we have access to our jail behavioral health services, and that's a referral for them to come and follow up for the individual.

When our investigators come in, they also do the regular notification, victim notification follow-up as well as referrals for support for the victims in regards to that.

We are also very fortunate because a lot of these cases, like in 2024, we had 22 cases, 14 unsubstantiated, four unfounded, and four that are currently investigated.

But the use of body worn cameras in our facilities has helped greatly because we have our cameras on, and sometimes we are able to refer to those directly when given allegations of sexual misconduct or assault.

Sure.

This is for 2024 supervisor.

Um it's a breakdown.

We had 22 reports.

Uh we had 14 that were unsubstantiated, four that were unfounded, and four that were uh there was an investigation completed.

Uh right now I can say I could speak to 2025 out of the 18.

I know there is one ongoing investigation directly related to the conduct of a of a former member of our department.

What were the results of the investigations that were completed?

Uh I'll have to follow up and get that information for you.

For the four that I referenced, and the one that we have right now is still ongoing.

Okay.

Uh Chair Chen, that's what we're talking about.

Thank you for the presentation.

Well, stay tuned.

We'll have more questions for you in a little bit.

Uh let's bring up DPA uh for the uh presentation.

If you can keep your presentation within 10 minutes, that'd be that will be great.

Uh Director Pa Henderson, all right, good morning.

Uh thank you.

I'll get started.

I hear you 10 minutes.

I'll try to uh stick with that.

Um I know we're not the main focus, but I think the information that I have to present today is pretty important and relevant to the conversation and the things that I know that you guys want to discuss.

Um thank you, Board of Supervisors, for having us here and calling us and allowing us to make this presentation for you.

Um I will try to not read the information.

You'll have the slides.

The slides are available and I'll make them available as well for anyone that didn't receive them ahead of time.

I don't want to read them and waste your time with that.

Uh so I'll try to go through the salient points uh and stay focused on the things that I think are relevant for today's hearing.

Uh next slide.

Uh so what I want to talk about today is the uh role of DPA and the ongoing investigations.

I'm also going to give you just a brief history of the agreements and explain how DPA got involved and what we're doing in the context with the Sheriff's Department.

Um we can start uh and I'll walk you through how that process works internally as well.

Next role, yes.

Uh so here is the history of uh how we got to uh playing a role with the Sheriff's Office and DPA.

And you'll see this starts uh in 2019 when Sheriff Hennessy came to DPA and asked me to develop something with her uh to provide oversight similar to the oversight that we do uh with the police department.

I will say this starts in 2019, but what precipitated this was the public defenders' announcements and the press announcements in through 2018 for incidents that were taking place in the jail that folks were very concerned about and that initiated the conversations from the Sheriff's Department to come to us initially to ask us to do an independent investigation, which is best practices for oversight and accountability with law enforcement agencies to have third-party outside agencies doing these in conjunction with internal affairs for the different agencies.

So it starts at 2019, but many of us, particularly in this room are familiar with some of the incidents that preceded uh this original arrangement uh that took place.

And so you'll see on this outline, this walks you through uh the different things and the iterations of the letter of understanding that have gone on from 2019.

I will say what stands out is that the oversight and the investigation has expanded uh every single year from the initiation of the initial arrangement and agreement.

You'll see that we started to do both the military equipment use for things that are used with uh the public and folks that are incarcerated, uh, and as well as the creation of some of the things that I'm about to talk about now, uh which is the Sheriff's Oversight Board.

So next slide.

All right, so here you can see uh this outlines a lot of the work that we do and explains what the DPA's uh jurisdiction is compared to the understanding for the much broader authority for the Office of Inspector General.

I know there's a lot of acronyms in here.

I'm gonna I'll try to explain them as they go along, but it just makes it easier to use the acronyms uh in this way.

Um DPA is obviously here, and here's the charter that was created that was uh Shimon Walton in 2020 uh brought that amendment up or brought up that uh the new Charter Section 4.137.

Uh there's a couple of things I just want to point out here that I think are important in terms of the differences and distinction.

The uh in-custody death was a big deal.

Uh that also was incorporated by letter of agreement so that when whenever there is an in-custody death, DPA will participate in that investigation.

Uh that actually happens in real time.

So there's an on-call uh process that does that, which is a distinction from the past where just referrals were made, and it was not necessarily in all of the cases, so that's a big deal.

Um, the other things that are different that are different, and the LOA letter of uh agreement is that uh the subpoena powers.

Uh DPA does not have uh subpoena powers, but the board does have subpoena powers.

Uh they also have broader jurisdiction to hear and receive some of the complaints.

Our complaints are outlined here on the slide, and you can see what the jurisdiction is specifically on the slide here.

Uh let's go move on to the next slide.

So here, here is the chronology of the uh events explaining how the collaboration came to be both with HRC and Department on Status of Women that was formed on the complaints and the current investigations that DPA is doing.

This is the current expansion uh for the ongoing investigations.

And you'll see that uh the complaints initially came in uh from May 25th uh publicly.

I think people found out about it around that time.

Uh complaints started coming specifically from the public defender's office in October 3rd.

Uh we frequently get investigation initiations from the public defender's office who has direct access with their clients that share information with us to initiate investigations, and this was no different.

Uh however, what was different was at the time these complaints were coming in, those complaints were outside of the letter of understanding's jurisdiction and DPA was constrained constrained with insufficient resources to address the complaints that were coming in.

Um that has since changed, and here is the outline walking us through all of that and when and how that took place.

So when that happened in December, we started taking and initiated our investigation.

In that process, what was created was a broader and more vast interagency collaboration.

And I think that that's really important because that interagency collaboration is one of the first of its kind that brings together outside agencies and other departments.

So that interagency collaboration is a collaboration with the HRC and with the Department of Status of Women.

One of the things that I think stands out, and I you can thank and appreciate the folks that are already here in the audience today, are so many folks from the community.

These are really novel characteristics of the interagency collaboration that's going to be receiving and presenting to the sheriff's board and to the sheriffs on a couple of areas that I will outline for you of updates on the investigations.

That's the role that DPA will be providing.

Again, as I said, that is ongoing.

It's really very restrictive, not just from the LOA and not just on uh city charter and restrictions, but on state restrictions in terms of the details about the investigation and the details about how we are doing those investigations.

But some of that information, particularly what's public, what we do and how we do it, that kind of information gets shared with the collaboration, and that information will be shared back to the sheriff's office and to the board.

Some of the things that I think are unique are input from that collaboration about policy, about resource priorities within the sheriff's office and within custody, uh, and then thirdly, training roles.

I just mentioned the training roles because I think it's really important.

A lot of people that don't know oversight, uh, oversight and accountability uh falls flat without a component of training being in there.

You can change the rules, but if those rules aren't then reincorporated into the training practices and processes of the agency, you recreate the incidents over and over and you have the same problems over and over.

And that training goes not just to incoming uh cadets or officers, but to ongoing folks that are in the department so that they receive the information as well.

Oftentimes that's separate from whatever's happened with the incidents, even when there has been accountability and discipline, there has to be rules that come out of that that impact how the agency moves forward to make sure that incidents don't continue to occur uh when there are transgressions that are uncovered and addressed.

All right.

Uh so this is ongoing now.

This is just the flowchart, so you all have the dates and know how things have evolved with DPA's process.

Internally, here is how, thank you.

Here is the slide that shows how complaints come in and how they are processed.

Uh and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna walk you through it.

You can see it, the information is available.

I just want to point out that at the bottom of the complaints where we have referrals, many of those referrals come from the public as well.

So folks that are in custody and out of custody can make those referrals.

That's particularly relevant in today's conversation because so many of the referrals are coming from many of the folks that you see in the audience in the audience that are representative of the different communities that have concerns or have passed through, have relatives, loved ones, communities, friends, neighbors, families uh that have experiences that they want to alert DPA to.

Uh our information and referral process is available 24 hours a day through phone, through online.

Uh it can be anonymous so that people can feel safe to share information with us, but we do a lot of work to make sure that people know how to get the information to us.

Uh the following chart walks you through what our process is once we receive complaints and how it goes to and through both the sheriff's department and to the sheriff's board and to public hearings like this one as well, in case anyone has any questions.

This actually is the conclusion of my presentation, but I can we go back to the thing, I'm sorry.

If we just want to keep just want to keep it up for a little while longer because I want people to see it.

But part of us making the presentation and being here today is me one thanking my staff for being here today, uh, my chief of staff, uh the chief of the director of policy, the senior investigator on the cases that we're discussing today, uh, and the board secretary here, and I'm outlining them specifically because in case there are people here that have information about our ongoing conversations, you can speak to my staff here today.

You can also contact us at the phone number 415-241-7711, and you can also contact us uh online at sfgov.org forward slash DPA.

And so part of what we are in the process of doing right now is trying to find as many as we can percipient witnesses to ongoing investigations.

Again, people don't have to identify themselves.

Uh, but while we are collecting evidence, reviewing cameras, speaking to witnesses uh and staff inside the jail and outside if people have information.

We really want to encourage people uh to have a safe space to share that information with us that helps us in our investigation.

So I just wanted to conclude on that end while we have the audience that we have that I think is connected to so many of the investigations and issues that we're discussing.

Thank you, Director Hens Henderson.

Um thank you for all the presenters.

Um I some of the questions that I have it's already answered, but I know that there are more questions that I would like to ask for all the presenters.

Um but at the same time I would like to ask the chair um for a committee chair for uh a favor because I oftentimes for me uh sitting in this inside this chamber for hearing, I actually learn more information from our uh community uh from our public commenters.

Are you open to actually letting uh the public commenter to come share uh their public comment before we actually go back to ask questions?

Yeah, I think that um I would be I yeah, I would be fine with that.

Thank you.

Sure.

I tried to incorporate the questions ahead of time into the slides, but I'm available and we'll be here for follow-up questions.

I appreciate you.

Thank you.

Great.

Okay.

So Madam Clerk, we if at this time then we would like to invite up public comment if we could on this hearing.

Yes, 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 two minutes.

First speaker.

Thank you to uh Shine Chan for having us here, and thank you to supervisors.

So my name is Mary O'Neill, and I was born and raised in this city, and I live in District 6.

I'm 49 years old, and I spent eight months in county jail, September 2024 through May of 2025.

I was charged with not convicted of a crime, and thank goodness I had a public defender who fought for my acceptance into a mental health diversion program.

This program has contributed to ongoing life-altering opportunities.

I was one of the dozens of women subjected to an invasive and humiliating strip search last May.

Several deputies lined us up, escorted us to a shower area, taking two of us at a time.

It was not done in private.

They kept the door partially open, and male deputies were able to see us, some of them laughing, and their body worn cameras were on.

It was a dehumanizing experience.

I elected to bury it.

I was released shortly after, and I struggled to feel safe, and I found it difficult to sleep.

I have not been able to sleep more than six hours a night without the comfort of a television lulling me to sleep.

This is my reality.

That was not the first time I was strip searched for a seemingly no reason.

A previous time, they wanted to strip search me.

I asked to see medical.

So they took me to a padded cell and left me there overnight.

I had to knock on the wall for toilet paper, but the so-called toilet was a hole in the floor.

Being in jail is torturous, and frequent cell pod lockdowns increased my depression.

We had 45 minutes a day, about three times a week to walk in our cell or pod.

I lived in ADSEG for two months, with one day out of myself for 20 to 30 minutes.

Thank you for your comment.

Allocating two minutes first speaker.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

You can begin your comments.

Hello, my name is Angel, and I am here to talk about my experiments in the SF County jail.

I am a resident of the ten alone.

The day I got locked up, it felt terrible, really weird and cold.

The food was nasty and cold, and the phone calls was really restricted, and when I was in the when I was incarcerated my son.

When I was in Costur, my son was two months old, and it was were no visits with my child when I was in jail.

It was a lot of girls in the jail felt really crowded, it was really dirty, it's mellied.

The guards were really mean and annoyed me when I needed something.

I was released at 12 a.m.

in the middle of the night with no public presentation, no services.

Expect that I needed to report to ACM right away in the morning.

I hope the sheriff department stops annoying people when they need help on the inside and release women to save the time so they'll have to be harassed on the street.

It was hard to make it to the ACM program in the morning, but with a little sleep, I need it.

That's good.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning.

Uh my name is Eve Langston Bartow.

I am the co-chair of the women's housing coalition.

We are a coalition of over 20 uh women's housing and support services organizations.

We are here in outrage and grief and unwavering resolve.

The treatment of the women under the carrot facility are not a violation of policy.

It's a violation of dignity, humanity, and every principle that the badge is supposed to represent.

Let us be clear.

No officer, no matter what the rank authority has a right to weaponize vulnerability for their own convenience, intimidation, or entertainment.

The power to supervise does not include a power to violate.

Officers charged with the care of occupants, especially those most vulnerable, must be held to the highest standard of integrity and empathy.

A badge without integrity is not a symbol of service, it's a threat.

And a correctional officer cannot who cannot see detainees as human beings cannot be trusted to protect them.

We do not ask for perfection.

We demand accountability, and we demand full transparency and consequences to those involved and who fully support and we demand full support for the women coming out of the system that includes housing and support services.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning.

Safety is the number one topic of our priorities of our co it's the core of our work.

But I'm also VP of re-entry for Community Ford SF.

Community Ford is one of the CBOs that is contracted with the Sheriff's Office to provide DV re-entry program services inside the jail, immediately engaging on offering resources and support to the women who enter CJ 1 and 2 who are identified as DV.

We also provide classes like seeking safety in both assists and trans women's pods and at the WRC, we provide all day groups, case management, and community connection.

In these spaces, we are engaging with women who are navigating complex, sometimes long histories of homelessness, trauma, have survived violence and exploitations, and multiple systems involvement.

Through this work, we understand how important it is to engage early and consistently, and the presence of community services can be a lifeline and a connection to safety for women who often have very little support.

San Francisco has the opportunity and the responsibility to make its institutions be a place of safety and stabilization for the women who enter.

When women are treated with dignity and connected to services while in custody and after release, it creates real pathways to safety, housing stability, and successful reentry.

If we are serious about breaking the cycles of homelessness and recidivism in San Francisco, we must examine the experiences of our women and survivors on the street, in the shelters, and inside its prisons.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

My name is Olivia Hoffman, and I'm also with Community Forward San Francisco.

I want to start by saying that our organization works with women impacted by violence, housing instability, and incarceration every day.

We see firsthand how conditions in custody affect their re-entry.

We also operate the city's only 24-hour drop-in shelter dedicated to women and gender expansive people experiencing homelessness and crisis.

That means we see women coming directly from the jail.

So like Julia mentioned earlier, if you get released at midnight with nowhere to go, you can come to us.

