he has been celebrated and condemned during his revolutionary first year in office. district attorney joins us for the deep dive interview. we visit the vivid murals of synthesis goes mission district for this week's version of something beautiful. across the state the pressure to reopen schools that have been shuttered for almost a year by the pandemic is reaching a boiling point. state lawmakers, the governor and teacher unions have been wrangling over how to safely get get back in classrooms.

some school say they will offer and personally learning after all teachers are vaccinated. many private schools have already reopen their classrooms raising concerns about equity and who's getting left behind as the pandemic ways behind. >> governor newsom and marriage of the state legislature have been at odds at school reopening's. what is the latest direction at the state level? >> i think it's exciting actually. yesterday the governor laid out a plan that he wants to put in place to vaccinate all teachers across the state who want to be vaccinated. he's talking about 75,000 vaccinations a week ongoing. this will be done through

mobile units. teachers would receive a code they would use to make their appointments to make sure they are getting what they are supposed to be getting. i think you can look at this as a practical move. while the governor did side for the center of disease control which says you can reopen schools without getting vaccinated safely you can do this. teachers unions have really old. a lot of the public sides with them. they will have a hard time forcing teachers back into the classrooms if they don't feel safe to go. >> how the state decisions impact local district managers? >> there's a couple different ways estates department of public health has really been responsible for setting the guidelines for reopening as it

relates o testing and ppe at case rates or things like that. we are within the range that the state has said elementary schools are allowed to reopen. which is fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000. districts like oakland unified are looking to the state legislature to provide funding to help support reopening. this would provide money to districts throughout the state so they can transition back into a person learning. the district still does have to come to an agreement with their labor unions. >> to those dates seem realistic to you? >> i think they do. some people would say that is too late. many parents and families want to see is back in the classroom earlier.

>> the school board has shifted gears really based on community outraged. they will stop work on renaming schools which is a multiyear equity project. they will focus solely on reopening. is a separate cisco school district any closer to an agreement on reopening? >> it has become a national story because the case rates have been so low compared to other cities that have already reopened. both sides bargain hard. the unions were calling for a trusted moderator to come in. that does not look too good. the proposals were pretty different. the teachers are looking at 4/2 days in the morning bringing kids in and kids would stay with the same teachers.

the district is putting something towards more complicated for each school for kids to come back in. only if you parents really want to send their kids back. let's make that possible. as you say there has been a vocal parents groups who are extremely angry that the union has not been able to figure things out through fifth- graders. let alone what is summer school going to look like. i think it's understandable that they are frustrated. these are the only kids to come back right now.>> julia just

mentioned summer school. they are moving forward and oakland in terms of talking about summer school. have the been able to come together more than they have in san francisco? >> like julia said there has been a contingent of parents who have been pressuring the school district and union in oakland. we are approaching a year since students have been in the classroom. some of the main points that the district and union seem to disagree on our exactly when it is safest to bring students back. they want to start welcoming students back as soon as we can. the teachers union has been pressing for schools to wait until we are in a lower tier. we have been pointing to rates in oakland specifically and not

just the county. there are some points that the district and union seem to agree on. vaccinated teachers would be asked to come back first and the in person learning would prioritize the younger students. there'd also be opportunities for older students who need more support instruments who disengaged altogether. >> there has been outline proposals that seem absurd. school district made a proposal for reopening for one hour a day. what models do you see proposed that might be workable? >> i think that is a question of the moment. what is hybrid learning look like? and in more suburban

districts more wealthy districts they are all doing hybrid. when you have parents divided he had to come up with a model that serves. i think that is where they meet the road right now. it's the question around how does distance-learning going to work out. they released the kids to go home for lunch and they don't allow anybody to eat on site. this region information out of georgia this week. when the kids in the a.m. come in and go in the afternoon than the kids come in for the afternoon. is a back and forth. that has been a pretty common model.

this model can be difficult on working families. if you're working parent in the middle of your workday it's really possible. >> are they all eager to send their children back to school full time as quickly as possible?>> parents and families views are extremely varied. even those who are in agreement that schools should open. for a lot of parents they are seeing the toll the isolation has had for their students. they see that their children are losing motivation or suffering from depression or other mental health concerns. their kids are falling behind academically and they want to return for that reason.

there are a lot of families who are very hesitant to send their children back to school buildings. they feel like the risk is too great that their student could contract the virus and bring it home or passage to their grandma or grandpa or other adults that live with him. distance-learning isn't great and the wi-fi doesn't always work. i feel the situation is better than sending the child back to school and possibly risk them coming down with coronavirus. 27% didn't and 31% were unsure and oakland. it was done when we are we really hitting the peak and surge.

