order. [roll-call] we have a quorum. >> i want to thank everyone for joining us. this is a special hearing. this hearing is a product of a partnership of the human rights commission kickoff this year with new c. hastings college of law went to students region with two students. she is moving so quickly she is already moving to new york, where she is going to do a special project.

it was the work of these students the main this hearing happen, -- that made this hearing happen. i want to thank them and their professor. these students took a particular interest in what the war on drugs looks like, and this critical effort they put into organizing this meeting as well as the artwork and materials they created were essential to this project, and without it, we would not be here this evening. i want to thank our city partners for joining us this evening. the department of public health and mental health board members, the san francisco youth commission, the director of san

francisco collaborative justice program, and the san francisco police department, and i would like to acknowledge the police chief who is with us this evening. thank you. before we start, i want to make one other acknowledgment. is cecilia's still here? cecilia has been on the commission for the last seven years. she was appointed last week, and our loss is the health commission postgame. this is the fifth -- the house commissions gain. this is the first time she will not be here, and i want to thank her for all her efforts and wish her the best in her new position, and i want to call on

two commissioners who will be leaving this hearing. -- leading this hearing. why don't you take over at this point? >> i am susan christian. good evening. thank you for coming tonight. i am probably the newest member, and it is an honor for me to serve on this commission for the city and county of san

francisco. i just want to say a few words before we get going. first, we are here to listen. from a number of experts and from any public speakers interested in addressing the topic of this hearing. tonight we are not going to take up the question of whether drugs or narcotics should be legalized. what we want to look at is the affect of criminalization and the sanctions that have been placed on narcotics use and abuse. we want to hear what these things have done to our communities. i worked as a prosecutor in san francisco, and i feel privileged to do so, given the fact that i was hired by harris and that i continue to have the pleasure to work with the district attorney.

both of these leaders have progressive visions about what crime is and how to deal with it in a community as diverse as san francisco. we are talking about a war on drugs tonight, and that is a federal creation, but it means different things to different people, and that is one thing we are going to talk about tonight. we all understand while drug use is pretty much the same across many demographics, enforcement tends to fall most heavily on communities of color and communities that have not been in the majority. we need to look at that, and we need to understand what those negative affects have been, so one thing we are looking at tonight is finding out what has been going on and how we can

improve care of our communities in ways that perhaps do not cause so much harm in what san francisco can do to create a new model. there is a national dialogue going on that has been in parts ignited by professor alexander and her new book, the new jim crow, and we want to begin a public dialogue from where we think critically about the effects of what has been called the war on drugs in our communities. thank you for coming, and i am going to turn the microphone over to commissioner davis. >> before we get started, thank you all for coming out, and in the western division where i work, we do a lot of work with families that have been impacted by this war on drugs, and we

have seen a wide range of that impact. i want to it knowledges the chief of juvenile probation and thank him for being here as well. for 40 years as a nation we have waived this widespread war on drugs, and there has been an increase focus on drug-related crimes, and with major increases in funding to law enforcement and criminalization in communities of color and this increase in prison and jail population, we really want to examine it and take a closer look. this is an opportunity to take part in a critical and honest dialogue about the impact of the war on drugs and what we are doing right to address it and what we can do better, so in order to make this dialogue meaningful and effective, we have invited testimony from researchers and experts in the

field as well as service providers and community organizers. the community in general and people most severely impacted. we have also a lot of time for audience members to comment, so we look forward to hearing from the various speakers and ultimately from the public as well. >> i would like to welcome and a knowledge sheriff hennessy for being with us tonight. as noted, we have a number of scheduled speakers. each of those will be speaking for five minutes each. during that time there will be limited opportunity for commissioners to ask questions of those scheduled speakers, questions we might feel are important for the record.

commissioner davis and i are going to ask our colleagues to bear in mind lack of time. after a scheduled speakers are finished, there will be an opportunity for public comment, two minutes each, and the last people to stay on the topic that we are here for tonight. first i would like to welcome alice hoffman. she is the president of the national association for the advancement of colored people in california. welcome. [applause] >> thank you to the commissioners and the co-chair. as a national board member of

the n.a.a.c.p., to have an opportunity to discuss this issue, and i want to go on record to say that we are pleased to get at second it -- the commission in los angeles to pass a resolution to end the war on drugs. we have all come to realize the war on drugs as a failed war. i am probably speaking to the choir, but sometimes that is how you get salvation, because we know this war has failed, get a lot of resources are still going toward it. i am pleased to be here with the commission, to finally have a human rights commission connect this with human rights and criminalization that is going on. that is a profound step forward.