That's why we know the community knows women in jail are survivors of violence.

So destabilizing someone in custody through experiences that re-traumatize them, that degrade them, increases the likelihood that they're going to exit back into housing instability or back into a dangerous and violent situation.

What happens inside the jail does not stay inside the jail.

If women leave custody more traumatized, more disconnected from services or less stable than when they entered, it's going to increase the likelihood of homelessness and reincarceration.

Creating safer trauma-informed conditions in our jails is not only the right thing to do, it's critical to breaking the cycle of incarceration and instability in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

We have provided the services that Rebecca spoke about inside the jail for over a decade.

We have been the receiving end of women leaving the prison system at midnight on a Friday night for over 30 for 30 years.

We are here because we are part of the solution, and we want to work on solutions together with you.

Aligning our in-custody policies and our shared city value with our shared city values of safety, of dignity, and compassion is not optional.

San Francisco has an opportunity right now to lead by demonstrating that accountability, oversight, and compassion can coexist with our public safety and our enforcement systems.

So this getting us together today, this leadership is actually not only what our community needs in San Francisco, this is what our country needs.

This is what San Francisco stands for.

And this is why it makes us a great city.

It makes us a city that people come to and feel safe, where our gender-expansive community can come and feel safe.

And we have to take this opportunity to be leaders and turn to you to support us in improving these conditions because it impacts not only the inside the jail, but the homelessness challenges that our city is facing.

So I implore you to partner with us, the community organizations that have the expertise to find solutions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you.

My name is Roma Guy, and I'm part of the women's housing coalition.

I was on the health commission for 12 years.

So I do want to say that the women who protested and resisted on the strip searching for whatever their motivation was, if it was resistance or doing what I'm asking you to do, follow up in the good trouble that they presented and led to this hearing today and the voices that you heard, where we have to modernize and get out of medieval times on what happens when we don't like or we don't know what to do about people's behavior.

And it frightens us.

We incarcerate them, we punish them.

This is an ancient practice that we don't have to continue doing today.

And you are witnessing that opportunity to get engaged, including you know, I've done the tours, etc.

We still have a few more to go.

It's just the beginning of it.

You will be having the opportunity to invest in this oversight rather than eliminate it.

Don't eliminate it.

Secondly, we have to stop muffling the voices of good trouble around incarceration or disappear the incident after some opportunity to follow up with so-called litigation.

No, stop it.

Get involved, take responsibility like you are doing today.

Thank you, Supervisor Dorsey and Supervisor Chair and members for doing this.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, supervisors.

My name is Lucasilla.

I'm with the Coalition on Homelessness and a District 9 resident.

Coalition on Homelessness stands in full solidarity with the survivors of the abuse that has occurred in SF jails.

We know this abuse continues.

Um without clear accountability structures, we're not going to be able to stop it.

I think in the presentation that DPA did, I was really troubled in the listing of the fact that they didn't have enough resources to commit to a full-fledged investigation.

That should give us extreme pause.

Should give us extreme pause when we see the moves to defang the sheriff oversight board and to not and to limit more public participation in it.

I also just want to point out that we've that you have had opportunities since these allegations have emerged to provide additional funding to the Sheriff's Department to increase their involvement with members who are quite vulnerable in our communities.

I'm referencing the Reset Center.

I'm referencing the millions, tens of millions of dollars they're requesting in overtime, and I'm rec and I'm referencing the fact that the reset center is going to cost um 14 million additional dollars in the sheriff's office.

How can we expect the folks that will be involved in the reset center to treat the clients with respect, dignity for all?

So I I want to I want to point that out, and I also want to point out that one of the favorite things of this administration's uh focus is data and the fact that we don't have data yet on how many strip searches were conducted this past year and what is the racial breakdown of these strip searches.

The fact that we don't have that data is very concerning.

What is not measured is not valued.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning, thank you.

Um my name is Valerie Ibera.

I'm a D4, lifelong born and raised resident, and I also work for the public defender's office in a communications capacity.

Um today is or this month is women's history month with the theme of sustainability and also International Women's Day with the theme of rights and access to justice.

I want to uh acknowledge that we have today 109 women in our county jails, um, 1,300 people overall.

Um and I think the question for this committee of public safety is public safety for who?

Um, of course, we can all appreciate the sheriffs at the front door who are taking care of our public buildings and making sure that we're safe coming in.

But when people go into our jails and they're being locked in by our sheriffs, um, those are people and their families immediately enter crisis situations.

Um obviously we're here to talk about some of the disturbing conditions that have come up recently, but of course, have been ongoing delayed legal visits and transportation to court dates, uh, lack of sunlight, exercise, proper medical care, even for some very critically ill people who are in jail today, um, and nutrition, late-night releases on the 7th Street, limited programming, constant lockdowns, and of course, these arbitrary and invasive strip searches, and I've had the opportunity to speak to some of the women who've been impacted by those strip searches.

Um it's very disturbing.

Um but I think uh to zoom out on why we're here and why there are 1,300 people in our jail today.

We have to look that there is an upstream and a downstream.

An upstream are the policies, police and prosecutors, and downstream are the sheriffs, the clerks, and the public defenders.

Um there's no accountability for those who abuse their authority, it reinforces this two-tier system of so-called justice.

And I think what we have, especially coming out of the district attorney's office is a conviction addiction and a detention convention because they are constantly overcharging people, which keeps them in jail longer, extends their cases, and then pushes to keep them in jail in the first place.

And thank you.

I want to keep that in mind and free past time.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Just another reminder about our board rule regarding applause, please.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

My name is Mike, and I'm from the mission district.

Uh and I volunteer with the California Coalition of Women Prisoners.

San Francisco law enforcement continues to prove over and over that it is staffed by thugs who do not have a shred of credibility.

Examples are when a white cop violently arrests a black woman for supposedly jaywalking in the Richmond district, or taking a position of shoot first, ask questions later, or assaulting a man in the street for walking in front of the mayor's car, or sexually degrading women and trans members of the community on camera at San Francisco's jail.

Enough is enough.

Jubilant shouts of let's go, San Francisco on social media drown out the cries of anguish from the community.

It is past time for demanding accountability of the Sheriff Department.

This is especially true as we see San Francisco government steal funding from health services and hand it directly to the very same sheriff's office that conducts mass strip searches and other forms of abuse.

The leadership of San Francisco needs to develop a moral backbone and hold officers accountable.

If the city wishes to stand in opposition to Donald Trump, then why does the city so often take the same approach to our res our residents as ICE does?

Ask yourself, why should we trust city leadership if SFPD and the Sheriff Department disrespect the marginalized and the working class just like Trump does.

Members of city leadership needs to ask themselves why they get up in the morning and who they're supposed to serve.

I'll answer it for you.

The people.

The people's demands are suspend and remove all deputies involved in the abuse.

Create an independent and community-informed investigation.

Fully from the Sheriff Oversight Board and withhold funding for the Sheriff Department until community demands are met.

Invest in the community and health services and transit rather than locking people up and abusing them like you know you do.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning.

My name is Natalie Ortiz, and I am here representing community.

I am uh I'm here with nuestra causa, but also as a member of the Sheriff's Oversight Board.

Um I want to ask you guys for your support in supporting a full funded Sheriff's Oversight Board because there is so many things that uh we are limited to do um without an IG.

Um the mayor's office has now put a pause on hiring the IG midway through the process.

And this cannot this is this is part of the reason why we are where we are now.

Regarding safety, I am I am wondering how retaliation is being monitored in that the possibility of it because it has been reported from um women inside that it has been um happening um after they do file complaints.

Um re-traumatization.

This the the kind of this kind of uh uh behavior from the Sheriff's Department is causing re-traumatization.

I work at a family shelter um and I have to work with uh women and and people that are being traumatized through this system, and it it it just it doesn't make any sense if they're in there to be able to recover and be able to um get the support that they need.

Um the DPA is also limited.

Um Department of Police Accountability is also limited due to budget constraints.

The Sheriff's Department also um reports being limited due to uh budget constraints.

Uh we will still continue to have a meeting next uh Wednesday at 320 uh 325 at 6 p.m.

at the Southeast Community Center to discuss with community what they would like to see with an IG.

We really need your support in funding a full sheriff's oversight board.

We cannot have a board that's supposed to oversee with no funds to support it because what can it really do?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good morning.

Uh my name is Mariana Lera.

I'm a 10-year resident of SF and I live in District 9.

Um, I think it's important to note that over policing and an increased criminalization of nonviolent crimes has exacerbated the abuses happening to vulnerable vulnerable groups who are incarcerated.

Well, I am lucky enough to have never been incarcerated.

I do work with a jail support group, and it is often called at 850 Bryant.

They are sent out in t-shirts, and oftentimes not even all the things they came in with.

Um that's all.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning, my name is Diane Lozano.

I'm also a member of the uh Sheriff's Department Oversight Board, but I'm not here in that capacity in any way, nor to comment on any investigation.

Rather, I'm here as a new citizen to the city and county of San Francisco.

I moved here 19 months ago from the state of Wyoming after a 30-year career as a public defender, and as uh 17 years of that, I was the director.

Um, it has been a joy to be a part of a community, city, county, and state where citizens actually get to have a direct say in their government.

Um, but also as somebody who was a government uh uh governor-appointed agency director, I know full well what lack of resources can do to the will of the people and the voice of the people.

In my capacity as a public defender, I also was able to be a direct um witness to the unique and awesome responsibilities that sheriff's offices have, um, particularly in their duties to maintain safely the inmates that are within their walls and to give them dignity.

And I just want to point out that this board has a unique opportunity that can fund dignity and safety for this community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hello, my name is Leah McGeever.

I live in D6.

I believe women, I believe trans people.

Um, you know, the sheriffs and police, they always have the right things to say.

Um, but their behavior and the stories from the victims always contradict those things they say.

So for me personally, as a known trans person and activist, I do not trust the sheriffs, and I think if I were to be arrested, I would not be treated well.

And can you please put the overhead on the sheriff's uh deputy sheriff's association uh retweeting a meme about myself on a previous public comment I gave concerning the murder of Banco Brown?

Uh this meme is spliced with music of a white man dancing around mocking my pain and um public comment.

And the sheriff's deputy association says this never gets old.

That was from October uh 18th, 2024.

Um supervisors are the most fucking educated people when it comes to the abuses that the police and sheriffs do to us people.

You are the most educated in this country because these people repeatedly come to you over and over again telling you about it.

You keep on funding the police.

You keep on funding the sheriffs.

You approve new weapons for them.

You don't hold them accountable.

And for some bro code reason, I'm assuming these men in power are incapable of holding other men in power when they abuse women, when they abuse trans people, non-binary people.

Everybody, why can't you hold your fucking men accountable?

Do that.

Thank you for your comments.

Please, please hold your please hold your applause.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon or good morning, um, supervisors.

My name is Samantha Rogers.

I am a member of California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and I'm also a poor manly incarcerated woman.

And I had a script to say, but I'm a script my own.

I really need y'all to understand how important it is for us as women and trans to survive in this world that's changing every single day.

Every time you wake up, it's a whole new atmosphere, not just around the world globally, but right here.

I'm from a whole different city, but I fell in love with San Francisco because of the community base.

It gave me my life back.

It taught me that I can be a part of a community that I love and respect me.

But no matter what was going on in my life, me being an ex-addic, me celebrating 15 years this year.

I mean, it's it's been a lot that the San Francisco has gave me.

I have a love and hate with San Francisco because every time I get I feel like I'm getting well, I come back here.

I'm back here in City Hall fighting for some more stuff that can be solved just by sitting down and listening.

We all got mental ill issues going on, but what are we gonna do about it?

Has anybody remembered that the mental health hospitals got shut down back in 1985?

And that's when all this stuff started.

Have anybody really put attention to that?

The world is revolving and changing.

But what are we gonna do as being the community of the world?

What are we gonna do to make a difference?

I want y'all to know that being in this community, man, made me become who I am today.

And I appreciate y'all listening.

Y'all have a wonderful day.

Let's make a change and stop coming here.

This is enough is enough.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hello, supervisors.

My name is Guglielmo.

I live in District 9.

I've been a teacher at SF County Jails for the past five years.

Have taught over 100 students inside and have gotten to know many of them in the classroom.

Nearly all of these learners have been in these jails for years on end, despite being legally innocent.

I'm here to talk about the abhorrent conditions our students face in both county jails.

I join the demand for accountability for the May 22nd mass strip search in CJ2.

And an immediate suspension and removal of the staff involved is appropriate and necessary.

And a fully independent, community-informed investigation is needed.

I also want to emphasize a handful of grievances from a long list that our students inside shared with us.

They've expressed acute concern about unjust generalized punishment.

A recent cohort of twenty of our students were barred from taking our classes for months because deputies found a slice of pizza in their housing unit somewhere.

Paid commissaries being taken and contact with their families being stripped as punishment when they're put in the hole.

They talk about squalor in the jails, inhumane living conditions, including sharing dirty clothes due to limits deputies have put on the amount of detergent they can use, lack of hot water, strip searches, 22 hours a day in a cage, which included years without sunlight until recently.

All this they've equated to psychological torture.

I want to demand the creation of an unmonitored abuse and grievance reporting mechanism from inside, going directly to the supervisors.

And in many cases, the jailers do not see our students as human.

We cannot trust abusers to handle complaints about their abuse justly.

Reporting abuse needs to be a real option from the inside.

There's cruelty that takes place behind those walls, and you all should know about it when it happens without our students fearing retaliation.

Lastly, please focus on the only viable long-term solution, which is never a new jail, not more money to the Sheriff's Department, but getting people out of these ages.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, supervisors, and thank you so much for holding this critical hearing, especially to Supervisor Chen.

My name is Alana Gadinas.

I also live in District 9.

I am also a teacher with the Stanford Jail and Prison Education Project.

I have taught several courses in both county jails over the past three years, and in this way have met dozens of bright, kind, empathetic, and curious students.

People with hopes and dreams like you and I, with no criminal convictions, as they are pretrial, living trapped day to day in utterly inhumane conditions, as we've heard about.

They deserve dignity, respect, and humanity that they do not get.

The conditions inside our jails instead force people to live locked inside pods without sunlight, without proper sanitation, and without knowing when they'll ever leave.

I even noticed in the sheriff's office presentation that women's undergarments are changed only three times a week and exterior clothes only once a week.

I think that barely scratches the surface.

Since as we know, the sheriff's office is responsible for the care and treatment of everyone inside its jails.

Yet last May, its employees forced women in county jail too to undergo a mass trip search while filming terrorizing and sexually abusing them.

