tv [untitled] July 19, 2015 2:00pm-2:31pm PDT
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considered somewhat of a hasty decision with such a large amount of general fund dollars will have to go to match any kind of state dollars that come forward. i heard the controller correctly today, at the high end of the recommendation is for one or 20-392 people, at diane. we been hearing testimony today from individuals that can give you -- including the sheriff's office, to the problems we wouldn't need a joke. if other programs were incremented by laura thomas, and/or the other just that. etc., i think we can dramatically reduce the numbers even in the jail today. just like taking the efforts of having a committee on alternative to jail compared to just a committee on capital building. so, i want to urge you once again to look at those numbers in terms of the numbers that are projected for the numbers of beds and also echo what the public defender's office was saying. once again, for the thousand people in jail that haven't been sentenced. 1000 people are in jail. only when 70 are there senses. 1030
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are there presentence because they cannot afford bail. if you or i or our children were in a situation in jail we wouldn't be. we would get out due to the bail process, etc. only to step up the number programs that are of able to address is very small number. the years that i spent running a jill health service, we spent battling jails overcrowded we are now completely under the she very proud of our efforts and build on those success. thank you very much. should you thank you for your work. >> thank you. thank you for your work >> my name is [inaudible] i've been working in around jails and prisons in the state. worked initially in the mid-70s with sheriff [inaudible] working to reduce the number of women image appeared to a work furlough program and mothers tell ship it at that time were about 2400 people in the jill
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system. i am very pleased that -- i also served on the jail overcrowding committee in the late 1970s, which propose a lot of the alternatives that help to reduce the population now to about 1200. but i feel like saying, i've been listening to lots and lots of [inaudible] this monday i think keeping back to the words bill nagle guzzo former prison warden now in his early 90s who said as long as we continue to build jails and prisons we will have neither the political will nor the resources to develop the alternatives. thank you. >> thank you. >> hi. i'm [inaudible]. i'm here again in the capacity as the jill group's coordinator. we work with a number of people who are directly the target
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audience of new jail i guess you could call it. i have a background in mental health and general public health education. so, i wanted to really commend a lot of the programming that we are he heard about today. the aurora project, a lot of the diversion programs. i think is a really good start, but it's important to also point out san francisco, with gentrification that is undeniable is increasingly hostile to poor people low income people, of all kinds. until we have confidence of job training, youth development programs, mental health, long-term mental, not just the short-term things we have in place, and long-term housing that is truly affordable and community driven, we are not going to have the kind of success we are looking for. so, i think what we need are these programs need to be investing all of our money into these programs while i agree, again,
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cj-four ncj-three are deplorable, i don't think again expensive new jail is going to be the answer. thank you again for taking this so seriously. i know it's actually rare for this conversation to even be happening at this level being taken seriously by public officials. so, i appreciate the consideration you are getting. thank you. >> thank you, ms. long. >> hi. my name is [inaudible] i work with cgi justice project a member of the coalition. i am here to advocate for no vote option on the jill and as an alternative. the united states the course duration for a black woman is one into trans woman the committee-based resources and not a new jail. trans woman the bail reform. trends are often looked up for survival crimes which is the city's issue and shouldn't fall on the shoulders of these women to bear. [inaudible] artie live as
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a sop in place and ensures they remain inside inverse invading. trans women could be diverted to programs like robin tells which is the only longer-term housing that the city funds that trans woman can both access and feel safe in. ironically enough, they just found out that trans funding to our houses being cut so fewer women when i'll access to that resource for stability. when considering diversion as well as bail reform the 80% of people inside of a [inaudible] is arbitrary if they have not been convicted yet. making good-faith efforts to divert his people would have a dramatic impact on a number people in the jill. trans women need access to mental health services outside of jail , so surviving how the world treats people who are black, female or trans, is enough. all the above takes its toll on a trans woman's mental health. there being [inaudible] mental
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health treatment facilities and better conditions of people with mental health issues, yet since 2008 funding has been cut to san francisco general hospital so now there are [inaudible] mental health treatment. trans women need transgender housing and jobs in the community investing in jobs and housing provides the necessary stability to keep trans women of color out of jail and thriving in the san francisco community at san francisco is kosher to solve social issue. we need to invest in the people that live here and not just the people were moved here by 2020. >> thank you. i was confused about which one was your first name or last name. mr. woods. >> minds and two-with the san
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francisco [inaudible] i'm here to say we support all the alternatives to various agencies and groups have testified today and said just to proud numbers four women were specific reasons housing rights organization might support the alternative to jail rather than more cages, 25% of those are homeless before being imprisoned the vast majority remain homeless unreleased. i know [inaudible] we get letters often from those incarcerated wondering what their rights are as tenants when they get out of jail. make times we don't have an answer to that. then, to bring up again that some of said previously spanning $600 million to fund for 20 new supportive housing units, which would actually be more than what the sheriffs are proposing for the new jail him a the 393.
