homophobic and there is a better way. we have a whole task force to help ease the transition, a lot of programs that could be invested in to help people in trouble and help people when they need it. positive reinforcement works. negative does not. i know what negative reinforcement as a child is. believe me had i been in juvenile hall i probably wouldn't be helped at all. i would be a lot worst. it is time to shut it down. it is easier to lift a child up than to fix a broken adult. juvenile hall creates broken adults. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am ki. i am someone third generation of

incarceration. i say that because i still live in district 10. i live on 75 cashmere and i am proud to say where i come from. the majority of youth incarcerated are in district 10. everyone is in one district. district so. what is it going to that to get on the same page. all i hear is us against each other. you forget people in the community. get it together, you all. we are here as a whole. what is it going to take for us to get together and be in solidarity as a whole? i am from eldership on down to being close. this is sickening. this is add to see us divided

why i should stay up and why i should go. it is a physical building that is there. we did not listen to the fact folks in the community are here and unwilling to undo the practices that have been burned by colonization. for you do it is here and say systems are the answer. no, my little brother is incarcerated. you all know who my brother is. he is 707 here. myself who is breaking cycles and my family to build up what is different. to build. how does it break the cycles of incarceration in systems that harm our family. a i.>> next speaker, please.

>> i am katie. i am a resident of sunset. i am researcher at the freedom center and i teach u.s. history at community colleges in the bay area. before moving to the west coast, i received graduate degrees from princeton and yale university in history. it seems to me the conversation is really devicesive. the thing i want to bring attention to was that all of the work that even those inside you are doing, is done from looking outside into the children. i want to highlight the fact they are isolated and without their community. i have heard about love and programming involved to support those children. i think the question is do we

think there can be support when children are under surveillance? when they have the experience of isolation. it is clear that the data shows as a researcher i could bring you numbers. it is about standing up to say we should not put children in cages. no one should be in solitary confinement. i support the shutdown of juvenile hall. thank you. >> gerald miller. i am here to support closure of juvenile hall. i have a 7-year-old. he told me the other day, papa, you should learn something wherever you go. i learned a lot today. some of it is disturbing, like how far down a rabbit hole do you have to go to know how many

bricks there are in a juvenile hall cell? also, i think the naacp lost its collective mind, i am not sure. the jury is still out on that one. i do know that people who go in general. you went be to juvenile hall. most of the people that look like you, they are not going to juvenile hall and come out to become a supervisor. they might wind up homeless, they will not have a good life. locking people up is no solution especially with kids. they have so much to learn. the community can teach people to be responsible in the community. when you look up people you turn them into animals. then you get mad because they act like they don't belong in society when you placed them in

a position they can't control and they don't understand. if we keep locking people up the only thing to happen is we will keep the cycle going. it is disgusting that probation officers would get up here and try to pump fear in the heart of the community by saying there is going to be school shootings and random roving gangs targeting civilians shooting people. how long are they going to play that card? >> i am anna johnson from the national center of the hall. national center for youth hall works to keep children out of isolated settings through immigration, juvenile halls or group homes or shelters. all of these types of

institutions it is harder to enforce the rights of children and keep them safe in a institutional environment. it actually the removal of the child from home, community, school sets them back to such a degree it is harder to get caught up when the child is free from that environment. it provides the program that work without the do the of generalization and harm. there is a way providers can do that, not in a cage. i believe we know the programs do work. they work better without a cage. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am also from the national center for youth law. i am a juvenile justice

attorney, policy advocate and survival of juvenile justice system. i was in and out of juvenile hall from 13 to 17. locked behind heavy metal doors separated from family and community and having personal and body space invaded caused lastinghaum and reinforced what the trauma led me to believe. i was bad and i didn't deserve care. i want to emphasize the lasting impact. i am 34 years old today hearing in this hearing i could feel it in my body what it felt like to be a frightened and lonely child in a cell. the punishment model did not make me better. in adulthood i struggled with addiction, abusive relationship and homeless. it was only when i was connected

with community-based services at age 22 addressing the needs that i began to heal. i urge you to support the closing of san francisco juvenile hall. don't perpetrate violence on our young people. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am a deputy probation officer. i have been with the department 20 years. i was born and raised in san francisco. the reason to become a probation officer was to help the youth that look like me to get out of the system. i have heard things today that are disturbing. i will say that i am down for reform. there does need to be reform. however, shutting down juvenile hall without a plan is very