I think it's really worth noting that the Sheriff's Office also failed to protect these women in the aftermath, allowing ongoing abuse to occur despite many grievances filed by the victims.

Why are our tax dollars funding sexual abuse and psychological torture of our most vulnerable community members?

And why are we funding the continuous expansion of these unsafe facilities?

I'm here to demand simple justice and what makes sense, an immediate suspension and removal of all staff involved in the mass trip search, the immediate release of all women affected, and a halt to any new funding to the sheriff's department.

I implore the board to treat our community members inside jails with humanity and respect.

This is dire.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

It is clear from the many testimonies from those assaulted on the 22nd and the filing that the PR trainings and surrounding filing system is not enough to meaningfully respond to and protect incarcerated peoples from further molestation.

And I cannot help but in this moment hold dear in my heart.

Umante Hadley, who has mentioned earlier today, who, despite multiple requests for mental health diversion, died in county jail too.

This system has not proven itself capable of addressing life-threatening grievances in its own walls.

And our students spend over a decade in these facilities with no access to daylight away from their families.

And sickeningly, all of this is pretrial.

It is clear that in response and amidst all these accusations, the response of County Jail 3 and 2 is to expand and make plans for expansion.

And I want to join my neighbors here today in saying that incarceration cannot replace welfare.

Programming cannot compensate for trauma.

The sheriffs in question and in uniform cannot be trusted with our city's most vulnerable people and need to be immediately suspended at bare minimum.

Please release the remaining survivors who are currently incarcerated, who have been made to give so much more than any amount of time sentence could justify, and who have spent every day for the last 10 months since their abuse, where you left them under the same powers and within the same walls.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, supervisors.

My name is Theo Yang.

I am a resident of District 8.

I'm also a student at Stanford and a volunteer teacher at both county jails here and in San Bruno.

I came into volunteering trying to be a good teacher.

But from the moment I walked into the jail and began talking to our students.

At every turn, the jail denigrates the humanity of our students, subjecting them to social isolation, physical harm, and racism and gender-based violence.

As others have mentioned, our students have most recently had to deal with the most horrendous spate of sexual abuse and in the form of these strip searches.

As the sheriff has shown in their the presentation, they are about expansion.

They love expansion.

But we as teachers have learned that that expansion means the expansion of abuse.

So we want to say that it's not about quote unquote optimizing female housing.

It's about getting people out of these jails and arresting less people.

And so we stand with other community organizers and survivors of this abuse.

In particular, we demand immediate suspension and removal of all sheriff's deputies involved and the immediate pretrial release of all women affected by this latest spate of sexual abuse.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good morning, supervisors.

My name is Eva.

I am a fellow community organizer at the Young Women's Freedom Center.

I work on the re-entry program for the youth here in San Francisco.

When I hear our community being harmed, humiliated, and being treated unfairly in these spaces, it really breaks my heart.

I am here using my voice as a youth to demand justice, to demand action, to demand action being taken and to demand accountability and safety for these women, trans and gender-expansive people.

We are demanding accountability for the May 2025 mass strip search of women in state in the San Francisco County jail.

Suspend the staff who are involved, launch an independent investigation, and stop baseless strip searches.

These strip searches are de and degrading treatments, are re-traumatizing survivors and escalate mental health crisis.

This is not the San Francisco.

I want to live in where action and accountability isn't being taken in our communities.

And putting our community in harm's way.

San Francisco must protect the dignity and health and safety of women and trans people that are in custody.

Please do better.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning, supervisors.

My name is Nib.

I'm a community organizer with young women's freedom student.

I'm here to speak about how many women and trans people in jails are survisors survivors and victims of sexual harassment.

The issue is personal to me because I've experienced it.

I was incarcerated and I know how painful and traumatic it could be.

Also, how many women who leave the jail are carrying that trauma?

How many people go through what many people go through incarceration is unacceptable and it needs to change.

Women in custody are members of our community.

Dignity is not optional, even incarcerated.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning, supervisors.

My name is Lay.

I'm a community organization.

Pull the microphone down a little.

Thank you.

I'm a community organizer at the young women's freedom center and formerly incarcerated.

Strip searches harm many women and trans people in custody.

I experienced the things they're doing to women inside the jails.

This also impacts our community because families and loved ones are affected.

San Francisco must protect their dignity and safety.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, Board of Supervisors.

My name is Tamani Drew.

I am a community organizer with Young Women's Freedom Center and a child of incarcerated parents.

I also work closely and hire the same women and trans people we were advocating for today from the mass strip search in 2025.

But we all know this is not the first time.

Board of Supervisors, let's make it the last time.

SF Board of Supervisors, we demand to act now.

Suspend and remove deputies involved in abuses against women and trans people in custody.

It's time we stop the harm and inhumane treatment to those incarcerated.

It's time we create a system that requires staff to provide care and rehabilitation.

SF Board of Supervisors, be the blueprint so people can continue to come forward and let their voice be heard.

Women in trans folks in custody are still members of our community.

Dignity is not optional even in jail.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, everyone again.

It's Andaya speaking.

Um I'm, as you know, responsible for holding black women, indigenous women, women of color who have trans experience, GNC, and other margins.

And so I have two quotes for you, which I didn't want my community members to be here to say because I didn't want them to be traumatized by the egregious claims made in the captain's presentation.

Folks who have been released say that the deputies were doing more than is legally allowed, knowing they can get away with it.

Folks have had to receive offensive slurs and backhanded comments on how folks don't understand fill in the blank.

The sheriff program coordinaires did not know we were doing our program for over half a year till we reached out about missing one week since we did our tour with them in July.

The one individual whose sexual assault results were omitted in the sheriff's presentation makes me really trust what the sheriff says when he says he's a politician.

This is the same reason why he's sitting in the shot of the camera to be seen.

Five Keys does not do programming for our trans folks, but claim to be a triage and referral or or et cetera.

This is not an anomaly.

This is the standard.

We're dealing with a really serious corrupt situation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Zandaya.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning.

My name is Tanisha Cannon, and I am the managing director with legal services for prisoners with children.

Thank you for bringing this meeting together.

As we talk about women's conditions in the jail, we'd be remiss if we ignored the strip search incident that happened in May 202nd.

I appreciate the sheriff responding to the community letter, meeting with us and acknowledging that these concerns deserve attention.

And I also want to acknowledge the programming for women in custody can be meaningful and important.

But they are issues that we're raising in the demand letter that are about something far more fundamental than just programming.

They're about safety, dignity, and protection from abuse on the inside.

Programs cannot substitute for the policies that protect women and trans people from degrading treatment.

That's why we want to focus on specific policy changes.

In the sheriff's response letter, it says that the strip searches are necessary for safety and the department follows existing law.

We understand the need to prevent contraband and maintain safety in the facility, but following the law is the baseline.

There was a time when chattel slavery was legal.

The question before us is whether the policy will reflect humanity and best practices.

And right now, the policy still allows strip searches in situations when where less intrusive methods could be used.

That's why legal services for prisoners with children submitted some recommended revisions to the policy.

After our meeting with the sheriff, they told us that they would prioritize this.

The goal here is not to eliminate the strip searches entirely, it's to ensure that they only happen when truly necessary.

What we're talking about is not abstract.

What we would like to be clear on is that the people in jail and the families and communities who love them are paying attention to what happens after this meeting, and we hope that the Board of Supervisors will hold the Sheriff's Department accountable to revisiting this policy revision and changes.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

How are you doing?

My name is James Davis, a member of all of us are none.

I just had a quick comment I wanted to bring up that was a concerning to me.

Um the jail conditions are a public issue.

The women in county jails must have guaranteed access to hot water, showers, and sinks, and immediate access to supplies.

Um disaffecting wipes, towels, and gloves, and access to sunlight.

I'm sure we all can agree that that's important for um for living conditions.

Just wanted to bring it up.

Thank you.

Thank you for next speaker.

Hello, my name is Crystal.

I'm a volunteer with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and I'm a resident of District 5.

I'm here because I'm disgusted by the terrible conditions that women and trans community members are facing in the jail.

And I'm particularly disgusted by the staff's treatment of women, including last May's humiliating strip search in which they laughed at and filmed the women.

As an SF resident, I'm disturbed by the fact that such predatory behavior is in our city's so-called public safety system.

I'm calling for the immediate removal of all staff involved and strict limits on strip searches.

I also call on the board to hold closely and seek out more testimonies of those who've actually been incarcerated and be mindful of how an open door visit on one day doesn't accurately reflect the lived experiences of those who've stated how traumatic the conditions of confinement are and who still live with that trauma every day.

SF shouldn't be normalizing sexual violence and disguising it as policy.

Again, the staff involved should be removed, and there should be an end to baseless strip searches.

Protect women and trans people in custody, or better yet, let them return home to community and implement pathways that help them stay out of the abusive jail in the first place.

Thank you to the board for holding this hearing.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon.

My name is Joanna Hernandez, and I am here on my own time.

I'm speaking today as a mother, a grandmother, and I love one and the voiceless.

Behind every jail cell in this city is someone's child.

My child is there.

Someone's brother, someone's daughter, and someone's mother.

Recently we learned about the reports of women inside San Francisco County jail being forced to strip naked together while deputies watched with their body crimes.

Let's be clear.

This is not safety.

This is humiliation.

Many of those women are mothers.

Many have already experienced trauma long before they were enter that jail.

Being in custody should never be losing your basic human dignity.

San Francisco claims to be a city that stands on for justice and human rights, but those values cannot stop inside our jail doors.

No woman, no human being should be forced to stand naked in front of deputies and cameras in front of nobody.

That is not accountability.

That is not habilitation.

It is a violation of dignity and abuse of power.

Behind those walls are human beings who are sitting uh sitting still belonging families and communities.

Today I stand here as a mother to say we cannot stay silent anymore.

Some of you are fathers to little girls.

You have wives, you have mothers.

We all came from a woman.

We need to stop this.

Families need to be h be able to share their voices in a safe space.

We need accountability today.

I hear you, Sheriff.

You're trying your best, but your staff ain't listening to you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good morning, supervisors.

My name is Lily Pickett, and I'm a member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.

I'm also part of the San Francisco Participatory Defense Hub that has worked to defend women and gender expansive people in the San Francisco jail for years.

I asked one of the women who suffered the abuse this past May what she wanted the Board of Supervisors to hear today.

And she said, I want them to know that this is not an isolated incident.

When we come to this jail, almost all of us already victims of abuse.

It is like going from from one predator out there to another in here.

We've heard the sheriff say that what happened in May was a result of deputies interpreting the strip search policy incorrectly.

When we tell them that women are being bribed to keep quiet about abuse, they say it's a miscommunication.

Either they are willfully ignorant or are committed to hiding the fact that their deputies have been using strip searches as punishment for women in CJ2 for years.

Women inside have consistently said that they've been told that if they keep acting out, there will be more frequent strip searches.

The provocation for a strip search can be as minor as a lost gel pen or as ridiculous as searching for a TV remote or a tablet.

This hasn't happened in a vacuum in this jail.

Routine normalized violations of human rights continue in CJ2.

The sheriff is ordered to give people 15 minutes of daily access to fresh air.

And yet right now there are women in the jail who've been there for five, seven, even 11 years, with still no access to sun outside of going to the hospital.

We hear that deputies are using indefinite lockdowns, not allowing women to leave their bunk areas for eight hours at a time.

Women have been taken to the indoor gym three times in the years that they have been incarcerated.

Please, please do not rely on the sheriff to solve this problem.

They've proven that they are the problem.

We need to get our people out of these abusive conditions and fund community alternatives to incarceration.

And please release those women who were victims of the abuse in May.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

I'm the supervising attorney at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.

Today I greet the spirits of the land who are present to witness and determine the course of justice.

I greet the spirits of the sun that provide us guidance, direction, warmth, comfort, healing, and medicine.

I greet the spirits of the water to fortify our struggle and give us life.

I greet the spirits of the winds that bring revolutionary change, ikenga, agu and ignite transformation through all of us.

The collective ancestors are here to bear witness to defend and to be in solidarity with those who are abused and abandoned by society, especially during this international women's month, highlighting the ongoing struggle against patriarchy.

The conditions in the SF jail are horrendous and unlivable.

The jail is a breeding ground for systematic and targeted abuse and exploitation of black women and other marginalized gender folks.

It is inherently racist and patriarchal institution that must be abolished.

Black trans and cisgender women and other gender marginalized folks deserve dignity, respect, and care, and must be regarded as people of the sun who have an inherent right to sunlight, to breedable air, to free movement, to experience the joys and fullness of living.

Women in custody must have guaranteed access to hot water, healthy, delicious, and cultural foods like yams, greens, rice and peas, baked chicken, fried fish, family visits, and physical connection, access to cleaning supplies and medical grade protective materials like the mask I'm wearing now.

The board must find every avenue to protect the health, dignity, and safety of women and trans people in custody by releasing as many people as possible.

The board must remove all deputies and supervivors involved in the abuse of women and trans folks and the practice of strip search, stop any new funding to the sheriff, invest in non-jail alternatives like providing quality housing for folks experiencing homelessness and cultural and community-based education programs, skills acquisitions, and guaranteed job placements.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning.

My name is Lawrence Cox.

I'm the regional advocacy and organizing associate for legal services for printers with children, as well as all of us or none.

I really want to say that public safety is supposed to be you guys' number one responsibility.

And if true rehabilitation is not the purpose of our incarceral system, you're failing.

If you're supporting policy or an acting policy that does not remove the barriers that get in the way of rehabilitation, you are failing.

If you are allowing consistent tax dollars to be increased and funneled into any entity that is not focused at doing what it's supposed to do, you are failing.

You are failing your community, you are failing the individuals who we are supposed to be rehabilitating while they are in custodial custody.

We are failing, and we need to get it right.

We advocate and organize system-impacted individuals all across this state as well as nationwide to fight to restore their rights, but to also room leaders, room people who will change their communities.

I'm a product of what real rehabilitation looked like.

I spent 18 years of my life incarcerated.

And allowing myself to have access to rehabilitative resources, behavior cognitive courses, etc.

When they weren't restricted, and having that in mind that I wanted to be rehabilitated is the reason why I do what I do now, why I'm able to do what I do now.

I talk to the community.

I talk to people who are responsible for change in laws.

And accountability is what you want incarcerated people to have, right?

We have to have accountability.

The shares have to have oversight and accountability.

Group think in our sheriff department is rampant.

Whether you didn't commit it yourself, sheriff, you're responsible.

Once you've been made known about it legally and you fail to change, guess what?

You're responsible.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Alyssa Moore.

Um, I'm here with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.

All of us are none.

I'm a re-entry coordinator, so I work with these women directly as they're coming home.

I also serve 25 years in the California State prison system.