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it would reduce [inaudible] funny more supportive and affordable housing. we wouldn't need the jail at all. thank you. >> thank you. >> hi. my name is karen smith, speak as a concerned resident of san francisco and a citizen and voter but also someone who seen the effects of gentrification happening at a rapid pace in san francisco. i think it's very much part of this discussion here. especially when were talking about investment in community as opposed to investment in facilities that incarcerate people. i am also-i want mention i'm concerned about the logic of things i hear about the support for new jail such as the idea of a therapeutic confinement facility at it talked about by the chief deputy sheriff. with the idea
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of creating safety within a jew. i think a lot of the alternatives that we heard about talk will create safety outside of japan i don't know where it talked about inside of jill. talk about people taking people to learn appropriate behaviors within very sanitized sterile environment that we've seen time and time again is actually quite unsafe just by design. when we could be creating that kind of safety outside good all of these options that people up and coming forward with. so, also, i think we just heard obama speak on a move away from incarceration yesterday. unfortunately, the way that looks like in california is an increase in spending on county jails. i think we need to be more expensive and are thinking about what our alternatives to caging not at the state level but also a county level. >> i should know before having
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his conversational hearing today our presidents is for the first time ever visiting where federal prisons. really raising the question of criminal justice and prison reform. thank you. >> great. thank you supervisors. my name is mohammed -critical resistance. just to go off of that, right now, we really want to contextualize this moment, our current climate, is acknowledgment across the board of the failure of imprisonments in our society. within this context, mental health plays a very crucial role and we are seeing that nationwide has been pointed out. if san francisco is no exception. what has been shown is that mental health jails or
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putting people that suffer from mental illness into jails, actually does not work it would does work is out of custody programs. this report i can provide to you to your offices after this meeting that are not recalling the name of, that showed that even for the low level of nonviolent offenders, as well as those charged with violent crimes, the out of custody mental health programs have been just as likely for both categories. so this sews his effectiveness across the board. one thing to always keep in mind and remember is the racial dynamics are embedded in each of these categories and issue. when we are talking about mental health and we are talking about substance abuse, when we had talked about homelessness and poverty and not being able to afford bail, it is undergirded by the racial dynamics. so, when we want to address these stark disproportionate number of black people in the county jail ,, a people of color, we need
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to be investing in these kinds of out of custody programs in support of housing, in resources to really build up communities to begin to even scratch the surface of these really racist dynamics of the jail. so, alternatives is definitely the way to go. not throwing money into a new jail. thank you. >> thank you. i still have 10 more -- i still have cards to call. i'm having trouble reading this one. >> good afternoon supervised the minor's annual cry. i'm an
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individual resident of san francisco. i live in district 3. i was happy to come to these proceedings. i actually have been volunteering in the jail for five years without an organization. so i'm really happy to be a part of this jail fight. it's really given me some inspiration actually to keep doing what i'm doing in the jail i'm teaching a weekly zen-based meditation class, and i teach in the small visiting room class and i don't know how many of you have visited the jail but there anywhere from 15-20 women in my classes and the need thing i want to communicate is if you know how small those visiting rooms are with 15-20 people on a very close proximity with incarcerated and in all my years there's never been any incidents of anybody ever asking me to do anything unauthorized. i never felt personally unsafe, threatened for myself or my property, and
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so, i feel this is evidence these are people that do not deserve to be locked up. there are alternatives that they can take advantage of. many of them, their lives are, their stories are beyond, unfathomable probably to your knowledge. i've had women who might you note their mother was thrown out of a balcony window. at any rate, i just want to say it speaks to the fact they need services. they are locked in a cycle of re-incarceration, and i see many of the same faces over and over again, even since the beginning of this year, and i think that jail reform would be effective for this population. there was one woman in my class last night actually reported to make this was good news that, she was back not because she had re-offended because she missed her court date. there was a warrant out for her arrest. anyway, i would just ask [inaudible]
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>> thank you. thank you for volunteering in our jail system. >> i michael line, san francisco panted. we are very upset as a group on issues of mass incarceration. i want to call particular attention to the statistics give this huge preponderance of people in jail because they're too poor to make bail. on the one hand and the huge preponderance of black and latin people were in jail get when you put those two together, you have a truly racist situation. now, i want to talk about how the likelihood of not getting out on bail increases the risk that you're going to be convicted later on. i was facing 20 years of prison