>> another elected official with a recall effort building against him is the district attorney. he was a deputy public defender before taking on this job. he is the son of to activist who were incarcerated for murder. he campaigned on promises of progressive change in criminal justice reform. he has made history as the first district attorney in the modern era to charge a police officer with homicide. we discussed his first year in office. hello and welcome back to the show.

tell us about your first year in office and how the pandemic has impacted your work. >> we face obstacles that we never could have imagined or predicted. unprecedented challenges that's none of us have ever seen personally or professionally. converting almost overnight from paper filing and charging processes converting paper case files from paper to digital. we did it as we had to work from home. even as we had to face staffing shortages caused by budget cuts because of the pandemic. i want to give you an opportunity to toot your horn a little bit. what have you accomplished this year? >> we have a lot to be a proud of. even as we decoys rated we successfully closed county

chair for. we avoided an outbreak of covid in our jail. in some categories it has spikes. car break-ins are down. what is your sense of healthy and secure people in the city right now. it is the best to keep up with change. i know we can do a better job. i know we will in the year ahead. >> you noted that they have to

clear cases. is happening at a low level. at this point are you ready to chance and fund the police. >> we need to be more efficient on how we spend our tax dollars when it comes to criminal justice. some of the old policies have not worked. need to make sure we are using our limited police resources to focus on violent crimes. that is focus on public health. we can focus on the mental health crises in the homeless issues and allow police to focus on what they are uniquely positioned to do. response to violent crimes.

>> some of the problems that have been highlighted recently seem to have stemmed from a lack of proper communication between departments. this week you and the mayor's office and the police have all put forward ideas about how you are going to change that going forward. can you walk us through what some of those problems have been at what she does you are planning to make? >> absolutely, we deal with supervising and prosecuting a wide range of people. the majority of them that police bring to us have not been arrested in separate is going to last several years. a significant percentage happened. we need to ensure that the information that our law enforcement agencies have on people they are supervising. that might charge an assistant district attorney's have access to that information. we to ensure that the was

arrested by police was operational purple those agencies are notified and they can germination. so we all know. unfortunately this resulted in very serious consequences. going forward is my hope and my commitment that we have redundancies and communication at efforts. >> we have very strong ideas around drug and mental health services. you noted 75% of those who are booked into our county jail have some sort of drug or mental health problems or both. you are in favor of safe consumption sites. lamenting those ideas is not only to take funding, but time. there is a concern among some of those who voted for you that your desire to rehabilitate people, rather than incarcerating them has led to more petty crime and less personal safety.

how do you respond to that? >> first of all the challenges in the criminal justice system today took decades to establish. it will take time to fix them and undo some of the real serious problems in the status quo. i never expected to solve all of the problems in the criminal justice system in my first year. even if we haven't been shut down by a pandemic. petty crime is down by historic margins. down by about 40%. some of that crime has displaced into commercial and residential burglaries. we are prosecuting the vast majority of cases that police bring us. people have prior arrests in the last few years we are prosecuting more than 70%. what is your vision on one an ideal criminal justice system would even look like in san francisco? >> we need to detect crime more

effectively. need to treat every single arrest has an opportunity for intervention, transforming lives away from crying, and breaking the cycle that we know is an issue from coast-to-coast , from north to south. i people who go into jail or prison and come out and reoffend. we need to make sure we understand what is driving criminal behavior and we hold people accountable in ways that changes what they do. >> we are facing a budget shortfall in san francisco because of the pandemic. a significant one that we are not in the position to implement. what is realistic change actually look like in the next year or two? >> in a traditional year my office would've completed

around 300 jury trials. most of those trials are through january and february for the pandemic shut us down. we have got to figure out how they can move thrall of the ellipsis >> george gascon has struggled to implement rather aggressive measures there. would change to the criminal justice system be more effective if they were more incremental? >> the reality is there are those people who are so deeply committed, that they will use any change, and he reform.