I just want to say it's a damn outrage that your conditions in the county jail are worse for women that haven't been convicted than for those of us that have been convicted.

Sad.

Um, I have a couple of notes here that I'd like to bring to your attention just as I was listening.

Um I think, first of all, we're all coming home.

Well, most of us, at least 85 to 95% of us are coming home.

I just want to know who you want coming home.

Do you want um do you want individuals that are uh coming home unheard, unhealed, and unprotected as neighbors?

Because you can have them.

I think you don't.

I think this is an outrage and it needs to be addressed immediately.

I also think that if I committed the same crimes, I'd be placed on a registry for sex offenders, which these individuals should be.

I don't think you should investigate.

I think there should be a federal systemic investigation into the county jail in San Francisco to see if your policies are making this possible, because I believe they are.

Thank you for your comments.

Again, please hold your applause, thumbs up or thumbs down, please.

Next speaker.

Hi.

I'm Flo Kelly, and I volunteer with a coalition on homelessness, and I live in District 9.

Soiling people certainly does not solve homelessness.

However, our current mayor is trying to clean up the sidewalks and parking spaces where RVs are currently now, just by just by saying you can't sleep here.

We're going to take your tent.

That's the only thing that you have to really protect yourself, but we're going to take it because it looks ugly and we need to disappear you.

And a lot of those, a lot of those folks end up in in jail because they're being told by police that they have to move.

And it makes them it kind of prolongs their homelessness because it's so traumatic.

They just feel very unwelcome.

The other thing is that it's very important that there be home that there be oversight, some civilian oversight of any department.

Any department.

And the mayor is trying to take away that oversight and for him to have more power, which makes no sense at all.

So and also I wonder what what training happens.

In the presentation, I never heard that the sheriff department has training for how a person who's a deputy needs to act.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Hello, my name is Hope.

I'm a resident of District 1, and I was born and raised in the Sunset District 7.

Over the years, I've noticed that no matter how much more police oversight, quote unquote accountability, flow charts, investigations, body cameras, and millions of dollars, SF puts towards the city's police and jails.

There continues to be more and more police violence and abuse.

So I have three demands.

First, the immediate suspension and removal of all the sheriff's deputies involved.

The fact that these officers are still working in the jail is horrifying and wrong.

Second, of the survivors still held in the jail, we demand their release immediate pretrial release.

These women have not only gone through a traumatic experience, but they are still facing retaliation within the jail since they bravely came forward.

Lastly, we demand to halt any new funding to the sheriff's department.

No sheriff, no police officer is committed to the public safety and well-being of San Franciscans incarcerated or not.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Morning, Rachel Dodie, Green Fire Law.

I represented the pretrial detainees who brought the case against San the same the successful case against San Francisco for depriving inmates for years of access to sunlight on their skin.

I visited the women's jail.

It's overcrowded.

There's no hot water.

Many of the cells lack windows entirely, so not only do they not have sunlight on the skin, they don't get to even see sunlight.

There's inadequate exercise facilities, and they're often in lockdown.

Women in particular have to ask permission to leave what appear to be open cells to go to the bathroom.

They don't even have the same number of chairs in the cell as they have people bedded in the cell.

The conditions in the San Francisco jails do not meet the standards of local standards, national standards, international standards.

The American Correctional Association and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane Treatment recommend that there be or require that there be at least one hour of exercise and open air access every day for incarcerated people.

As a reminder, the people held in the San Francisco jail are pretrial detainees, so under the state and federal constitution, they can't be punished.

These conditions are punishment.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Yes, good morning.

My name is Elizabeth Bertolino.

I'm a civil rights attorney here in the city.

And I, along with Anthony Label, we represent over 20 women who were subjected to these strip searches back in May.

The May 22nd strip search, as you know, was egregious.

Women were forced to undress completely in front of male deputies.

They were forced to take out their menstrual products, products, forced to manipulate their body parts all in front of the male deputies while being filmed.

Unfortunately, through the course of our investigation and through the women who have come forward, we've learned this is not an isolated incident.

Strip searches are happening beyond the May 22nd search that happened.

I imagine not being able to visit with your own attorney without the threat of a strip search happening or going to the hospital, knowing that if you came back from the hospital, you're going to be strip searched.

This sort of environment that has been allowed to be created creates an environment where it's normalized for women's rights to be violated.

So I'm asking that you take this seriously, that the policies are changed and our women are protected.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Thank you, supervisors, especially you, Supervisor Chen, for calling this hearing.

My name is Anthony Label.

I'm a resident of District 7.

I'm a fourth generation San Francisco-born native.

My first family member came here in 1858.

I'm a trial attorney at the Vienne firm in San Francisco, a firm that was founded 50 years ago in San Francisco in 1975, and together with Elizabeth Bertolina, we represent the victims of the strip search on May 22nd.

In addition to what everyone has said, I just have one small call to action for Sheriff Miyamoto.

You know, it has come to our attention through these investigations that these women are being subjected to strip searches for things like routine medical visits, for visiting with their children on family visits, and for visiting with their lawyers.

And women should not be punished simply for doing those things.

Those are things they have a right to do.

And they're also that's a policy that affects women more than male inmates because women have more needs to go see doctors and they're more likely to go see their children.

So that's something I think I believe you love this city like I love this city, and I think as a show of good faith and a step in the right direction, that's a policy, Sheriff, that you can change today.

And I'm asking you to change that policy today of suspicionless, suspicionless strip searches just for routine things that women should have a right to do.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning.

My name is Yulanda Huang, and I'm an attorney.

And Sheriff Miyamoto is very familiar with my work because we filed a class action lawsuit that contributed to the closing of 850 Bryant because in that jail, prisoners were subjected to living in raw sewage.

Prisoners are in jail because we deem that they have violated social laws.

But every single day, San Francisco and the sheriff violates the constitutional rights and the basic building code of California and San Francisco.

They are required to provide access to sunlight.

They are required to provide outdoor access.

And the reason for providing sunlight is not just because it makes them feel good.

We were able to prove, which is why we won in our class action lawsuit that deprivation of sunlight causes chronic irreversible illness, diabetes, digestive disorders, including Crohn's disease, memory loss, which will ultimately lead to Alzheimer's, headaches.

These are serious illnesses.

No one who is a pretrial detainee should be in jail and leave San Francisco jail with untreatable, irreversible diabetes.

And nothing is being done.

In San Bruno, what they're being given is a dog kennel.

You are allowed out 15 minutes in a dog kennel in the shadow of the building, and that's your sunlight.

It is the least amount that he could do to get away with not being in violation of the court order.

So I am asking you to do something, and I am informing you that my challenge to you is that those jails are not compliant and they should come down.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, hello, my name is Alejandra Wait, and I'm a concerned citizen from District 9.

I want to echo what a lot of people have said today, which is that the carceral system does not serve the purpose of rehabilit rehabilitation that the state claims it does.

It serves instead to isolate torture and disenfranchise people who are already marginalized.

So I am calling to increase a decrease incarceration and make instead and make investments in affordable housing, health care, and other services that strengthen our communities rather than punish and destroy them.

I want to echo the demands from other community members who have provided comment public comment, such as the immediate suspension and removal of all sheriff deputies involved in the strip searches in question, uh the immediate pretrial release of the women affected, and halt any new funding to the sheriff's department.

Um rape culture is something that needs to be confronted at every level of our society and including interpersonal, local, and state and federal.

So if you're gonna shake your head at Epstein, you better do something about this.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good morning, supervisors.

My name is Sunny Angulo, and as a SF native, I've had an opportunity to see how our city has changed over the years, including its justice system.

And two weeks into women's history month, it deeply saddens me to see that we've gone backwards in the work to create a more equitable justice system.

When I was a kid, then Sheriff Hennessy and then Sonny Schwartz were pioneering rehabilitative programs, including the first restorative justice program in SF.

Education and reintegration into community were core values.

And today we are seeing women and trans-San Franciscans violated and assaulted with intentional tactics to dissuade them from seeking legal counsel and services.

Classrooms sit empty, and scandal after scandal has plagued an institution that used to be at the forefront of promoting rehabilitation.

Many in the of the women in our jail are survivors of violence and trauma, and most are pretrial and have not been convicted of a crime.

Over 85% is what recent analysis has shown.

Not that that would justify what has happened, by the way, if they were.

Thank you, Sonny.

Next speaker, please.

My name is Adam, and I've spent the past six years working in shelters and treatment centers, including three years working in the treatment space in San Francisco.

My work has shown me the breadth of trauma, sickness, and disability that exists amongst people trapped in the prison system and people forced to survive in the streets.

From my work, I can share that no recourse exists for women experiencing abuses of the system, whether that's in prison treatment or shelters.

I can also attest that not only are women abused inside of prisons, but they are also exposed immediately upon their release from jails and hospitals where they are often discharged without proper clothes or shoes, sometimes no clothes at all, but a hospital gown.

The situation at the jail is not isolated and is a reflection of the carceral system as a whole.

Every woman in my life who has been detained by police has experienced violence at their hands, including being denied underwear and hygiene, withheld medication, and being groped by police in the back of cop cars.

Personally, after an arrest on accusation of vandalism, I was strip searched twice over the span of four days in a windowless solitary confinement before being released with no charge.

When I was in jail, I met two separate women who were arrested for nonviolent substance related offenses.

I met both of these women again within the next month, uh, once released, distributing food to the streets.

They were as isolated, hungry, and disabled and abandoned as the day that I met them in booking.

Their time in jail did nothing but traumatize them further, and they returned straight to the streets with no support upon their release.

My previous commenter said uh for those listening to put themselves in the shoes of women who are incarcerated.

I think that's impossible because this would never happen to you.

Or you thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, I'm Carmen Boakwin.

I'm a resident of District 9 and also a volunteer in San Quentin's programs and an earth-based reentry program.

This incident that happened almost a year ago on May 22nd.

Um, none of the or the 19 victims of sexual abuse in the SF jail still haven't gotten justice for what happened.

And the women in the jail are still being subjected to torture tax tactics to this day and need to be released.

Every day people stay in jail, I'm afraid for them, and I'm afraid that they will go through this again and again and we won't know about it because the Sheriff's Department has shown that they are withholding information and not going about policy.

You all should be ashamed of yourselves and then ashamed of how you handle this and continue to put more resources and money into the San Francisco Sheriff's Department.

Um, even after they have proven that they are mishandling this job.

We need to change the policies and cut their funding.

We're I'm echoing the previous demands that people have mentioned earlier with the immediate suspension and removal of all sheriff deputies involved in this incident and the immediate pretrial release of the women affected, and then halting the new funding to the sheriff's department.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon, supervisors.

My name is Jen Levinson.

I'm a longtime resident of District 9 and work as a community college instructor in District 11.

Um as an educator, I believe that every person bel deserves a basic level of dignity.

I was horrified to learn of the terrible conditions that women and trans community members face in the jail, including and especially the horrific gender-based violence and sexual abuse that has come to light.

This is not accountability and safety.

It is an abuse of power that using cruelty and terror to dominate other human beings.

Women in custody are still members of our community.

San Francisco must not normalize sexual violence and disguise it as policy.

I'm here to add my voice demanding accountability for the May 22nd mass strip search of women and the continued harassment that followed.

Many women in jail are already, as has been mentioned, survivors of violence.

Strip searches retrigger trauma, escalate mental health crises, and damage trust in systems.

When we re-traumatize women in custody, we undermine re-entry, family reunification, and long-term public safety efforts.

So I also um demand that the immediate suspension and removal of the staff involved and a fully independent investigation, um, strict limits on strip searches and the release uh the pretrial release of the impacted women.

Um everyone deserves dignity, even in jail.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon, and thank you, Supervisor Chan, for calling this meeting.

My name is Ronnie, and my roots in San Francisco go back as far as my grandparents raising my father and his siblings in the outer sunset.

To open my comment, I joined the chorus of others in this room who demand one, the immediate suspension and removal of all sheriff deputies involved, two, immediate pretrial release of the women affected who have not only been traumatized in squalid conditions, but are now facing retaliation, and three, to immediately halt any new funding to the sheriff's department.

The SF Sheriff's Office is set to blow past their overtime budget by 50%, which is a projection of 19 million dollars.

And yet you claim there are no funds for an oversight committee or for post-incarceration services to reduce recidivism.

This is intentional neglect that gives sexual offenders impunity.

Offenders in uniform who filmed and mocked unclothed women, or who in late 2025 sexually assaulted a trans woman in custody.

If the purpose of a system is what it does, and police are regularly allowed to practice misconduct with impunity, then the only thing I can conclude about police departments is that they are systemically crafted to practice organized violence.

Meanwhile, the illegal practices of monopoly tech and real estate gentrifiers who have come to SF to roost, directly causing the homelessness crisis, have their interests protected at every turn.

D.A.

Jenkins has drastically reduced, increased, excuse me, the number of drug users and homeless people being charged with crimes while reducing people allowed into diversion.

These policies allow the jail to be consistently over capacity.

If you would never allow that quality of life for yourself, what gives you the right to allow that quality of life for your own constituents?

Many of them reeling from the intergenerational effects of racialized capitalism and poverty.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you, Board of Supervisors, for holding this hearing.

Do any of you remember the infamous elevator rights from San Bruno County jail?

So back in the 90s, um, it was well known within the sheriff's department that deputies would take inmates from the Sabruno County jail and put him in an elevator bride where they would get their asses be for offending a deputy sheriff.

And back in the 80s, 90s, deputy Michael Hennessy was well aware of this abuses, but was unable to stop it because they would never witnesses.

It was always the thin blue line protecting the thin blue line.

And of course, they never took the word of an inmate.

In 1999, I had the privilege of being hired by Sheriff Hennessy to work with President Legal Services as a contact attorney.

And had the immense power of being given the brass keys to actually go into the cells in San Bruno County jail.

So civilian is an attorney, so defense and advocate for inmates.

I got to go up and down the floors to see how inmates were treated.

And I was in San Bruno County jail one day when I noticed two deputies drugging a young Latino man, dragging him into the elevator.

And it stopped me away.

I kept running up and down the stairs trying to find out where he's being let off.

And after several minutes, he finally came out.

He was being dragged, then thrown into a cell.

And I spoke to him.

And he was in pain.

He was bleeding.

He said the deputies beat me up.

So I had to do something difficult, but it was my job I had to follow a report against these two deputies.

There was a hearing and my statements were used to get these two deputies fired.

But I had I not been there, those two deputies would have been continued to work.

Thank you for your comments.

And that abuse is not ended.

I work with a lot of deputies in the county jail.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, board members.

My name is Jesse Stout.

I used to live in District 5.

I got kicked out because my landlord once held a house.

