federal level to stop brutality against black men and stop police brutality and put it in check once and for all in the city of san francisco. [tone] i will, indeed, be urging a no vote. thank you. chairman mirkarimi: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> bless all of you. bless you, in the name of jesus. i, bishop lee, runs a home for -- i don't call them convicts. i just call them people. i was in the penitentiary for 20 years. and i had a brain tumor. and no one knew about it. and when i got 56, somebody found out that i had a brain tumor.

that was pushing me to commit crime. and i applaud the health community. because when we go to penitentiary no one finds out about that. no one finds out about that that we have a mental discord. i have sugar diabetes. i have high blood pressure and some other things. and no one found out about that. so i direct a home -- and i find out that a lot of people that went to the penitentiary are sick. are sick. and they shouldn't have been in there. they should not have been in there. so i direct a home -- and i find out that half the people that has to go to the penitentiary, they're hurting. they're hurting. and no one knows that they're

sick. and they do things out of character about their condition. and nobody knows about it. and the lady that was speaking on the health department, she was sure on. [tone] she was sure on. that most -- some of the people don't supposed to be there because they have mental problems. and i deal with them every day. and i see their need. talking is just talking. but when you in there and see how sick some of these people are, and they have penitentiary records and they cannot get anyplace because they're held against. [tone] they cannot get no housing. and they're sick. that's a dirty shame. that's a dirty shame. chairman mirkarimi: thank you. thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisor mirkarimi, supervisor cohen. my name is mindy.

i am a senior job developer. i work with anders & anders. we go into the county jails quite often. and what we hear is the clients have no access to jobs. they are unaware when they get out what is available to them. and we work a lot with the construction union trades. and that is a great avenue for ex-offenders. there is no background check for the construction trade. what we need is for to you pay attention to the fact that we need funds to put people into these great jobs that will make them self-sufficient, and give them a livable wage so they don't have to go back. there's a lot of vocational training that is happening in the city. a lot of it is not connected to the job placement component. if you train someone with skills, you should have a job available to them for those

skills that they're getting. i also wanted to tell you that we work in the trenches in bayview and the home of the largest concentration of ex-offenders. once again, the big boxes come in. they put in programs. and the small community-based organizations have to really use their own funds to get people into unions to pay for their tools, to give them clothing and attire to get to the job. and they don't even have transportation sometimes. so there's a lot of small things that can happen to get them tools, tooled up, booted, suited, transportation to all the construction jobs that are in their neighborhood. thank you. chairman mirkarimi: thank you very much. next speaker, please. anybody who else would like to speak? i've run out of yellow cards. just stand in the aisle, one

after the other. thank you. >> thank you so much for the opportunity to speak. i come here as a taxpayer and as a former emergency room worker who's worked quite a bit with exactly the kind of population we're talking about today. and i'm also -- because some of the conversation has been about the event last night in the bay view, i was witness to that event. i went to go hear chief the chief speak, and i went to hear what the community had to say. i was disappointed that it wasn't able to happen. but i do want to provide testimony that almost all of the people who were actually from the bayview really wanted to hear the chief speak. i thought that he was very respectful. i'm hoping -- one of the optimistic things he said was that he intended to come back. it was actually quite moving. it was unfortunate that the

event broke down in the way it did. but i'm optimistic that there will be another opportunity. i would also like to say that as someone who had never been to the bayview, i was treated tremendously kindly. and i didn't feel -- [inaudible] the kinds of things you hear about the place, i just didn't find -- i'm surprised now to learn that it has the largest number of ex-offenders. i think that the elephant in the room in this discussion about the budget is really how much of this money that we're funneling in to the prison system is really about the drug war. and eye a big man of paul volcker. the news that paul volcker signed off on that commission report on the utter failure of the drug war. [tone] i think we really need to start addressing this at a local level. as michelle alexander made clear in her book, which the reverend brought up, "the new jim crow" the disparities between sentencing are absolutely terrible. but it's also a huge waste of

taxpayer money. thank you very much. chairman mirkarimi: thank you very much. quite agree about the drug war. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. thanks for the opportunity to speak. i received the invitation from rob on your staff. i'm with the aclu of northern california. and we have been working with counties around the state as the realignment. legislation came down try to help advocate for really plans very much like the one that we have seen coming out of our probation department so we think it's a good plan overall. i think that the chief is still to be commended and the folks on the executive committee. we do have a few concerns that i would like to share with you briefly, and also some suggestions about thinking about the future. we share the concerns that have been expressed by the public