people want to talk -- very few people want to talk about the humanity and the depletion of human resources going on across this country. i have heard this linked to human rights, and i want to applaud you for that and remind your when we talk about rights, first of all, there are the rights we are entitled to from the bill of rights, and they found out in alcohol prohibition it did not work and they could not tell adults what to do with their bodies and they finally gave up, and we have the same thing going on with marijuana and drugs, that is one right we will eventually have to come to terms with, and not pass

judgment on those who use drugs but that should be my right to decide, and then there is the right of the community, and sometimes when you get the war on drugs, that is borne out of racism, when you go look at the history of when this was called, it was called by the people in washington who decided musicians are getting high on pot and certain women were fraternizing which those musicians, and it had to be fixed. that is hough no war on drugs began. it mushroomed over the years until it is not even recognizable. i think we have to understand

prohibition is not the answer. you want to know how bad this has been for our community and? if you look at what has happened for us and education, the amount of money they are putting into prisons instead of educational institutions is robbing us of developing the talent we need to keep california and this nation in the forefront of innovation and viable people participating in economic mainstream. you cannot take the majority population. some people like to say we ethnic minorities are a minority, but we are not a minority in california, and you cannot complete your future by locking up your people over these low-level crimes and think you're not complete in your future as favre as a talent you

are going to need down the road, plus when you do not treat your assistance as schumahuman, whenu get a problem, they should not lose their lives through criminalization. they should be put in an environment, council, and do what ever it takes to get them healed. if you are addicted, you are not necessarily a criminal. you are an ill person, but if you get caught with a joint, you might get a felony. you might reach someone, and you might never get caught because they are so busy -- you might rape someone, and you might never get caught because they are so busy arresting low-level drug users. this war on drugs has cost billions of american dollars,

and the family structure of african-americans and latinos is being a eroded because they are locking up more women and more children are now going to foster homes. black women and latinos are the fastest-growing. >> i think we can give you a little more time. >> i will summarize. i was just starting to have a good time. i will say in summary, because i know you have an agenda, that we do have to change the direction of this country. we have to work towards policies that will stop this crazy spending. i know there are people who believes the war on drugs protects them. i will submit to you the war on drugs has destroyed many

african-american women and men. if you are my age and you went through the war on drugs the it was protecting you, and you looked at the results and find out all it did was a complete our community, and it might have made the prison system very popular, but it has not held us that all. i commend you, and i urge you to keep looking at this as a human problem and to keep exploring ways we can all work together, and it is not just an american problem. it is a problem for people in mexico. our policies affect south america. our policies affect canada, and we have to take a look at what we are doing and change policies in america. thank you for what you are doing for us. thank you very much.

>> thank you very much. the next presenter we have is dorothy, who is president of all of us or none. >> i am not a president, and i am the executive director of services for prisoners with children. on the way here, i was thinking about what i would be saying, and when you said, we have a host of experts, and sometimes it is hard for me to get my head around the reality that they could be an expert. i am in recovery, and i have not

used in a thing for 21 years. that is not the main thing i am in recovery from. i am a recovering slave, and the war on drugs is the war on me, so i showed up to ask and you stop chasing my children. i thought about what is to live in a place where 5% of the world population incarcerates 25% of the prisoners. i thought what it would mean to have 2.3 million people locked up, 7 million people on parole or probation, most of them the victims of the drug war. one out of three young african- american males under the control of the criminal justice system.