scary. also, i do hear a lot of community agencies that said the community needs involved. i will say more than half of my youth in the system was connected to young women's freedom center. omega and these individuals come in because of juvenile hall. otherwise they would have been with the community agencies if they did not come to juvenile hall. i have had heard of young people come in. they came in and gave them life to go. i was able to say you need to be with an agency, go and work with these individuals. they are going to support you. if they did not come and talk to those individuals they would have went on their own. yes we need to work together. shuts down juvenile hall the youth would not be connected to

the agencies without this. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am the child of an immigrant who came to san francisco with nothing in his pockets. i am the product of a broken home. i have lived experience not like the youth i am sworn to protect and serve in the city. let's look at the current population in juvenile hall. 62% african-american, 21% hispanic. what does that say about our community? it doesn't recruit residents. there are those identified as meeting the highest risker based on the totality circumstances and assessment tools in our facility. focusing on that population the disparity is alarming but not surprising. the youth are from

bayview-hunters point. it seems where we should look is in the communities in which the children are raised. where do the families river? why are the youth so disproportionately affected by the need for service they have to be engaged in the safety of juvenile hall. keeping them with families. why have the schools not identified the youth absent from school to keep families and children together. why would the san francisco board of supervisors the only large urban city take away the

last hope, last safe place and last chance for san francisco's most fragile and valuable children. >> once again please be sure you are following board rule 1.3 prohibition against applause in the chamber. next speaker. >> i was formerly incarsservated with juvenile hall. i was in and out since age 15. i got sent up to if ranch, a program closed down. i was there when it was closed down. i have been out not too long now. i will get to the point if you think that taking the punishment and taking the punishment out of it, kids will decide they can do what they want.

>> if you are not prepared to go through this environment you shouldn't commit crime. it is straight up. i think that, you know, in my opinion it starts at a young age. if you don't stop young they will continue to do what they do as adults. i am glad i got caught when i got caught. if it wasn't for that i would be worse now. i think that, you know, there are a lot of people that have spoken. i have been here since 10:30 i drove three and-a-half hours to come here. there are a lot of people that i have heard say a bunch of stuff.

i have not seen them at juvenile hall or the ranch. i am not sure how in touch with the juvenile ranch they are. i was there for a long time. that is a big thing for me. i think you have got the ranch, hidden valley and the facilities up there. don't throw them away. use them. >> good afternoon. i am tim diesel born and raised in san francisco. i currently live, work and vote in san francisco. i have been with the san francisco juvenile probation department working my entire career with youth at juvenile hall and the ranch. my late mother was a prominent physician in san francisco. he started out at the free

clinic and was chief of staff at st. mary's. one day over a cup of coffee he said, tim, we have both chosen professions where our goal is to eliminate is need for our services. i have spent three decades trying to eliminate the need for juvenile hall. we are just not there yet. we are just not there yet. we do get better every day. we do take a lot of pride in the work that we do and we are dedicated to helping the kids. our goal is to return the kids to the community, not separate them from the community. we don't control the front door. we try to improve the lives of everyone coming through it. we have high standards for our staff. they are dedicated, trained, educated and kept abreast of the

best practices. we operate under the guidelines of the title 15 of the state government code, and in those regulations have just been revised. our practices reflect the best thinking and current practices of the board of corrections. that includes trauma care and appropriate care. >> thank you, tim. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am a teacher atwood side learning center, the public school in juvenile hall. our staff are in favor o of informing the juvenile system. the majority of the staff feel

we can't endorse a plan that doesn't exist. our concern is maintaining and improving the positive aspects of woodside. students attend school in a structured environment with low student to teacher and guidance counselor rach or. w-- teachers.students are clean, they attend school every day often after long breaks. they are safe at our schools without weapons, phones or drugs. they succeed earning credits towards graduation. some attend college courses online. students have access to trauma informed teachers and curriculum and woodside has a transition program with two educators assigned to student reentry. we are visited regularly by artists such as danny glover and

the little rock nine and film makers we have a justice garden with access to therapy. through san francisco community-based organizations our students are exposed to curriculum involving nutrition, domestic violence, parenting and p t.s.x. because of our collaboration our students have been expelled or pushed out of the system thrive in our systematicdemic leann they are able to reimagine themselves as students. >> esteemed members of the board i am the senior supervisor of the administration of juvenile justice advisory board for city

college of san francisco. with the practitioners and what they need is more options, not fewer. judges, attorneys and social workers are handcuffed by lack of places to put kids when they can't go home. one of my responsibilities is to approve the placements for kids with the highest needs. each week representatives hear presentations from case caring probation officers seeking placements to take the kids and who we believe can meet their needs. while the names change from week to two, they are similar. kids from highly dysfunctional families, who suffered extreme abuse and neglect. these kids lack safety, structure, support.