Now I live in Soma in District 6, the same neighborhood as the women's jail.

Uh there's women in the jail who've been in my neighborhood in jail for over a decade without meaningful access to the outdoors, only seeing sunlight when they're taken to and from the hospital.

No human should be held for prolonged periods of time without regular exposure to fresh air and sunlight because this is inhumane and has harmful health impacts.

Today we heard about 20 women in B pod who were subjected to or forced to witness humiliating and invasive mass strip searches, including being laughed at and filmed.

This is unacceptable.

Of course, every prisoner subjected to this abuse should be released immediately.

And do you remember six months ago when we all learned that the sheriff's brother-in-law was cultivating a controlled substance in the jail?

He didn't hurt anyone, but the sheriff fired him.

Here, every deputy and supervisor involved in this horrific abuse must be fired.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Hello, good afternoon.

I recognize an uplift those women who boldly shared with us at the beginning of this session the injustices and pain they endured at the hands of the Sheriff's Department at San Francisco County Jail No.

This strip searching involving filming and mocking of the women.

This harassment intimidation, this gender-based violence from the deputies must not be accepted by any San Francisco neighbors with conscience.

District Attorney Jenkins reduces the number of people being allowed into diversion programs while simultaneously increasing the number of drug users and unhoused people being charged with crimes.

I call for the immediate suspension and removal of all sheriff's deputies involved.

I call for immediate pretrial release of those women and gender-marginalized people affected by gendered violence at San Francisco County Jail No.

I call for a halt to any new funding to the Sheriff's Department for that reason that they are not engaging in any public safety measures, rather, they are threatening public safety.

That sexual and gendered violence first visited upon the LA people upon European arrival to this land and visited countless times upon black and racialized women and gender marginalized people on this land ever since must not be perpetuated in our time, must not be passed along to our to our children.

We have a responsibility to our neighbors.

This responsibility has been failed, has been deeply broken by the San Francisco Sheriff's Department.

We must not accept this reality.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi.

I'm Donna and I live in District 1.

Um and we're here today because the public safety and neighborhood services committee has not done their job to protect our siblings incarcerated at County Jail 850 Bryant.

Um, and that's unacceptable.

Um women have been strip searched while the deputies stood by filming and mocking them.

And there has been ongoing harassment, intimidation, retaliation, and increased violence from the deputies since the incident.

This is not a unique event.

Conditions inside the women's pot are also atrocious, and we have testimony, you've heard testimony today, um, and there's been countless testimony about this from people who've been incarcerated at the jail.

The jail has been consistently overcapacitated due to the district attorney the district attorney's policies.

Increased policing and incarceration is not public safety, regardless of what you think.

Um the Board of Supervisors cannot claim to be interested in any public safety if they keep sending funding to uh Sheriff Miyamoto's department.

I'm calling for the immediate suspension or removal of all of the sheriff's deputies involved in the strip search.

Um the fact that these officers are still working at the jail is horrifying and wrong.

I also demand the immediate pretrial release of the women who have been impacted.

They have gone through traumatic experiences and they have been experiencing retaliation within the jail.

I also demand a halt to any funding to the sheriff's department.

Um they are not committed to public safety and well-being of the incarcerated population who are our siblings and our neighbors.

And if we really care about the people who are on the street, the first place to look is by taking stock of our um incarcerated population.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, supervisors.

My name is Jade Heezon, and I'm with the Food and Agriculture Action Coalition Towards Sovereignty.

As you discussed the unlawful strip searches and abuse of women and trans people in our jails, it is important to recognize that these conditions do not occur in isolation.

They are part of part of a broader pattern of substandard conditions inside of our jails.

It's already been mentioned, but I'm here to emphasize that one issue that deserves attention is the poor quality of food provided to people who are incarcerated.

Food is not a luxury, it is a basic human right and a fundamental part of health rehabilitation and humane treatment.

When people are living in a system that where their autonomy, safety, and dignity are compromised, poor food quality becomes another daily injustice that compounds those conditions.

Our organization, in collaboration with the SFJL Justice Coalition, has already submitted a letter outlining these concerns, and we want to make clear that we're ready to partner with this commission and the sheriff's office to improve food quality as one way to treat those in our jails with the respect and dignity dignity that they deserve.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Hello, supervisors.

My name is Asia Nicole Duncan.

I am the co-president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club.

And we have heard about over an hour of comments, and the community is asking and demanding the same thing over and over again.

And I hope, I hope that you all are listening to what we are all saying, because I'm about to repeat most of what I can remember what the community is asking for, which is suspend and remove all deputies and supervisors involved in abuse against women and trans people.

Hold the sheriff's department accountable, fully fund the San Francisco Sheriff's Department Oversight Board.

We really, really need to do better when we are listening to survivors, especially when we are listening to women and our trans folks, especially right now with what is going on in our country with all the rollbacks that we are seeing.

What happened last year in May with the strip search is really, really devastating, and we need to hold the Sheriff's Department accountable.

And it is a reminder of why independent oversight matters and oversight is accountability.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon.

My name is JJ Zanger.

I've been in San Francisco for 49 years.

I have fortunately never been in the San Francisco jails, but I have heard about horror stories.

I was incredibly shocked to hear about the strip search of the women in the jail, and I found it shocking and disgusting.

The behavior of these deputies was unprofessional and to say the least, horrifying.

We need to stop these frat boy actions and abuses immediately.

The sheriff is hiding behind policies to do nothing and be unaccountable.

If he will do nothing but offer excuses, he needs to be removed as incompetent.

I would like to suggest uh one creative possibility, although this I'm sure it's highly unlikely.

I'd like to suggest that the abusive deputies and the sheriff be group searched in front of each other and other members of the department.

Then they need to be tried and jailed as sex perverts.

Then maybe they might learn something.

I'd like to conclude with by saying the best way for evil to continue is for good people to do nothing.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, hello, my name is Parker, and I'm here to speak about the sexual violence that the women inside San Francisco County jail are facing.

San Francisco County Jail, too, is consistently overcapacity, and I frequently hear inmates who are released recounting missing meals, being held in processing for days at a time, and being subject to holding rooms that are covered in piss, shit, and puke.

These conditions, along with the horrific strip searches that occurred in May of last year, and the sexual assault of a transgender woman in October of last year are just a small sample of the atrocities that incarcerated people face in San Francisco facilities.

I would like to echo some of the three demands that have already been stated.

The pretrial release of all women affected by strip searches, the immediate termination of all sheriff deputies involved, and the halting of all funding being funneled to the sheriff's department.

While I'm here specifically to speak about the atrocities happening in San Francisco County Jail, too, and requesting for the uh release of all women affected by these strip searches.

I also want to make it clear that this violence will continue to happen until all inmates across the U.S.

are released.

Because this violence is not an anomaly.

This violence is a tenant of incarcerated of our carceral system in the US.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

My name is Ruth Gristall, and I'm here as a resident of District One and as a medical student at UCSF.

Over the last four years in the hospitals and clinics in San Francisco, I have seen firsthand the effects that the jails in San Francisco have on the health of our community.

When people are released from jails where they have been held, often pretrial for years, without the basic conditions necessary for health and well-being, including adequate nutrition, fresh air, exercise, and psychological safety.

They show up at our hospitals and clinics.

And they are much worse than they have been before.

When I meet these patients after they've been released, they present with new and worsened symptoms prior to their incarceration.

And they leave these visits with new diagnoses of PTSD, of insomnia, and of panic disorder.

It is so thoroughly documented in the medical literature that trauma, like the women in our jails experience daily, triggers a cascade of inflammatory and immune responses that lead to multi-organ failure, increased risk of infection, and long-term chronic diseases like diabetes and chronic kidney disease.

These inflammatory changes change the structure of our DNA and are passed on for generations.

Policies and cultural norms within the Sheriff's Department that allow for the daily abuse we've heard about today are making our whole community sicker.

It has been heartbreaking, a heartbreaking process to learn how to hold the heaviness of the suffering of my patients.

But it is outraging, deflating, and a cause of deep moral injury when my patient's suffering is caused by our city's officials and institutions, which claim to be for our collective safety and well-being, but make us all less well.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon, supervisors.

I'm Tam and I am a resident of District 2.

I was appalled and shocked to hear about the sexual abuse happening in SF County Jail No.

Like others who have spoken, I am here to demand accountability for those who have been subjected to these invasive strip searches, and I've been facing continued retaliation and harassment.

I'm calling for the pretrial release of the women impacted by these violent strip searches, the immediate termination of all deputies involved in these searches, as well as a halt to funding for the sheriff's department.

Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hi, supervisors.

It's a little lonely in here today, so I appreciate y'all's attendance and attention.

My name's Sydney Simpson.

I'm a registered nurse, but I'm speaking on behalf of the Harvey Milk Club Trans Caucus.

Um when I read these reports, all I can really think about is just the profound responsibility we have as nurses and as police officers.

We are entrusted with people at their most vulnerable moments.

And I think about that every time I wear my badge, and I just want to kind of appeal to y'all's humanity on that point.

Um that kind of trust carries a really profound responsibility.

Um we give someone authority over another person's body, whether it's in a hospital or in a jail, it requires the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, and accountability.

So obviously I'm advocating for holding these officers accountable, they need to be suspended.

Um, and on that note, what actually concerns me the most is that in this moment these victims are still at the hands of their abusers inside the jail.

Um, similarly to what was said before, these traumas manifest physically, anxiety, PTSD, cardiovascular symptoms, long-term health consequences, and trauma ripples through generations.

This will affect their children.

Um, therefore, with my nurse hat on, I want to advocate specifically for the pretrial release of the individuals impacted.

This is your opportunity to communicate with them, that they're seen and that you will act to protect them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Hi, Jessica Pesico.

Um RN expert witness consultant, district and supervisor.

How's everybody doing, first of all?

This was a pretty big meeting, right?

Um so I want to thank everybody for being here and for the officers for doing their jobs.

I know this is a really tough subject, and I can't imagine all the people who were affected by abuse and how they were affected.

And if anyone was affected by abuse, I want to say, even though I wasn't there, I'm sorry, the system has let you down.

So let's say that first.

If we have time.

I want us to first do a reflective piece and think about how we can change our system.

So a part of what I'm hearing off this presentation.

First, if we could please put some of the information on our website on sfgov.legislator.com and put the video here for SFGov TV.

That would be very helpful.

Let's start with there.

Secondly, can we put that PowerPoint presentation that was uh talked about earlier there?

Second, um also could we please have more funding for DPH uh shift the funding from the uh police officers to DPH because there is um a lot of officers who I've spoken to who have a lot of trauma from being on crime scenes and they don't want you so much.

Okay.

Thank you.

Your time has come to the case.

Can we just put more DBT and CBT for you for your comments?

Do we have any additional public commenters on this item Mr.

Chair?

That concludes public comment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Public comment on this item is now closed.

And I do know that the community presentation um for file number 251197 is on the website if anybody wants access to that.

Um and with that I will send it back over to Supervisor Chen for continued questioning.

Great, thank you, Chair Dorsey.

Um to begin with, I also want to to begin with continue to thanking uh all the department coming and the community coming for the with the presentation and also all the commenters for taking time with us uh to taking time and come to share your story with us today.

Uh I also just want to acknowledge a couple uh of the individuals also here to answer questions for our for my colleagues.

Tyler Mings, the chief medical officers of jail health, it's also here.

Um Angela Chen from the public defender's office is here.

Mawali Tabanyol, director of human rights commission, it's also here.

Leela Carrell, director of the shop office is also here.

Um to begin with, I would like to call service office back to the podium for some questions.

Um I had the opportunity uh to visit the county jail in December of last year.

And I also know that you have answered uh many of my questions uh during your presentation during your presentation about lockdown.

I do have one uh question remaining.

So uh departmentally are the lockdowns track and analyze to understand how frequent they occur and the impact uh in the women, and also uh is there conversation within the department to improve lockdown practices and the communication process, even uh within the department uh within the deputy sheriff, because in your presentation you mentioned that sometimes even the staff that work inside the jail, they would not communicate it, or the communication was didn't go well.

So I would like to to hear about that.

Certainly, supervisor.

I uh when we talk about lockdowns, they're covered in different categories in documentation that we have.

If it's a critical incident or if it's an incident involving some sort of crime or gang-related or assault of behavior, uh they're categorized under those.

Uh the amount of time that we are under lockdown or under that uh is also documented.

Uh it's not collected as data.

It's something that we can work to improve and include in our report outs.

We have monthly custody operations division reports, we have quarterly reports, and we have yearly reports.

So uh we'll look to putting that in and being more specific to lockdowns.

Uh, but it is uh an occurrence that happens on a weekly basis.

Uh and we don't document exactly why each one happens.

But the day-to-day operations are documented in our logbooks and in our report outs for the monthly report ops for that division.

So it's contained in data under other categories.

We could look to improving that.

And we can use that as the impetus for also improving communications.

We have worked on updating our orientation video for our incarcerated population.

We have looked to making sure there's information shared, not just with our staff, but with our housing units.

That right now is dependent on who the deputy is or the uh staff member assigned to that housing unit.

Usually they are the source of information for the population of that unit.

And we can work to making sure that that is done more officially and documented as a part of the day-to-day process in that pod.

Chair Dorsey, I want to apologize to you.

I kept calling Supervisor Chen, Chair Chen out of respect for the fact that she called this information by the same thing.

I think technically she's acting chair when in the capacity of running a hearing, so I'm fine with that.

Alright.

And I do want to also point out when we're talking about sharing information.

Sharing information with the community itself is very important.

And as I listen to public comment, there are areas where we can be better.

I would just ask everyone who is absolutely interested in the operations and the work of the sheriff's office and the good work we do, please access our social media, our website where we have report outs on things.

Find that information or ask us directly.

We have the ongoing meetings.

We're formalizing meetings with some of the groups that have been a part of looking into what happened back in May.

We're partnering with some of our other city agencies, the Human Rights Commission, the Department on Status of Women, the mayor's office, uh, the the offices that you represent as well, uh, in terms of making sure that information gets out, because uh I do want to make sure that some of the misconceptions uh are there, and it's not by no means any sort of uh interest on our part to spin the information.

We want to provide the actual information to everybody.

Just to follow up so that I get it clearly, uh just to understand.

So in the current operational and training procedures or process, uh there's not evaluations or conversation within the department that have been held before to talk about lockdowns and how frequent and what why we do it.

Uh we actually do have some uh methods like for training purposes, we issue what we call safety bulletins out to all staff that actually document uh incidents in the jails that lead to lockdowns, fights, uh behaviors uh where we have to respond, medical emergencies, uh any activity or event of significance is actually documented in the safety bulletins, and we issue those on a regular basis to our staff.