offenders office about how exactly this is going to roll out in terms of the post release supervision rev indication proceedings, particularly the incarceration. we have to see how that is implemented. the but there is an inherent tension between the idea of swift and certain punishment, which is the idea of lash incarceration. and intention between that and due process. if someone tests positive with these preliminary tests for having used drugs and is incarcerated immediately for five days, by the time we find out it was a false-positive, it's too late for that person in those five days. so we have some concerns about that. we also are a little concerned about the suggestion that san francisco might get into the jail rental business. i think it makes a lot of sense that san francisco has the capacity right now, because we've done a great job. and as the chief pointed out, unfortunately the legislation

right now, as it stands, ab 109's funding mechanisms does seem to incentivize and kind of disproportionately reward counties unlike san francisco that have been sending foam state prison for all of these years. don't believe san francisco should be enabling those counties to continue that same kind of behavior. all right, there's too much uncertainty about what the numbers are going to be. it runs throughout -- [tone] chairman mirkarimi: please, finish your thoughts. >> thanks. it runs throughout the plan that the numbers are very uncertain so while it seems that we have a lot of capacity right now in our jails, i don't think we should take for granted the fact that that's going to actually be the case. so i encourage you not to get into the jail rental business. and finally, just thinking about front and sentencing reform i know that that's not something obviously that the board of supervisors can implement, but it should be on the table. and there should be legislation. the aclu is pushing for legislation to try to reduce the sentences for low-level drug crimes and low-level non-violent property crimes so that there are less people

coming into the system with those long sentences and less people suffering the horrible burdens of a felony conviction that make that much more difficult to re-enter and to keep from reas i had rate ising. we think it's a good start. but i would encourage you to keep thinking about some of these. the last thing i'll mention is the idea of pre-arrest -- prebooking diversion. that's something that's not discussed in the plan. think that it's something that is left open as a possibility. and it's certainly something that i think is being experimented with in other places like seattle, where folks can be put into some of these same programs that we know are successful in helping them re-enter after they've been incarcerated. they can be putting these programs at the front end, right? that the police can have an assessment and intake process by which the appropriate folks are put directly into services rather than going through the overburdened, expensive court system. that's something we're going to be pushing in the future. chairman mirkarimi: next

speaker, please. >> good afternoon, safety commission. i'm walter. ♪ somebody waiting in the prison system waiting to be really soon be free don't try to run i can keep up with you nothing can stop me please fix the criminal justice system realignment, too ♪ ♪ open your city to me you -- i hold the lock and you hold the key ♪ ♪ o is such a large, large number open your city to the you i hold the lock and you you hold the key ♪

♪ dee, dee da, da, dee ♪ >> and ♪ treat med kind sweet destiny carried me -- help me through desperation for a realignment system waiting for me i had to be strong and still i believe i had a vision of better safety committee and mayor lee and the prison realignment system with all that should turn out to be♪ ♪ treated me kind keep up the good work now make it better better soon for those released to be free now♪ chairman mirkarimi: thank you.

any other public comments, please step forward. if not, we will close public comments. public comment is now closed on this hearing. i want to thank all the city stakeholders today in helping us vet the implementation plan for prisoner realignment, bill 109. i want to compliment all of those from within the city, re-entry council, and those within the non-profit communities for their contributions to this program. if you like, chief, maybe we could just have a couple of closing remarks, if you could come back up for a second. i guess one closing question is the next milestone. because between now and october begins the process. of really beginning to put out the welcome mat. so we may want to return right

after labor day to figure out just how prepared we are, and if there's been any new developments in that level of preparation. do you want to speak to that? >> just real quickly. what will happen between now and october 1 is we have the work groups, the initial work group. now we will go in meet individually with the agencies about working out the technicalities. we've got the overall base plan. now it's going to be the policies and procedures, how the actual handoff will happen. an important thing to happen, though, will be to get the actual budget and resources approved because of the fact that, you know, i know that i'm going to have on october 1 these post release cases to supervise so that will be something that will be very important to us. chairman mirkarimi: i also noticed from some of the public comments that there has to be, i think, a better education and promotion of what adult probation and the sheriff's department does and other departments. because i think the observation and experience of people in the community is it is somewhat of