their basic needs are not met and they are acting out often violently. these kids received services from the time they are young and run away or have been kicked out of relative placements and foster placements and group homes. many are detained at jjc. they continue to put themselves in the community at risk. the number of kids dropped. so has the number of viable options to serve those we have. i believe we should add resources, not take them away. i agree that some kids in the system could be better served by mental health or regional center. >> thank you. if you want to line up to speak, please do so behind the line to my left.

>> good afternoon. i am patrick with juvenile probation for 10 years, eight and-a-half as counsel or. i didn't think i would make it today. excuse me if i am scatter brown. i hear negativity about how they are treated. a person working there for 8 and a half years. the programs are available there. i can speak for myself what i did in there. i ran a trivia group each week to help them become knowledgeable such as what is the state capitol of california? they didn't know the answer. that is not a failure of juvenile hall. they were failed before they coming here. what the staff do there is try to fix them.

i got involved in this line of work because i would get in a lot of trouble and i wanted to change the system to help kids involved in the system. i can speak for the majority of staff working there. they are in the same boat as i am. a program not discussed i have been running a basketball team there for five plus years with the help of other staff there. the purpose of this team is to not just give the kids something tto look forward to and work on skills in there. the purpose is to introduce them to people in san francisco. tomorrow we have a game against the san francisco fire department. after the game we meet and talk about how the kids can be successful. we talk about mentorship provided in san francisco juvenile hall. we have a great opportunity to reform where we are at and reform juvenile hall.

we can collectively work together. >> it has come to my attention. there are people in the overflow room. please come over if you wish to speak and line up. thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am fred nelson, a sworn peace officer here. i have been a 30 year employee there. i am native born in san francisco. it is highly disrespectful to know our leadership has come to a point where it is all about money. closing down the institution is not the solution. we need to look internally at leadership. why are we doing this? one of th the things open right now. i have heard the numbers falsified and things not true.

one said it takes $300,000 a year per kid. the only reason they stay there for a year would be for homicide trial. please don't miss construe the numbers. a lot of community organizations from my take are not effective. it is all about the money. it is not that kids of san francisco because the services talked about a lot of them are failing them. a lot of times from my experience with being a youth in the bayview and fillmore growing up, in general the hall is a life safer for a lot of people. to say shut it down and send panic is disrespectful to the people of san francisco. i hope everybody pays attention and looks internally and stops

speaking externally. >> good afternoon. i work at juvenile hall. i have been here five years now. i am a product of the juvenile justice center. i mean the juvenile justice system as well. en. [please stand by]

... i feel highly disrespected that all these community-based organizations want to examine up here and slander us, shut us down, when in reality, you speak to the youth and they tell you they don't even know who these community organizations are. they would never go to them. i've been on a break and had kids run up to me and say, please take me, please, i'm in danger, please, please, and i

did a essay contest on this shutdown and i work in union 6, 15 youth, well, they would rather spend their time -- [bell ringing] >> i cry for the little boy. i don't support half or partial of juvenile reform. i support all juvenile hall reform. i need to be clear, we're not talking about closing juvenile hall, because you're going to build a new one as the legislature say. we're talking about replacing 85, 86% people of color staff in juvenile hall. it spends more than $14 million to be spread out in the community. but in my community, in west point, harbor road, double lot, army street, we have cameras

everywhere. we had spy. i don't know what community you guys are talking about. so i want to see some community centers built, pacific heights, the marina, places where black kids, we don't never get to see that. so when you're talking about building community based detention centers in communities that is already devastated by violence, it's like you're trying to lock us up again. when we hug on what you say, we have mental health issues, and i appreciate you, because you said you was in juvenile hall. did you have have a mental health issue? i was in juvenile hall 26 times. quit trying to declare there is something wrong with black peoples' minds. invest the money so we can develop our minds and get the resources and have us in here divided over the simple fact who is going to get the money behind a building? we have 43 million, and you're

all arguing over $14 million. we got $2.3 billion surplus, i don't get this. let's get real, what we're really talking about, displacing people of color out of the city. welcome to the new millennium of gentrification. black people have gone from -- [bell ringing] >> yes. my name is henrietta. i've seen community agencies come through there, half of them come through there now, ain't worth nothing because they lie for the kids. but most of the time, when your child is in trouble, you need to start at home.