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on a charge, which i had nothing to do with. it didn't apply to me that i was innocent, and i eventually went to trial was able to beat these charges. but a large part of the reason i was able to do that is because i was free and i was able to find potential witnesses. i was able to investigate all the evidence that was there, look at the discovery. was able to determine what kinds of things went into the charges that were against me. i was able to build a huge supplement to the work of the public defender did. it made a difference. unless there can be bail reform, the that lets people out and defend themselves, we are going to get a huge racist increase in the
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number of convictions. >> thank you, mr. lion. >> i want to thank you guys for having this. before again our star with the mayan poem. it goes [inaudible]. if i do harm to you i do harm to myself. if i love and respect you i love and respect myself. with that said, i want to talk about how we treat each other versus the system institutionalizes us and institutionalizes people that we are supposed to accommodate our needs. that's why the public figures [inaudible] in order to keep us [inaudible] i just want to like reflect on that how massive restoration has
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here in california we have over 33 presents, not that om talk about state prison. if we were to build another jail here, it would just accommodate a system of oppression and we don't need that bit i want to thank everyone who came up with all the solutions are therapeutic for solutions that we need. i live in the tenderloin never went in there has been incarcerated but why? not because of mental illness or homeless. i would ask you guys to really like listen and read item and what you do here but i'm a i really want to thank you guys and i want to thank our to ask you guys as a person as a human to really look at these solutions and alternatives because it's needed in the city. like most people i just learned that other states spent all their homelessness all their [inaudible] to the study to the city san francisco and then up in the tenderloin. i live in.
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that'sto be my mom. presto placed it be my elbow. i don't see it that i would see a beautiful place in the tenderloin where these things are being accommodated. there's a lot of kids -- i read this article in the tenderloin there the highest population of children and that blew me away. that is not cool. these kids pass by that and see that every day. i want to ask >> thank you. i want to clarify i'm so sorry i have to go in the winter i call. i will do want to i represent the tenderloin. you don't have the highest number of children. actually, that is not in our district we do have this debate is whether we have the highest density of children because it's such a small neighborhood. absolutely, i don't think people realize how may families of children with in this neighborhood. thank you. >> hi. my name is with
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critical resistance. in california united for responsible budget. thank you so much for holding this hearing. it's really excellent and important to have these opportunities for the public to have time to highlight the really practical and already existing opportunities we have two estimates of yesterday derail this train which is the crisis of imprisonment or turn the train. so, i just want to draw some attention, i think the smoke and mirrors of the sheriffs department is spinning by saying it's possible for them to be running alternative programs. i want to just remind you all, when you talk about alternatives to talk about alternatives that are not inside jails and prisons. is not a mental health j. not community programs in a jail setting. that investment and imprisonment. when they present these charts about how much they're doing that is "alternative" those are jails.
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so, the robust community programs that include electronic pretrial monitoring that pushes the burden of nine dollars per week to these families do we know already are struggling economically struggling to make bail. it raises. his classes. is doing incredible economic violence could so, when they talk about that they have the capacity or will to do alternatives those are not alternatives. those are turning homes into prisons making families be the guards. then, i just want to highlight also the controllers report is not natural. those numbers are not natural is everyone's been saying we must go to all see in public investment. while the police department increase is going to be a policy that is going to be driving more people to jail, who all have to be investing in things that are going to counter that. with
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samba, neither san bruno nor san francisco want to get we don't you just. we can't afford just bit the resistance in san bruno is his people are crying and mining alternatives. >> >> thank you. >> hello. minus.java transit admin and a graduate researcher, university way focus on lgbt people and the criminal justice system. from my familiarity with the research got some data around 10 people in this dig the most, he said it's an untrained expense in the united states of the national transgender determination survey in its 2011 report showed 6% of transgender people have been sent to jail or prison. which rates exams higher than the rate of incarceration in the general population. we all know
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the people of color are disproportionately targeted and harmed by incarceration. trans identity compounds distances washington 41% of factors people 20% of latino trans people reported experiences of incarceration that are even higher than the description of likelihood of incarceration are black and latino people generally. to the research i've been doing in san francisco, i see the national trend rainout on a local level to an even greater degree. in a recent interview with attractive health programs for trans people i learned that 80% of the trans woman she serves reported being arrested in the past year. in several interviews service providers have said that about programming in the jail because some of the clients end up there i can remain in contact with people any other way. national research in medical research and san francisco says trans people are being impacted and harmed by police incarceration at such a crisis disaster rates. it also shows trans people are more like to be homeless and living in poverty to be neither work and be barred social services because of staff bias and discrimination. when the talk about jail investment services