Um I believe that if we formalize presentation of information to our population as well and ensure that it's documented, that will address the issue that you raised in regards to how many and what type of information is shared.

Thank you.

Um this is the I'm actually going to ask my questions in the in the a different topic.

So this is the topic about lockdown.

Do you uh my colleagues have questions related to lockdown?

Okay.

So uh the next question is about programming.

Uh so I know that programming is really incredibly important, and I know that uh especially uh related to like social emotional, mental, physical uh health of our individual in custody.

So I you also answer a lot of my questions already.

Um but I want to uh ask uh to follow up.

It's how often does the department evaluate your programming.

We actually look at it on an annual basis.

Uh we have ongoing processes, so if uh specific topic or need comes to our attention, we develop that program through our program coordinators and our program director, Ally Riker, uh, in partnership uh with any other disciplines that are involved.

Jail Health Services has been very instrumental.

Five keys has been very instrumental in being able to pivot and adjust to our needs.

Um the planning is an ongoing thing.

Uh the sustaining of our programs is extremely important as well.

Uh I think the sisters program was referenced at least once in these presentations and in references to what we do.

That's a program that's existed since the 90s, and that's a program that we have ongoing.

Uh, we mentioned cover our veterans program as well.

That's been since the early 2000s.

So these aren't just uh programs that uh address the needs, but they're long-standing programs also that address the institutional things that have occurred and have happened and the support systems that we know need to be in place to help our population on an ongoing basis.

Thank you.

So the program evaluation is annually.

Then what is the evaluation process?

Like who do we include in those evaluation time?

Our staff, I have staff who are our program coordinators.

I have our program director.

We have the partnerships I mentioned with our current providers, both contracted and those that we have longstanding with the Department of Public Health, for example.

We include all of that.

And we also have input from the community.

We're open to discussions of opportunities.

Right now we're in the middle of planning for a vocational training with a partnership with uh one of our community members as well as with uh what we've done in the past with OEWD uh for uh trainings on uh employment and things that are related to uh transitions into employment.

Uh we have uh what was mentioned earlier uh for our trans population, uh different dynamics for that.

Um I know that recently that expansion that was mentioned, it's not an expansion in terms of increasing the current population.

It was actually an expansion within the infrastructure we currently have.

So we didn't build any new places or anything like that.

We just reconfigured, as was demonstrated by the slides, what we work with right now.

So by doing that, we were actually able to expand our trans programming by creating a better space for that to occur.

Uh so yeah, we have ongoing and that consist that constantly shifts in terms of meeting the needs.

I'm going to go for staffing.

Um, we without mention very specific uh incidents.

I you also answer uh on on the staffing slide, you also answer some of my questions.

So when incident happened, like accused miscounta happened, you talked about investigation, reassign all discipline.

But I also want to know that uh what is the process to assign deputies to part wide and investigation it's pending, and how about after the investigation, what has been comp once it has been completed.

It all depends on the circumstance or the incident involved, uh the number of individuals or the severity of what is alleged.

Uh but I will say this uh regarding and specific to the May incident, uh there was some accountability based on our initial investigation, uh, which we've shared with the community.

Um we still have ongoing investigations as articulated by Director Henderson, uh so I can't speak to names or specific specificities, but I will say I'm hearing what the community uh was requesting in regards to accountability.

I will say that uh the individuals involved that supervised and managed the strip search and the searches uh on that day are no longer at that facility.

Uh they're no longer assigned there, they were reassigned.

Uh and there was training involved in some of that process as well and addressing the issue in terms of interpretation of policy and what the actions were.

Uh but I still hear that there is ongoing concerns about retaliation specific to deputies, specific to people that work day to day.

And I just want to say one thing now that I have the opportunity to talk about staffing.

Um, although the picture that has been painted here is one of unprofessional behavior of ongoing processes that lead to retaliation.

I also want to say those those same people uh that do the work every day, that work with these individuals who are uh in a space uh where they find themselves incarcerated.

Um we also have uh people who do the work well and for as many people as complainants as provide grievances for actions taken.

We also have people who provide us with information that these people are doing a good job as well.

So there's a balance between how we assign people, and again, if there is an allegation, uh we do respond to that on a case-by-case basis.

Uh if it is something severe, uh something concerning, then we will transfer that individual to another location.

If it involves allegations of misconduct or excessive force or allegations of abuse of incarcerated individuals, then we'll take them out of the custody division and place them in administrative positions uh pending that investigation.

Um but we can't be responsive to every single grievance that we are given.

Uh I I just looked at a uh number, I think so far this year.

We have over 300 grievances provided to our prisoner legal services.

I can get you that number exactly.

Um we can't move our staff based on an allegation of uh misconduct or mistreatment uh for every grievance that there is.

And I do want to say one last thing, because I understand uh that may be provocative to some individuals.

That doesn't mean we don't respond.

That just means I have to work within the confines of having staff available to provide services to individuals.

Providing for safety and security for people who have limited constitutional rights is extremely challenging.

Uh we are working in a jail space.

So our community and the community that is reflected uh in these spaces is one in which uh we are dealing with individuals who, you know, I I don't put people in jail and I don't determine who is released.

That's the court system that decides that.

Um but I will say that when we are given the task of taking care of people in our custody and care.

Um it's not something that we take lightly.

So when allegations come up, we do our best to make sure that we create the safest situation for both the individual who is the victim of the alleged allegation as well as the staff member who is uh being uh charged with something.

So may I clarify the 300 grievances this year only for 2026?

Yeah, and it's uh that's pretty consistent.

We get a large number of grievances on a daily.

And then within two months.

This isn't just uh women grievances, this is for the whole population.

So, and do you have breakdown of like how many is from the women in custody?

Because I know it's about 103 women's in uh in custody.

So I'd have to check with my director of prisoner legal services because this information is just what she has received, and I don't believe they do that breakdown, but I will check.

Yeah, even it's uh uh 1300 um uh in population, it's still a good 10 percent, like over 10 percent grievances every month.

This is and how often this grievances gets addressed, like what is the duration of the grievance being completely uh investigated and and have a culture?

They're triage first to see what the specific uh grievance is about, and then they're uh funneled to that chain, which is responsible.

So if it's a grievance about food, it goes to our food provider.

If it's a grievance about a staff member, uh it goes to our chain as well as uh possible uh inclusion of our internal affairs unit.

Uh so it all depends on what the grievance is.

But grievances cover everything about conditions of confinement, up to and including people who complain about their bunkies, their roommates, or people who complain about uh uh what we put on our programming for television and and access to things like that.

So it covers everything.

Just then in general, do we have a bolt uh time frame of like within a week, within two weeks, then we added a couple of things.

Two weeks is when we're supposed to be responsive.

Two weeks, yes.

So that's what the general rule is uh depending on where it's being funneled and which way it's going.

But it's this is the general rule, but it's this has been the practice also.

No, I'll say openly that that is one of the areas that we can see improvements in certain areas.

For example, one jail may be able to manage that properly, while another jail may not.

Uh so I have to look further into that.

I'm about to be audited anyway, so I'm sure that will be one of the topics of discussion uh and one of the areas of concern that we will make sure we provide the information on.

Thank you, Sheriff.

Uh then the next topic, it's about um facilities and sanitations.

Um we have heard from women in custody that if janitorial services are unavailable during certain hours, that women in custody may not have clean out shells and that are in dirty body for what and how frequently uh janitorial services are inaccessible, and what health and safety measures are implemented to protect the women in custody.

So, in regards to our uh facilities, uh cleanliness and sanitation, uh we have 24-hour janitorial services in our facilities.

Uh that doesn't mean they go into the housing units and clean 24 hours a day, obviously, but there is access to that.

We have access to materials.

I think somebody mentioned a concern about having access to protective equipment like uh face masks and things of that nature.

We have all protective equipment to provide to the incarcerated population if they are participants in the cleaning process.

We have weekly inspections and abide by Title 15 requirements to have full inspections, which include the participation of the housing unit members to help clean what we call double scrub the night before to make sure that everything is hygienic and clean for the inspection.

We have a whole cleaning schedule that's in one of the slides that were provided in the presentation to demonstrate the uh schedule itself.

And I believe that some of the other references were in regards to the quality of clothing.

And of course, I would like to have new clothing every month for individuals, but we cannot do that.

We recycle and use clothing, we clean it on a scheduled basis with our laundry.

In fact, uh under our management uh our staff actually allowed for during my tenure uh women to be participants in the cleaning process and to work our laundry facilities there.

Uh prior to that it had always been male-based in terms of our uh workers and our uh individuals who work the laundry assignment, but that actually pivoted to women a few years ago.

Um the members themselves provide for the cleaning of the materials and the clothing.

So with that then um how just to add by how frequently then do women in custody have access to freshly cleaned a clothing or bedding.

Uh we have uh I think I heard that somebody said they thought that or somebody said they hadn't gotten anything for a month.

Uh I would definitely look into that because I know that our schedules are on a weekly basis of laundry exchanges.

Uh and I know bedding is one that might be about 30 days, but the clothing itself, in terms of outer clothing and then inner clothing, uh, there is a schedule for that that's on a weekly basis that rotates between all pods, regardless of gender.

The public commenters also mention accessing hot water.

So do you have you realized that had been a problem also in women custody, like have no access to hot water?

We have, and I'm glad you brought that.

Uh I'm glad it was brought to the attention during public commentary because uh renovations and updates to our boilers and our systems that are in place.

We still rely on the Hall of Justice 850 Bryant for some of that infrastructure, and we have requested for years uh updates and renovations and in uh in the ongoing budgetary process, those are things that have been deferred over the years uh in the interest of budget savings.

So uh I appreciate the opportunity to highlight that as an area of concern.

We do our best to make sure that hot water is maintained.

Uh I'm at 50 percent staffing of my stationary engineers who come in and do the work to keep the current infrastructure going.

Uh I think we just did an emergency declaration for our boilers uh to do some work to make sure that they can provide the level of need that there is for hot water.

So there have been instances when that hasn't been available.

Um I know that this is something that has happened at both our San Bruno facility and our location downtown.

So um then in terms of the facility itself, how often and um the facility get clean up and check for mole or vector issues.

Uh we contract out for that.

We actually have that checked on on a I believe quarterly basis with a yearly report that's given to us.

Any questions related to sanitation?

If not, I will go to health and safety.

Okay.

Um for health and safety related, and how often uh a woman in custody place it into a safety shell for and usually for how long on an average basis and why the condition under which a woman would be placed in uh solitary.

So safety cells, uh we don't well, we don't have anything like solitary confinement, but safety cells are basically padded uh individual holding cells uh in which a person can be placed for up to 24 hours with direct observation from clinicians from medical and uh behavioral health staff as well as our own staff.

Uh we follow very strict guidelines pursuant to Title 15 when an individual is placed in there, and we don't take it lightly.

These are individuals who basically are deemed unable to care for themselves or that are a danger to themselves or others, uh individuals that exhibit behavior that can be harmful, um, uh individuals involved in uh assaultive behavior.

Uh there's a whole list of criteria for individuals to go to the safety cell.

And it's not just a decision for sworn staff, it's also a decision that's reviewed by uh our behavioral health staff, our medical staff as well.

So it's something that when somebody is placed there, uh they are put into that cell.

It's determined whether or not they can uh wear what we call a safety cell blanket if they have access to uh a mattress or other materials.

Um sometimes their behavior is disruptive or destructive, so we don't place those items in.

Um but as I mentioned, they would be in there for up to 24 hours.

Um we also heard from like um uh a lot of the commentaries mentioning about accessing to fresh air and sunlight and how often uh do women custody get in terms of access to sunlight.

And that is definitely a challenge that we have at the one facility where women are housed, uh our location at 425 7th Street downtown, what we call County Jail 2.

Uh, there is not access to direct sunlight uh where you're going into an open area.

Uh the litigation that Yolanda Wang referred to in her public commentary was very specific to making sure we create those access points out at San Bruno, which is our male facility, which has open areas in terms of uh uh yard space where we are able to allow for people to come out into those areas.

Um this I want to take the opportunity to also mention this is separate and apart from recreation.

Recreation is out of cell time, it's out of the housing unit where we bring somebody to a different space uh to have the opportunity to have recreation, engage in exercise and activities outside of their housing area.

So it is different slightly than uh access to sunlight.

And how what can we do to ensure and how what are you going to do to ensure that Title 15 is not violated in jail number two?

Uh right now we don't well we ensure that Title 15 is not violated by making sure through our monthly report outs that we are in compliance.

Uh we are audited by the Board of State Community Corrections.

Uh they have annual yearly reviews of uh and there's a biannual review uh every two years of our facilities and uh our compliance.

Uh they review our records, everything from the safety cell records to the housing pod, uh logbooks uh to our compliance with all standards for Title 15, which is how we manage uh people in our custody and care, and Title 24, which is what the infrastructure is that we work in.

And to follow up with that, it's like how frequently do women in custody have access to standard physical goncological health services.

Uh for physical, that's covered by our recreation activities.

That's uh I believe a minimum of three hours a week is mandated by Title 15 on recreation access.

Uh in terms of mental health, uh the last part of your question, supervisor?

Women health.

Uh women's health.

Uh that's an ongoing, and that criteria is uh part of our program uh processes and what we have uh available to them through our program services.

Um related to conduct and procedures, um, what is your policy regarding when strip search are initiated?

And I know you talk a little bit about it already, and can you also mention like uh the how uh how frequent are strip services are yalding uh yielding results?

Um I want to take the opportunity right now, since we're talking about strip searches to address another thing that was brought up during the public commentary, and that's directly related to policy and strip searches.

I believe one more than one person mentioned that we're in the process of updating those.

I think one of the attorneys mentioned uh that as well, and we are, and that is with community input.

Right now we're at the state where my legal team, my legal counsel is reviewing the recommendations provided by community members uh to improvements in that, which would ensure that we have a more dignified approach that takes into consideration steps that we can take where we don't go directly to a strip search, and that's a part of our review of our policies right now.

We appreciated that the input was given to us not just by some community groups and not just through the jail justice coalition who we work with, uh, but um it's one in which we hope to change our policy based on some of those recommendations uh to allow for uh the concerns to be addressed.

When it comes to when our strip search is implemented, usually when we have information of drugs coming into the jail, that is the number one uh common way of us to initiate an organized uh structured search of a housing area and individuals within that housing area.

And that would include strip searches.

Um and when we talk about strip searches, um we are hoping to improve based on some of those policy recommendations from the community and get what we call body scanners in.

Uh we only have them when we bring people into our system at the front end.

We don't have them in our housing units, but we hope to get some body scanners so we can use that as an intermediary step before conducting a strip search.