a stale steal or relic strategy? dealing with diversion and alternative sentencing. think -- i think there has been very good programs that the city has undertaken that makes it part of that buffet, i guess , that the re-entry council created to help. i think the general public needs to know that. that these strategies are not strategies of just lock them up and throw away the key and then try to process them through the probation system, but that there are new strategies that have been blended in. and good ones, because they've been tried and tested successfully. and i think that based on what comments i've heard, not really everybody is aware of what those programs are >> thank you, supervisor.

and i agree. we've spent a lot of time over the last 18 months expanding our program. we have a learning center where individuals can -- that are on probation, can get their g.e.d., their high school diploma. part of our strategy, part of the plan, the resource that we talked about is to have a community assessment and service center so individuals that are under supervision can go and get the services, employment referrals, vocational training, housing referrals, health, mental health substance abuse, day reporting, financial literacy , parenting, life skills. so there is obviously a need for us to expand the knowledge, especially as we'll have the resources to be able to have these programs happen within our purview. chairman mirkarimi: thank you very much. thank you, everybody. this has been, i think, a very thorough hearing. and obviously another installment as we get closer to the implementation plan. i'm going to continue this to the call of the chair. no action is needed. but we do have two resolutions

coming up that i need to take a quick two-minute break since we're a two-person quorum. we're going to call for a two-minute break and return very shortly supervisor mirkarimi: welcome back. madam clerk, could you read item #2. >> item 2, hearing to consider appointing one member to the -- resolution appointing the san francisco department of public health to the executive committee of the san francisco community corrections partnership for the purpose of developing an implementation plan for criminal-justice realignment.

supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. it is essential to be a member of the round table dealing with prison realignment. supervisor cohen, i believe it does speak for itself. supervisor cohen: i think it does speak for itself. supervisor mirkarimi: any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. please read item three, madam clerk. >> resolution designating on an interim basis, the san francisco adult probation department as the county agency responsible for implementing post-release community supervision until an ordinance designating the san francisco adult probation department as the post-release community supervision authority is considered an adopted by the board of supervisors. supervisor mirkarimi: every city

and county is required to designate a specific agency for assembly bill 19, public safety realignment. as part of that process, we have asked the san francisco probation department to be that , lead that orchestration. and to do that, we will be beginning the process of the prison realignment implementation plan of adult probation. as we read this resolution that designates that officially. we have submitted a report that goes into deeper detail on the details of how all the adult probation will enfold. we plan to hear more on this in coming weeks. any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. the item is moved.

madam clerk, i any other business? >> no, mr. chairman. supervisor mirkarimi: i would like to thank everyone for their contributions. the meeting is now adjourned. >> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart.

i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants. >> the white snake root.

people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain. milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death. one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln. she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations

and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up. >> the ole andersonner -- oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths.

children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. she is now one of 15 women on california's death rowan the only one who attempted to murder with a plant. >> people who may haven't been to their cons tore or been to -- do serve tore or their botanical garden, it gives them a reason to come back. you think let's go and look at the pretty flowers. these are pretty flowers, but they are flowers with weird and fascinating stories behind them. that is really fun and really not what people normally think of when they come to a horticultural institution. >> "wicked plants" is now showing at the san francisco

conserve tore of flowers. unless next time, get out and play.

supervisor mar: good afternoon, everyone. the meeting will come to order. i am the chair of the committee. please give us the announcements. >> please turn off all sell phones and electronic devices. completed speaker cards are to be submitted to the clerk along with any documents. supervisor mar: thank you. i would like to thank the staff

from sfgtv for televising us today. there are quite a few items today. can you please call item no. 1? >> item #one. ordinance amending planning code section 415.5 to provide for a new land dedication alternative in the market and octavia plan area in lieu of payment of the affordable housing fee; and adding section 415.10 to provide for the requirements of such land dedication; making findings including environmental findings and findings of consistency with the priority policies and the general plan. supervisor wiener: last year my predecessor introduced the first version of this legislation. before of what housing legislation is designed to provide a new alternative to fee payments for projects that decide not to build affordable units on site right now. that is a very extreme decision