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we are talking about the same people in the difference is whether or not you believe their lives have value. i'm strongly opposed to the very idea of a mental health jail facility since we know the attempts for preservation create serious mental health issues. i can't investment in social services and community organizations led by formally incarcerated trans people. are you going to construct the jail to amplify inequalities or invest in services -- [inaudible] >> thank you. hi. my name is-i'm with critical business need our state. the sheriff got 5 min. asked to speak >> the departments are under different rules. they're not limited to dump and ashley asked them to limit the time even though that's not the protocol. some i apologize for that. >> my point is just wondering
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whose time matters? basket photos here, missing people, the same powers were trying to disrupt to testify. they rely on themselves for answers because they are the only power they recognize. where the people living alternatives everyday? whether people just have this ballot no punishment system not only as an act of the fines but also an active survival? why they called on to testify? is a single person currently in prison actively asked to talk about what they in the communities need more than a fancy jail? we are asking the best in alternatives and literally mean an investment. to be clear alternatives great social solutions. it's not a one-off it into a nt video only to refill it later down on. committed an concerted effort to maintain alternatives to make sure they're sufficiently
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resourced and shake ourselves of our reliance cages to solve problems. a fraction of the effort being used to push this gel product before to get free education to folks make affordable housing accessible to everyday to make sure people get jobs, to put [inaudible] so may people advocated for today, than the jail would already be emptied and shattered today. i just would end on if you don't love us outside of cages and how can be expected to love us in cages? invest in alternatives, not in cages. thank you. >> thank you. i just want to fund your comment. i agree we don't have a very good system that we hear from the public and our department. of course, we get unlimited time to speak at these hearings. so, we try to do best we can. they're more members of the public. we have thought about having the community do a longer presentation but it was a question of who and which voice. it's a very -- i would want to acknowledge you brought up some good points. i think we try and to run the hearings the best we can. >> i am janey with [inaudible].
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to be honest i'm also [inaudible] that the shares of him does to speak they are not the voice sterling you're looking for. anyway, the joe's currently at 70% capacity and this is nothing to the need for a new job. anything do with the fact the police department is currently going through the process hiring 400 new officers, 250 in the new next fiscal year. more officers mean more or less of the people that criminalizing. yesterday, supervisor tang said associate with these dangerous people are -- the real danger lies with the jail. tonight about addressing about. when 80% of people in cages are not able to afford their jail that is danger. when 50% are black that white supremacy is danger. when one into black women expense
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imprisonment in her life that anti-black and that transmit jogs in the trans-phobia is dangerous. if it's all happening and san francisco. if you are talk danger, the site if it's all happening and san francisco. if you are talk danger, the site about july 10 through one of the deadliest months in the history due to police violence we are hiring 400 new police office. as i was in a blanket a black woman was found dead on monday, two days after she entered the jail in texas. this committal justice system is what's creating and perpetuating the danger the poverty and the right to promise that just can never be humane or saved because jail facilities are actually cages and cages can provide mental health care. with bill reform and printout the version and affordable housing, with confident resources and organizations who actually know how to heal our communities and help them thrive, you can invest in community and invest in alternatives to this gel. otherwise you're going to perpetuate white supremacy and poverty and danger that you're purporting to care about. show us that you care. thank you. >> thank you. i'm going to
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call the remaining speaker cards i have. >> i. hi. i'm a retired myth. i didn't san francisco 40 years. this morning i was reading the san quentin news and came across this paragraph from the new york times study. it is a measure of the deep disparities that continue to afflict black man disparities after recent spate of killings by the police. the times reported perhaps the starkest description of the situation is this. more than one out of every six black men who today should be between 25 and 40 years old have disappeared from daily life. well, we want them back. it's not just african
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american men, latinos, youth, trans people, people with mental owners, parents make between 40 and 59% of the jails and whose families and children are traumatized. in addition to their own, being in jail. people are homeless, people with substance abuse with issues. i'm a nurse so i see things from a standpoint of what is the well-being and the well-being is the only way is to get people out of jail and into the communities. many people have brought up the alternatives, supportive housing, caregroup open transitional housing, mental treatment that focuses on the abuse and trauma that people have had to deal with probably all their lives. in addition to being in jail. inpatient and outpatient treatment reuniting families, substance abuse treatment, education, do you know about is in
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