But you understand that if we do find something on the body scan, if there is an object on the person's body that's secreted somewhere, we would have to still conduct a strip search.

So we're not going to be able to completely eliminate the need for strip searches when it comes to contraband control.

But we can introduce steps which would reduce the need to go straight to strip searches for the search itself.

The numbers themselves would be in the documentation that we have on our what we call shakedowns, but they are organized structured searches of housing areas when we get information on contraband.

So also just to clarify and also ask this question if um it's the strip search that have conducted before being tracked and analyzed it before?

Like how often they occurs?

Yeah, that information for the occurrences would be in our documentation of the actual housing unit searches.

So it's not listed as a strip search, it's listed as a housing unit search.

So we'd be able to follow up and make sure that the committee gets that information as well.

And I think I asked this question earlier too.

How often, based on the uh the report that you documented in the you know, let's just say 2025.

Actually, those uh strip search as it yields results.

That you suspicious something, and then actually you conducted a strip search that actually you know resolved at something.

I don't have that information available in my materials here, but we can follow up and make sure we get that information.

Um also I just wanted to follow up yeah with uh something that you share earlier that in 2024 that was 24 reports uh uh and then for investigations.

So I just want to know, like there are knowing that women many women have experienced this assaults, and what services do they immediately being provided after?

At the time of reporting, uh if it's an in-custody report out of uh an assault, uh we're fortunate because we have on-site jail behavioral health staff members, so they're notified and made a referral for the individual to follow up at the time of reporting.

Uh we follow all PRIO reporting requirements as well, so the notifications during the investigation as well are conducted by our our criminal investigations unit staff and our detectives uh provide the victim's rights notifications as well as referrals to uh uh the ability to access individuals to help with any uh with any trauma issues that are involved with the incident.

Then how fast is usually a referral gets to actual appointment.

Um with jail behavioral health, it's immediate because we have on-duty staff uh most of the day and into the evening.

So I do know that it is of concern.

Uh one thing I would note too, you mentioned something about the totals, uh, but the breakdown on that, just so we could be more specific.

I gave the 2025 numbers, which was uh 18 total investigations or or allegations.

Ten of those were male victims, five were female victims, uh women victims, or uh one was anonymous, two were combined.

So sometimes we get one individual who files multiple complaint um um complaints and reports.

Um as for the suspects, nine were male, five were women, and four were unknown.

Got it.

That was just a further breakdown for you.

Now let's move to transition and support.

Oh, Supervisor Wong.

That's some related to procedure.

Okay.

Um just to get a little bit more info about the conditions for strip search, is it currently a discretionary based on whoever's uh uh the sergeant or uh the lead in the area?

Uh we have a set of procedures and processes for the supervisors to follow.

Uh a deputy can't make the individual decision to just conduct a strip search.

That's something that is considered.

We have on each individual's housing card, which is their actual information on uh different categories of information that's provided for each individual.

Uh not everybody can be strip searched when they come into jail.

Uh there's a set of criteria that we have based on charges, history, and behaviors.

Uh that can change if the behaviors happened in the jail while they're incarcerated.

Um if we catch somebody with drugs, then they can be strip searched from that point on in subsequent searches.

Uh but we do have a process involved.

And the guidelines, that was one of the issues, uh, the interpretation of the guidelines was one of the issues that we addressed with our supervisors for the May incident.

Is there any known disparity between the strip searches for males versus women?

No.

There is not.

We uh apply the criteria to each gender regardless regardless of gender.

Uh this applies to the male housing units as it does to the women's housing units.

And then I was just reading about the the policy about not having body cams record strip searches, and there were some that uh had use body cams.

So what has been done to ensure that no recordings are left whatsoever of that.

Additional training for the staff that have body cameras.

Uh that was also a supervisorial issue uh in terms of direction given uh to continue recording when that was clearly not what the intention is of our policy or procedures.

So uh that was addressed through additional training as well as the uh reassignment of the individuals.

Thank you, sir.

Okay.

Thank you, Supervisor Wong.

Uh transition and support.

When women in custody are released from the jail system, what are the transition services that they are offered, if any?

I believe we had a slide up.

We have a number of out-of-custody programs that we transition individuals to.

We have a re-entry service.

Actually, the broad view, we have a women's re-entry center specific to our women population that exists right on Bryant Street, right outside of uh the release point for our jails.

Uh we don't have the same thing for our male population.

Um that is an area where we can coordinate people's transitions into the community.

I believe there was a slide that had our out of custody, out of jail programs.

I can't find I shuffled my deck, so let me find that real quick.

Oh, our post-release programming involves uh interactions with our no-violence alliance, which is longstanding program that we have for transitional and re-entry services into uh residential uh situations, intensive case management, sober living mental health services are all covered under the different categories of residential care and treatment.

Uh we have our women's resource center, as I mentioned, our WRC, which is specific to women that provides support groups and workshops, case management and referrals, and a safe space for community connection.

And that's at uh on Bryant, as I mentioned.

We also have Cameo House that we partner with to provide uh specific services to uh provide a sober and recovery living environment.

Um we have programs there.

Uh it's very tailored, it's tailored to individuals with families, uh parenting and uh life skills related to raising a family.

Um that site was recently affected by the fire that occurred on uh on Guerrero at the shell station that was right there, but I believe it's still up and running.

Um independent living and stable housing is provided there as well.

With all these services, is there a case manager actually working with them?

Yes.

Yes.

And uh we also have through Calame, which was a huge uh uh benefit for us uh through discharge planning.

We have our discharge planning for people with transition into the community.

Uh we have safe harbor, safe passage, uh housing access point, which are all listed on that slide that you can reference.

And I also heard from the commentary that they were released in the middle of the lot in the middle of night at night.

It's like what time uh of the day uh that especially women, like women in case they are usually uh release.

I appreciate that.

I I hope that we can follow up with that individual because ACM is, by the way, assertive case management.

That's uh very intensive case management where the case worker is uh is responsible for really being hands-on for that case management for the individual.

We don't usually do ACM releases uh until nine in the morning uh during the day.

We don't do ACM releases at night.

So I'm concerned about the issue raised by that individual because um that's not something we do.

If there is an a situation where somebody may be asked to leave in the middle of the night with no resources, that's not what we want to do.

We don't want people to re-offend and have them come back right away.

Uh we have a program where people can actually stay if they have nowhere to go overnight, and then we can look to getting them to resources in the morning.

Um that's one of the problems we have here in San Francisco.

We don't have 24 hour services for everybody's needs.

So we do our best not to release people into the night unless they have something somewhere to go, especially if they are ACM related.

So just so to be uh c for clarity, it's that this is not a policy like we usually do not release uh uh, especially women in the middle of night.

That's correct.

Usually the release for ACM is at nine in the morning.

Um the next topic is services for transgender women in custody.

Uh what are some specific services that offer to transgender women in custody?

Uh let me grab that slide or that information for you.

So the ones I uh mentioned, I'll briefly go over again.

For our trans population by moving them and expanding out our housing uh situation, we were able to basically increase the number of services provided to the trans population.

We have trans reputation representation in the media provided by our partnership with the public library and uh uh librarian Michael Lambert.

Um community forward uh partnership helps us to provide a program called Seeking Safety for our Trans Population.

Our sisters cohort in the trans community uh that we have in the jails actually uh provides the sisters support that we have for our women population as well.

And we have a trans justice program that we just started.

I don't have the details on that one because it's newer, uh, but I did ask my director Ally Riker to get me that information so that we can break it down for you further uh in our follow-up for your request for information.

Um for sexual assaulting misconduct, I also have another question.

I mean, I also have one last question.

It's because uh director uh Cario is from the SHAF office is also here.

Does the Sheriff's Office uh the sheriff's department refer to shop when necessary as H A R P Sharp?

I'm not familiar with Sharp Director Cario.

Yeah, okay.

Good afternoon, Supervisors.

Uh Lila Carrillo with uh the mayor's office for victims' rights, uh which is the department uh where the office of Sharp is housed.

Sharp stands for sexual harassment, assault response and prevention.

Um so after I will say after the um tour that happened uh late last year, um I actually my office reached out to the sheriff's office uh and we were able to request um to have some office hours.

Uh the initial request was to have some office hours potentially possibly uh for the women in custody.

Um I completed uh some office hours over at the women's resource center uh beginning the end of January through uh the month of February on an almost weekly basis.

Uh so after that trial period, um I've made an assessment that and as you hear from the uh findings today, that the there is a a significant need for the women in custody to know and understand the existence of the office of Sharp, um, what we're able to do uh and what we can provide.

So I have reached out to the um sheriff's office, uh Allie particularly, uh, who is now um uh pending response, but we're looking into actually having Sharp being inside uh CJ2 to offer uh resources and and services.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director Cario.

Um I want to pass some of my time to Supervisor Bala for your questions.

Um I think I just first wanted to thank all the community members who came out uh for speaking up about the injustices that you have experienced over years uh at county jails.

I know that talking about your experiences in public uh is difficult, uh, but we are listening in as part of this hearing and going forward with Supervisor Chen's leadership as well, doing what we can to make it right.

Women and trans people deserve to be treated with respect um and dignity by our sheriff's deputies and by the criminal justice system, and there's no excuse for harassment, mistreatment, or abuse.

Um I want to thank Supervisor Chen again for uh convening this hearing.

Um just a on that note, um I had the opportunity with Supervisor Chen to visit the jails earlier this year as well.

Um so I had uh two or three questions, uh just quickly following up on some of the comp the mentions that were made.

Um one of the things we saw was significant overcrowding in some of the jails uh that we saw on the first floor when we were there, Sheriff.

Uh you mentioned the pod re-architecture as a result of some of that.

How many people are on average in a con in a specific pod before, and how much will how many will be there going forward on an average basis?

Well, what's nice is we've been able to expand the population out, so they occupy two pods now instead of one.

I believe one pod, their uh maximum capacity was eighty-six, and the pod we expanded out into D pod was uh I believe 56 56.

So that's the numbers that we have.

We also have a cohort in APOD, that's where our trans population is.

Uh and they are housed on the upper level.

Uh, I'm not sure what the number is there, but I know that nine of them currently participate in some of our programmatic content.

Understood.

Um then going to some of the pre-reports of the investigations, the numbers you quoted were 22 reports in 2024, uh, four investigations completed, one ongoing.

Of the investigations that were completed, uh can you share uh what were the repercussions or what was the verdict and those components?

Uh I don't have that information offhand, but we can provide the information on the four investigations that moved forward.

Uh some may still be ongoing.

Uh I will find out and get that information back to you when I provide the packet of all the follow-up issues.

This was just the ones that were completed.

The four the four completed you mentioned.

Yeah, I'll find out what the status was on the investigations.

Those are the four from 2024.

Yeah.

And that uh I can look into that.

Um to your recollection over the last maybe five, ten years.

Um I think a lot of what we're hearing from the public comment was about accountability.

Um I know you can't speak to the results directly in this, but to your general recollection.

How many sheriff deputies have been held accountable in the past?

Have any have any lost their job as a result of reports over the last five to ten years?

I can say that I believe at least one member of the public made a reference to a recent case involving a trans uh uh trans individual and a member of our staff.

Uh that individual was uh fired and terminated.

So that's the one I know that occurred recently in 2025.

Um I could speak to that because uh the individual is on probation, so the process that we took uh to separate that individual was faster than you would see in other processes.

So aside from that one, you're not you're not aware, top of mind of anyone else who's been ever dismissed from duty as a result of reports.

I I couldn't give you an exact number, but I I I'd like to look further into that to provide you that information.

Okay.

Um then last is just obviously a lot of folks have expressed concern uh about the strip search incident uh last year.

Um when the numbers for accountability are either not known or at least just one.

What do you say to the community um that wants accountability or action when it's not really clear that we have data to say that we have taken action in the past?

Um how do we how do you give them confidence that the results of this investigation will have repercussions of accountability Well, one to be open and share the information as we receive it.

So one challenge for us uh that's experienced in the profession itself is when allegations are brought against staff members.

Uh it's not just a definitive, okay, get rid of the person right now.

There's an investigation process.

We have third parties that come in to provide that investigation for us now, as you as was mentioned earlier uh by DPA.

Uh and then there's an administrative process to separate somebody from employment uh or to hold them accountable through the disciplinary process.

Uh I would ask that you refer back to that slide deck, which kind of outlined what the process is, and it does take a while.

Uh it is challenging.

And I will say my personal experience, uh, which can be frustrating for the public and community at times.

Uh when we find a bad app, or when we find a bad seed or we find somebody who uh has engaged in misconduct to the point that we need to circulate or terminate them, we still have a process of binding arbitration through the collective bargaining agreement where once that person is separated, there is still a separate administrative process where a third party, an arbiter, makes a determination on whether or not my ability to separate that person and terminate them uh stands.

Uh and I've had experiences of individuals who we've terminated who through binding arbitration come back and get their jobs back.

And that creates a challenge for us uh in this industry and in this profession when that occurs.

Thank you for answering my questions.

Sure.

Thank you, Sheriff.

Um thank you so much for answering that question.

Now I would like to call DPA Director Henderson to answer some of my questions.

And I'll before you say something, I also want to acknowledge and thank the director of the shop office, Leah Carriol.

Thank you so much for uh coming up and share your um your um interaction with the sheriff's office.

Um Director Henderson, uh, I would like to know does your office have an MOU with the sheriff's office to investigate certain types of complaints?

What types of complaint if there's an MOU?

Sure.

Uh and I will refer back.

We don't have the screens up.

It was in the slides that I had, but there it's enumerated.

So it's use of force, uh particularly when we have injury or death, uh, use of weapons uh when there's weapons are used or a control device is used, uh sexual misconduct, uh pattern and practice retaliation, uh so that's harassment, and that also includes bias.

And then also whenever there is a reckless disregard of health and safety.

Oh, thank you.

It's up in front of us.

Uh and the other thing in there is listed, I believe, is yes, all love the and custody deaths as well.

Um the current and one of the current investigations separate from these that are ongoing, uh, and the ones where we are talking about with the strip search is an expansion from the LOA that we have, uh, and that was specifically enumerated, and that door has always been open.

I will say it's not an infrequent door for the sheriff's office to reach out uh and bring us specific and individual cases that are outside of that LOA.

So there are often times where the LOA is expanded based on the sheriff bringing things to us where they want us to do an independent review.

So bring in things.

So is there a process to determine if a complaint is covered by your MOU?

So is that a um written process?

It is.

That's the uh LOA that you see the what's enumerated there, and it it's basically the LOA.