what does that mean? what does that mean for me? what does that mean for my children, because when i was a practicing addicts and did not feel good about myself, you offer me jail instead of treatment. that prescription cost my family dearly, cost the community dearly, and cost the victims of additional arms dearly, because the first time i was offered treatment, something else happened in my life. one part of the question is what does the drug war mean. i was walking here with a person named phoebe who told me to mention this. she says it means she no longer has a car, because when she

drives through the neighborhood where people like me live, it means they are stopped more often than in other neighborhoods. they are searched more often than in other neighborhoods. it is a failed drug war. everybody knows it, and we spend $64 billion a year on it. if we turned out cars that fail to out of three times, we would stop producing those automobiles. if we manufactured claims that we crashed into out of three times, -- two out of three times, we would stop making claims, yet we continue to grow a population of people who are incarcerated. in the last minute or so, i want to talk about the impact of

incarceration, not as a prisoner, but as a person who paroles, discharge, and cannot get a job, because you have discrimination, and the question is, have you been convicted of a felony? it used to be, are you a negro? it is not only on the job applications. it is on the applications when you go to apply for public housing. it is on the application when you go to apply for a student loan. it is on the application when i really want to become equal and leave whatever resources i have left to my children, so from the start to the finish, is there. when i told you to come and tell

you to stop chasing my children, because the drug war will have you attack character, and we have seen that with treyvan. after it got to that critical point when it we knew there was nothing else to say, some people said, he had a guy with a residue of -- a bag with a residue of weed. i do not know how many people justify that murder. i need to tell you if you stop my kids, you could have a brew and a blunt, but i still love them, and i do not want you to murder them, and i do not want you to continue to invest in chasing them instead of educating them.

[applause] >> thank you. before we move to the next speaker, we would like to acknowledge anderson. thank you for being here. our next speaker is, we have presenter's speaking about the racial disparities and drug enforcement. we have a communications specialist for the center on juvenile and criminal justice. she is a lawyer, and her presenter is william, an assistant professor at san jose state university. >> i want to thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

i am employed by a service organization based in stamford cisco. i am here to relate the findings today and relate them who they hearing regarding the racially disparate drug arrest rates. additionally, the co-author of the publication is here to answer any questions you have. the publication details of 40- year patent of racially discriminated drug arrest patterns of african-americans, which recently increase in intensity. they issued a report featuring 2002 figures, which have disparities' the far exceeded those in other cities and counties and particularly targeted african-american female youth. 60% of deaths from the last

decade from illicit drug overdose those are from whites. the union of northern california have similar findings. they submitted the findings to the board of supervisors. it resulted in referrals to various committees and apartments, but it did not result in concrete remedial action. the publication before you is a revised version of our previous studies using the most recent data, 2009, 2010 data remains incomplete, but our preliminary applications the remains, specifically that it finds african americans experienced felony drug arrest rates 19 times higher than other races

and 17.3 times higher than elsewhere in california. san francisco's explosion in arrest during the 1995 until 2009 period did not occur elsewhere in the state nor for other communities in some francisco. the african-american female use account for one-third of the felony drug arrests for all african americans youth in california. i repeated analysis, san francisco authorities have not been responded to serious disparities and have not provided rational explanations to disparities or policies to ameliorate them. nor have authorities explain why drug policing became radically more so over the last 15 years. we are not arguing the police

alone bear responsibility for those patterns. many agencies have been involved. if there are objectives, local authorities would seem obligated to provide detailed explanations. the execution of drug law enforcement policy is extremely harsh on african-americans, latinos, and young people, while favoring whites or older citizens driving the cities. not only makes little sense, but the result of such a policy exacerbates racial disparity. serious analysis is needed on how to defend such consequences. finally, it is arguable they amount to a violation of human rights under the elimination of all forms of racial

discrimination and the cause of the international covenant on civil and political rights, both ratified by the united states and for which census to have strict compliance. sentences for is subject to national and state requirements in a non--- sentences do is subject to national and state requirements. -- san francisco is subject to national and state requirements, get extreme disparities in drug enforcement and paralysis in addressing them conflicts to these -- with these commitments. when a san francisco human rights commission is in place and where the commission was originally inspired by efforts to address racial discrimination in san francisco, disturbing trends seem to fall well below the scope of commission to take immediate end necessary actions. in light of these observations. we respectfully advise the board

initiates' an investigation into practices to explore policy decisions and might have contributed to these, and that we reaffirm the commitment to upholding obligations under human-rights commission's. thank you for your time. [applause] >> thank you. >> i want to be around to answer questions. if anyone would like to find more about the findings, contact me personally. we would love to get the answers out to you.