is not going to work. the reforms we implement in san francisco and across the country are widespread and popular. they are supported by decades of research. this is what voter what voters want. they wanted because it makes us safer. >> crime is down by over over 25%. to be clear, you have said the drop in crime is not something you claim credit for. i agree with you. you should be judging by the categories. if you want to accuse me for being responsible for everything that happened, than give credit and responsibility, don't pick and choose which

categories. the reality is the folks that believe or incarceration is the only way and said if we do incarcerate, we see the opposite this year. we reduced reliance on our jail. we had to do so because of covid. we saw a reduction by about 40%. even as the crime rates plummeted. the only way we could field safety is to put more people of color behind bars. the statistics we see around crime and incarceration rates effective investment of resources shown that those fear mongering lies are exactly that. is anything you wish you had done differently in the first year? >> without i wish we predicted the impact that covid was going to have. i wish we were going to be more aggressive during the covid

budget crisis. which we had far better with the role. i wish we had more staff on the front lines involves someone accused. each of those people come from families and communities that are impacted by crime. need to do a better job remembering the people behind the case numbers. the more effective we will be going forward. >> he said voters should judge you in the years to come. based on your record. you talked about the race. where would you like it to be in three years? >> severances goes data systems are really integrated.

i can tell you is that we are filing more charges against repeat offenders in my administration. what i can tell you is that we are seeing lots of individual success stories of people who had been released from custody with appropriate supervision and transitional care going to remain sober and crime free and commit to their families to giving back to the communities. want to see that more often. it will be easier when homeless shelters and treatment facilities open up to their full capacity in a post pandemic era. >> what do you need most in order to accomplish the vision you have? >> we need buy-in from community stakeholders. we need people who can help ensure that every single time someone is arrested who suffers from drug addition or mental illness, or being unhoused that

when we release them there are folks in the community ready to support them in their sobriety and search for employment or their search for stability. so we can break the cycle. we can break this revolving door. >> one last question, you come from a jewish background and you spoke about how the phrase justice justice you should pursue is very meaningful to you. why? what about that particular phrase has let you down this course in life? >> of course is a quote from deuteronomy and was inscribed of the chambers of the late justice ruth gaiter ginsberg's courts chambers. it is something for my own personal experiences growing up visiting my own parents behind bars celebrating passover as a child. that's really profoundly inscribed as a person. my nieces and nephews or the

people whose criminal cases crossed my desk at as the san francisco district attorney. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> this week california said goodbye to one of its visionary leaders. a man who was known as a spiritual godfather to members of the beat generation. the poet and publisher, french admirers gathered around the bookstore in san francisco. he cofounded the bookstore 1953 it became a gathering spot for poets. here is him reading from his own poem the world is a beautiful place. >> the world is a beautiful place to be born into. if you don't mind happiness, not always being so very much fun. if you don't mind a touch just one everything is fine, even in

heaven to sing all the time. >> he was 101. >> murals have become part of our urban landscape. adding culture and history to streets and sidewalks. the murals of clarion and only alleys are in the spotlight as tonight look at something beautiful.

you can find more of our news coverage at kqed.org/newsroom. inc. you for joining us, good night.

peter: a week of truth and consequenc. >> these criminals came prepared for war. peter: the inquest into the breach of the capitol begins. >> people realize the police whom they supported were firing on them. >> was pleading for the deployment of the national guard. there was not an immediate yes. peter: but factual incoistencies and the former president's grip on the g.o.p. make reconciling the truth complex. and after crossing a grim milestone, some optimism. president biden: 50 million shots in just 37 days. peter: and hope that more help is on the way. president biden: let's get this done. peter: plus a new report implicates the crown prince of saudi arabia in the assassination of a journalist. ethics. -- next. announcer: this is "washington week." corporate funding i