I'm just saying that there's there are often times where the LOA gets expanded, and I will say that the LOA has been rewritten at least twice uh each time the jurisdiction has been expanded, but there's also a back door in case issues are brought to the sheriff that the sheriff will reach out, the sheriff and the staff will bring reach out to DB DPA to have us do an investigation as well.

Okay.

Then uh what about when a complaint uh alleged sexual assault, but then the sheriff's office doesn't sustain that allegation after they conducted an initial investigation.

Do you defer to them or do you investigate the complaint independently?

We only can have jurisdiction to investigate the complaints that come through into the sheriff's office in that way.

That said, uh oftentimes we make referrals outside of the sheriff's office.

It's not uh uncommon for folks to reach out to us because we accept referrals.

Uh we accept referrals everywhere.

Uh so sometimes referrals will come to us from folks that are in custody and they're not even San Francisco residents.

They're in other counties.

So we make referrals outside of the county, we make referrals to other agencies, the attorney general's office, the Department of Justice, and even local prosecutors in the DA's office as well when people are calling to us to report uh behaviors or activities that are illegal, criminal, or problematic, not covered by the LOA.

Then can you speak a little bit more about your internal process and of how do you handle complaints?

Absolutely.

Uh so we receive complaints uh from any number of areas.

Um that's why I'm always giving the website uh our investigators that we're here.

We're speaking to people today, collecting information and making uh our information available so they can contact our office to uh make a complaint about something.

Uh you can call 24 hours a day.

Our offices are also open nine to five every day or eight to five every day uh on mission and vaness.

We have an open door and walk-in policy.

People come into our offices all day, every day.

Uh you can uh leave and make complaints online.

We receive emails 24 hours a day as well.

Every single day we have rotating intake where someone is designated all day to go through calls that have come in through the evening and to be responsive in person to people that are either calling or dropping into our offices.

There are also flyers throughout the city and in most of the boards as well, offices as well, with some of the same information codified in seven different languages for people to contact us any way they want us to make a referral.

As of today, how many complaints are open and how many are usually made per year?

Sure.

So on average for uh the sheriff's office, I would say that the range is uh between 22 to 65 investigations are ongoing at any given time.

The average is about 42, and that's the average uh sense for specifically for sheriffs.

There's about 42 separate independent investigations that go on.

That's not the number of complaints.

The complaints are much larger, but in terms of open investigation.

Exactly.

These I'm counting the open investigations and independent investigations.

I'm just giving it context because we get a lot more complaints than there are independent investigations, but as I said earlier, specifically enumerated and limited by the LOA.

But 42, you said it's uh is it per year or is it accumulation of license?

Per year.

Uh on average per year.

Yeah.

Okay.

What uh what happened if complaints that don't get move?

They all move.

Uh so they all get uh referred, closed out, or brought through uh to the sheriff.

And so we will do an investigation and we will present that information to the sheriff's office for discipline.

Oftentimes this, and by the way, this whole process is also reviewed and examined and presented to the sheriff's board as well.

So there's two separate kind of tracks of this going on, and some of them are duplicated, but it's so the information is shared, and there's a little more transparency with having a lot of these numbers and a lot of these details are shared publicly in the annual reports that we've prepared in the past and then the presentations that get made to the sheriff board.

Thank you.

So I actually want to go back a little bit to the data.

So I heard from the sheriff's uh department about uh last year it's 18 cases, but as of this year, that's like overall in general, not not only related to women, it's about 300 grievances.

Um and you mentioned 42 on average.

What about as of today?

Like there's 300 grievances from from the um sheriff's department already.

But as of today, from your department, how many uh actually open or investigations?

Uh right now.

Thank you.

It's in here.

Yeah.

Uh 37, almost 40.

Uh but you raised an issue that I just wanted to clarify.

Two things that I just wanted to make a point of.

Grievances, I actually think those numbers are lower.

I think their grievances are probably higher than that, but there's a distinction made between the grievances and the investigations that we are doing.

Grievances are uh very specific type of complaint that come in about uh oftentimes things like conditions, uh the the lights are turned off too early or heating, hot water.

You've heard a lot of some of those complaints together.

Uh those aren't necessarily the same as the discipline process for the things that we're talking about.

I just wanted to differentiate between the two volume of grievances doesn't necessarily translate into the discipline cases and the open investigations.

But the other thing that I wanted to talk about and just to mention for you is that the sheriff will actually, as he ha as they have the sheriff says from the very beginning of the partnership brought cases to and through DPA to investigate, and of those cases, we accept about 90 percent of them.

I just wanted to share more of the stats and details about that in case it's relevant to your questions.

Um there's a state law, SB 1421.

Yes.

It requires that uh you make records available regarding use of force, sexual assaults, and dishonesty.

How have you been implementing SB 1421?

That's a great question.

It's a great question because I think a lot of people don't understand how 1421 works and San Francisco handles 1421 in a unique way that no other city does.

So in San Francisco, 1421, those type of state disclosures are done by individual departments.

So in most other cities, 1421 is done by one specific agency, typically the city attorney's office that releases those things.

Uh in San Francisco, the exact same incident, uh, let's just say there's an incident involving an arrest and a prosecution.

Let's just say there's an incident involving an arrest and a prosecution from that independent issue or that singular issue, there can be as many as four or five 1421 disclosures, depending on the agency that you're requesting the information from.

So you can get a disclosure from the district attorney, from the city attorney, from the sheriff's department, from DPA, and if there's a commission over the any of those agencies, the commission as well, if they've touched any of those documents for those disclosures that qualify.

DPA manages those disclosures independently as well, and we have released thousands and thousands and thousands of those documents.

And we get requests for those documents.

We make them all publishable and they are all on portals as we make them.

We have an entire division internally doing just the 1421 disclosures.

We have a tight budget, so a lot of that staff is spread out and doing other things as well now, but the 1421 obligations are ongoing and are updated almost daily in terms of the disclosures that are being made.

Thank you, Director Henderson.

I don't have questions, more questions for him.

And I also see none of my colleagues.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So my question may be, you know, variety of everything that we cover today, all the topic that we cover today.

Uh how frequently do clients report incidents of all uh misconduct uh alleged misconduct and when clients report incidents uh of alleged misconduct, what are the processes to assist them with filing a complaint and how about getting them connected to services?

Thank you for holding this hearing.

It's really important.

Umly report concerns about policy violations, including lack of access to showers, a bed, bedding, food, medical care.

Uh, when we receive these complaints, we convey them to the sheriff's office as we have a good working relationship with the sheriff's office.

Another assistant chief and myself, we meet with the sheriff's office every two weeks to try to problem solve issues.

Our integrity unit, which is a small two-person unit, will also assist clients with filing misconduct complaints, such as the complaint we filed about the mass strip search that took place last May.

We also have a skilled and culturally competent bilingual social workers who can connect our clients to a wide variety of services, mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, housing, and college classes.

However, we certainly need many more social workers than the dozen that we have to respond to the needs of the 20,000 clients we serve a year.

Thank you.

And my next question is like what is your cease or trans women clients share with you in terms of jail conditions that had that have been impacting them.

We reported an incident of sexual assault that's been discussed at this hearing to the sheriff's office last year.

A deputy sexually assaulted our our trans woman client at county jail too.

Uh, we understand the uh assault is still under investigation, and we are looking forward to hear more updates about this.

Um we also reported a mass that that mass strip search that happened in B pod, uh, where women reported being filmed stripped in front of one another and humiliated by deputies and their supervisors.

Um we're glad to hear that they those staff might have been moved.

We uh would like to know when they were moved and where they're moved to.

Um we have received multiple complaints about trans women being misgendered, called their birth name rather than their preferred name, being denied women's clothing, being denied a shaver, and being placed in cis mail pods rather than in the pods for trans women, which I believe is pods A and E at CJ2 County Jail 2.

We have received complaints from our staff who saw pregnant clients being packed into pods where people are sleeping on the floor.

In one case, our staff sent us a complaint last summer stating, quote, when I went to visit her in C pod, the conditions were horrible.

The entire pod had COVID.

My client included.

She is packed in a room with five to six other bunkies.

I cannot even imagine going through that while pregnant.

I asked her if she was okay.

She said yes, but she couldn't move from the bed.

She could barely get up.

What is the uh lockdown impact on your staff's ability to actually meet with your clients?

So lockdowns do prevent our staff from being able to meet with our clients.

We often have uh uh back and forth exchange, the sheriff's office where we are conveying a complaint from our staff who are actually sitting in the lobby of county jail one, two, or three, um, asking to meet with a client and being told that they need to wait sometimes hours, sometimes the full day.

Uh sometimes there is no kind of end time in sight, and we're trying to work with the sheriff's office to get our attorneys in because if they can't meet with uh the client, they cannot prepare for their hearing.

Um that leads to people being held in the jail that would otherwise be released, and it helps, and that uh unfortunately leads to more people being in the jail, which is oftentimes at a hundred or over 100% capacity.

Um we've asked the sheriffs to notify us when there is a lockdown, so we can at least give our staff notice so they save time from driving from downtown San Francisco to San Bruno County Jail 3, which can take a long time, half an hour or more.

Um, and for many years we never received notice.

But recently, um, there is a new uh chief deputy of custody division who said she's doing our best to notify us, and we appreciate that.

Um we remain very concerned about frequent lockdowns because they hinder the ability of of our staff to meet with clients.

It also prevents clients from accessing family visits, programming, movement outside the pod, and other basic necessities that just allow people to stay sane to keep uh to preserve their mental and physical health.

And also, how have the legal uh visits been impacted by the sheriff's office strip search policy?

That one's a big one for our office.

We've been very concerned about uh their strip search practice.

So we reported an issue with a client being threatened with a strip search if they were to engage in a legal visit last February.

Um and then last August, this policy came out to our surprise that uh where uh clients are strip searched following legal visits without regard to if there's reasonable suspicion of contraband without any approval by a supervisor.

Um we expressed a lot of concern about that, so did the San Francisco Bar Association.

There was press coverage about it.

Um and there was been some slight revisions.

Um, the revisions merely encourage deputies to use a body scanner if one's available.

Uh they don't require they use a body scanner.

Uh deputies still have discretion to decide to just conduct a strip search without approval by a supervisor and without any reasonable suspicion.

And it's certainly a deterrence to our clients to be able to meet with their attorneys to prepare for court if the person's required to get naked, to expose their breasts, buttocks, and genitalia, simply to be able to speak with their lawyer.

And we have had clients who say no to legal visits because of that type of threat that is sometimes carried out.

And we believe it's a sixth amendment, it's a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel uh that the current strip search policy poses.

And we also are concerned that the policy disproportionately impacts cis and trans women who are more likely to be survivors of sexual assault to have them re-traumatized uh with strip searches purely because they want to meet with their lawyer.

So we understand the sheriff is considering policy changes recommended by the community.

We hope and encourage him to take action immediately.

Um can you talk about is there any other causes of delay for your staff being delayed or denied to meeting with your clients?

Yeah, so I get these, I get emails, I get text messages from our staff frequently saying that they uh had to wait for a legal visit because and they were told by the deputy that it's because of short staffing.

Um the delays can take several hours.

It's a huge burden on our staff who have high workloads.

Our felony attorneys average 60 cases per attorney.

Our misdemeanor attorneys average 135 cases.

So every minute our staff person has to wait for a legal visit with their client, they could be devoting that to preparing for another client's case.

It has uh resulted in delays in hearings and delays in our clients getting released because of this.

Um we will continue to relay these complaints to the sheriff's office.

We want to keep the channels of communication open, but we are we remain concerned, and I think I've spoken to this board before about the frequent delays in legal visits.

Thank you.

Um Assistant Director Angela uh Chen.

I don't have any more questions, Chair.

Thank you, Supervisor Chen.

Seeing no one else on the roster, I will want to express my thanks as well to all the participants who turned out today.

Um I will just add that um lived experience offers powerful and informative testimony that we as policymakers really do need to hear, and I think it's sometimes easy for us to forget how painful and re traumatizing it can be for those with lived experiences to recount them in public settings like this.

So please know we honor the courage of everyone who did that today, and we thank you for it.

Thank you as well to the polls we heard from Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and Director, uh DPA director Paul Henderson, together with their respective staff for their participation and the work that they did.

Thank you to the public defender's office, especially Assistant Chief Angela Chan, whom we just heard from.

Supervisor Chen, I will pose to you the question.

What is your procedural question uh preference?

The two options are to um continue this item to the call of the chair if this is something you want to revisit in the months ahead, or we could uh move to have this hearing heard and filed.

Uh thank you, Chair.

And I would like to make some closing remarks, and I would like to uh ask you to make a motion to uh actually uh continue this item to the call of the chair.

Yeah.

Floor is yours.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair again.

And thank you all my colleagues.

Um again, uh this is very emotional to me.

Um and I also want to emphasize the goal of this hearing was to create a foundation for how we understand the conditions of the jails and the impacts of those conditions on women in custody.

What have been made very clear today is that although the Sheriff's Office have done work to bring new programs and attempt to create procedures to uphold due process and safety, there's still a lot of work that we need to do together, not just to excel, but just to really meet some of the minimum standard to set forth by state laws.

This is the first of many conversations that we should continue to have with all the bodies today.

Uh just very frankly, I think any of this area of discussion could really just be their own hearing.

And I'm committed to continue to holding more hearings so then we can meaningfully drive into this complex problems.

I'm committed to working with the departments and the community to identify places where we can strengthen accountability and transparency like increasing uh some of the reportings.

And my I may also request the Sheriff's Office to convene a working group with community organization to bottom solve for lasting solutions.

I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for the community member who took time out for their schedule today to share their lived experiences and that they really and strength demonstrated today make me hopeful and that can see meaningful changes in the system.

I'm also grateful to all the department, the sheriff department, the Shaf Office, the PD, the Department of Human Umights Commission, and DPA for coming out and also stay uh to the last minute uh to hear all the community testimony and answer all my questions.

Again, I want to thank this committee, again, all my colleagues and everyone who worked to make this conversation possible.

Um again, given this conversation, I do not really feel complete, and I'm requesting the motion uh for the chair to um to continue this item until uh to the call of the chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Chen.

At this time, Madam Clerk, I would move to continue this hearing to the call of the chair.

May we have a roll call on that motion.

Yes, and on the motion to continue this hearing to the call of the chair.

Member Wong.

Member Wong, aye, Vice Chairman Mood, Vice Chairman Mood, aye, Chair Dorsey.

Aye.

Chair Dorsey, I have three ayes.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

The motion passes, and the hearing is continued.

Madam Clerk, do we have any further business before this committee today?

That concludes our that completes our meeting agenda.

Thank you, Madam Clerk, and thank you all for your civic participation.

Today's meeting is now adjourned, but the first thing that we have to do is the first time that we have a very good thing.