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. the one thing i would add is that the statistician on the reports. my role is the human rights expert. i want to bring up one uniqueness talking about human rights discourse. i am glad you are familiar with

dr. alexander's work. there is a distinct difference in terms of u.s. law and international law and how racial discrimination is defined. in the united states we have an impossible burden of needing to prove and racist intent. international law is much better informed by social science in that they do not require proof of racial animus. the only thing human-rights are concerned with is their results. i would encourage the commission to may be taken vantage -- take advantage of that tool in engaging the civil rights issue.

thank you. >> thank you. our next speaker is going to address some strategies. she is from the drug policy fellow, and she is with aclu of northern california. >> i am a criminal justice and drug policy fellow in northern california. i am here to testify about operations. first i will explain how police strategy impacts san francisco. i will attempt to quantify police practice, and then i will qualify recommendations. an operation involves a team of

three police officers and up to 14 police of roasters who organize us being in operation during which a buyer from a drug dealer in the streets. they may offer to buy a small quantity for up to $20. once that takes place, they will arrest the targeted individual. this police practice is supposed to prosecute high level drug dealers that are supposedly a danger to public safety, but a survey revealed that all too often, individuals who are already marginalized in society. first, they are employed in manners the result in drug enforcement in lower economic

communities. in june, 65% of those cases were from the tenderloin. nearly 12% were from the hataig. second, targeting an outdoor drug markets common and and and not characterize this african- american market. this further exacerbates the disproportionate targeting of people of color. also said it will incidentally result in the arrest of homeless and drug addicts. a public defender has estimated at least 150 cases of low-level addicts go through the courts every month. when police officers accused drug dealers to facilitate drug sales, this starts a crime that would not have otherwise occurred. felony drug convictions resulted

lifetime bans from public aid programs. because much information about undercover investigation is deliberately held, private individuals must rely on media coverage and sporadically released reports to get a sense of what tactics are being employed in their communities. i will describe some of the data i have obtained in san francisco. operations impose enormous costs on the public to to the amount of resources required to conduct an operation. one has estimated of the caseload in 2011 cost more than $300,000 in a police officer pay. it also imposes enormous cost on the judicial system.

it has been estimated they account for 40% of the cases in court. it has been estimated only 1% involved professional criminals who deals drugs for a living. as of june 20, 2011, there were 109 cases intemperances go. i will now offer three policy recommendations that speak to the disparate impact i have identified. first, i urge the commission to attract a costs incurred in san francisco. these include overtime pay for police officers, the costs incurred by the individual, and the cost to incarcerate those who are convicted. i urge the commission to consider pre-or rusarrest alternatives. law enforcement in seattle have partnered to implement a pilot

program called law enforcement assistance diversion. a report from 54 individuals in the seattle neighborhood were responsible for 2700 are refs. this statistic eliminates the ineffectiveness of our breast--f arrests. san francisco leader should engage in further study of pre- arrest diversion programs. i urge everyone here to ask your representatives to support reforms that seek to counter stigmatizing of drug convictions. sanibel 15 06 will revise the penalty from simple drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor. bill 828 will lift the? -- the ban for people with low

level convictions, and the other will end the ban for people who have a pass drug-related felony conviction, as long as they are participating in or have successfully completed a treatment program. preventing parents from receiving these groveants puts r poorest children in the way. weeken can identify financial c, employing the diversion programs, and enacting necessary legislative reforms. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. we are moving on to what could be described as economic rights

and justice, and the first speaker is michelle rodriguez, and she is going to speak about access to housing and benefits. >> thank you. i am with the national law project. we have a second chance labor project specifically focused on reducing barriers to employment for people with an arrest and conviction. what i want to do is touch on the barriers people with records face, and we know so many of the rest people are struggling with is because of the drug war, so we are going to look that those barriers people are touching on the -- are dealing with now, and we are going to give you a sense

of what can be done. we know there is a huge population of people but have arrest and conviction records. we estimate about 7 million adults just in california, 65 million adults in the united states. that is a huge portion of our population, so we are not just talking about people with arrest and conviction records. it affects all of us, so we need to think about what this means for us, because this has huge economic ramifications. we looked at the numbers, the amount we are spending on corrections, 9 billion here in california, even more in the united states, and at the same time, we can see we have high recidivism rates, so there is more we can be doing. in terms of employment barriers,

they are absolutely real. now there was a study in 2003 that took a look at employers and found that a criminal record really was our mark armed people. it decreased a chance of called back by 60%. that was even higher for african-american men. at the same time, there is an explosion of background checks. we know the stigma exists, and more employers are looking at the background checks. there was a survey that showed 90% of their folks that are part of that association were actually doing background checks, and at the same time, we see an explosion of laws, so state laws, federal laws requiring background checks, so all of that converges into a problem for people with an

arrest and conviction records. here is a snapshot of the department of justice and their authorization of over 1.7 million criminal record checks because of state and local laws. that does not even touch commercially prepared background checks so many private employers are looking at, so i will give you a snapshot of what our workers are facing. the community has to deal with these kinds of statements when they look at job announcements. clean records only. those blanket are in violation of federal law, yet they are way too common, and at the same time we know employment reduces recidivism. here is one study that shows with job placement after release from prison, we see a dramatic decrease in recidivism, so that is what we want to see. i just touched on employment.

there are housing barriers as well. when you have a record and you cannot find a job, you are going to have a difficult time finding housing because you do not have the kind of financial stability if you need. there are clean state remedies available. we have an outstanding program in san francisco. various rubicon, -- there is rubicon. they do offer services, but a the same time, the need is so great, over 6000 people contact every year, and at the same time you have to deal with convictions in each county, and the dismissal may show up on your background check, so just

highlighting some things we can do, and events like this are very important. we need to address stigmatization people are facing, so awareness, making sure it is ok for the entire community to thrives. sam francisco has been a leader, and we encourage sentences go to continue that leadership -- san francisco to continue that leadership. i do encourage the resolution to support it as well. also expanding access to post conviction dismissals and having an understanding of what legal barriers actually exist, so that covers a snapshot of id. thank you for your time. rex thank you, and we want to thank you for being here

tonight and to acknowledge the fact of the commander from the sfpd is here and will continue to be in attendance. it is very important to have all levels of law enforcement here tonight. we were going to have a presentation about drug education in schools, but the speaker has become ill tonight. she is a young adult advocates, and she is unable to be here, but we do have her comments in writing. we are going to move onto something about families. for this presentation we have the program manager for the youth program.

>> thank you, and thank you for your presence. i want to thank you all because of the fact we are here, and we hope some francisco will continue to be a torchbearer for innovative practices, and i hope this will lead to an appropriate direction and an effective response for the disproportionate impact of this war on drugs has had on people of color. i am a resident for over a decade, and i am truly interested in empowerment as decisions are being made to address the challenges of this committee faces. as program manager for youth

services, which has over 30 years of providing mental halt and patient treatment services to the latino, chicano, multi- cultural youth and culturally responsive treatments to be able to better address the needs of latino and chicano community. we also know that due to the ongoing movement of our latino families residing in different communities, we are able to position ourselves to be able to respond to those needs and are creating partnerships to be able to better meet the needs of those communities. we work with high risk systems involving youth and families, and restorative, intensive

criminal care management, and trauma resources, using evidence in multi disciplinary behavior and health intervention to ensure that families have culturally responsive treatments available to them as they are facing the matters they do, and i want to take the time to remind everyone juvenile justice is in place to respond to the needs of adolescents. we believe strongly there is a need to revisit the existing legal and responses to the issue of youth and family experiencing the deadly impact on their communities, so i am going to take this time to walk through the matter of a young person very familiar with the justice

system, and uses as an example to provide recommendations. this came to us throw program but was referred. this young man had not had contact with his family due to the fact of his mother had left his latin american country due to the harassment and threats of resulted as an impact of her deceased partner's involvement with an american street gang. this individual indicated he started using these substances after he witnessed his father being hacked to death in front of his mother and expressed experiencing physical abuse on behalf of those harassing his family.

when this young man came to reunite with his family, the gunman was picked up by authorities for purchasing marijuana -- the gunman -- young man was picked up by authorities for purchasing marijuana. he resisted arrest, received a gang enhancement due to the fact he was picking up the marijuana in an area with a gang intervention, and he was picked up by ice authorities and transferred to to his undocumented status. this is a critical step in the legal process for young people involved in the system. i really want to encourage us to repeal existing game injunctions region -- existing gang injunctions.

communities may not be prepared to deal with the complications they are encountering. i would encourage us to revisit existing approaches by the d.a. to overcharge youth and young adults when they first come into contact with the system. i would like to encourage that we expand existing programs hear a good -- of existing programs. goowe also need to provide traig to local authorities to raise awareness about how to properly handle community members with mental, substance abuse, and behavioral health conditions. although this young man was given the opportunity to return to his family through the work

of a social worker, the gunman still has developmental and substance-abuse issues he is dealing weswith. due to the inability to access to treatment, this young man was returned to his community without being offered proper support. i would urge we invest in the expansion of and provide access to production models for a first term and non-violent relapsed offenders. but i would also encourage that we invest in local residential treatment facilities so that transitional age you have viable -- yough have