i have a child. i have nieces and nephew and none of them have been up to juvenile hall, because i don't play that with them. they don't have rights when somebody else is taking care of them. and these laws that is happening now, they're full of crap. the kids can't do this, can't do that. you got to give them boundaries. you got to set boundaries for these kids. you wouldn't have them up there juvenile hall. but we do good up there. even me as a secretary. i have went with probation officers to kids' houses, kids who was in the hospital, and that is maybe because i love kids. but what you all trying to do is wrong. dead wrong. >> my name is jojo, i'm the district 8 youth commissioner. placing young people in

detention does not create safety for them and the community. safety for the interactions between law enforcement and youth are causing more harm than good. the youth commission supports the shutting down of juvenile hall. young people need to be sported and helped by their community. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is lewis. i'm the director of the san francisco juvenile justice centre, i guess that would make me public enemy number one. but what am i guilty of? guilty of bringing in programs like paid vocational programs, educational programs, college programs, intramural events. opening the door to all of the community folks that come in to work with us. to create along with the chief and assistant chief a policy on separation that has been

emulated throughout the state. to take the lead on lgbtq issues when kids are detained. lgbtq youth are detained. that is what i'm guilty of, we're all guilty of. i stand here proudly representing the juvenile justice center. everything we do, we do for our youth. with the intent of getting better at what we do every day. so i submit to supervisors that you really take a long, hard look at this proposal and setting the deadline for two-and-a-half years now to close juvenile hall. let's have plan. and let's include everyone. this is the first time i've had a chance to see you face-to-face. no one has talked to me. and a lot of our community folks and commissions feel the same way. this change, the foundation for this change needs to be the truth. otherwise, we risk the lives of our kids. thank you.

>> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is jackie flynn. i'm the executive director of the phillip randolph. i want to thank you, supervisor walton, for bringing us into the conversation. i hear other people say they haven't been a part of the conversation, but i also want to say to the service providers currently in juve nil that i do not believe you are the enemy. i applaud the positive work that is invested in our youth. i work with many of the folks that spoke today. it's pulls kids out of school and separates them from their family and community at a time that is a crisis moment in their life. research shows that being detained leads to longer

sentences and worse outcomes for our youth later on. in a recent article published in november, we found that 4 out of 5 of the bay area counties that use risk assessment kids were detained anyway. as you said, supervisor walton, this is a racial justice issue, it's a civil rights issue and the legislation gives san francisco an opportunity to continue to lead and set precedents for our neighboring cities and counties. i appreciate your effort, thank you. >> my name is sophia. i'm a youth coordinator. and i just want to say that i am very, very proud and very grateful to be a san franciscan. a native san franciscan today. i'm proud of the leadership that has prompted this dialogue and even with the tension in this room, i'm very grateful to have the space to talk about the critical social issues, social

values, social institutions, social systems and social structures that create the conditions that develop and mobilize behavior. i'm grateful we're here addressing the living state we exist in today as black, brown, undervalued population of society. and i'm grateful for the shift in perspective as we pivot our approach in upending a social structure that wasn't reflected in us. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is dinky. i'm the deputy director of the center on juvenile and criminal justice and the co-chair of the juvenile justice provider association. this should not be a fight. if you want to support our youth, then step up. if you are a counselor in the hall, if you are a p.o., if you're from the department of

public health, if you're from dcyf, if you're from j.p.d. or the former log cabin reach, if you're from any acronym and you want to continue to support our youth, step up and join us. this should not be an us versus them. so many of my former colleagues have gone into these departments and we supported you in our pursuit. and now we have an opportunity to do something different. together to do something different so our youth can experience something different. supervisors, i ask you to maintain the december 2021 deadline with over two-and-a-half years, we have the time, the resources, the existing community based services and available licensed and certified locations to lift

up our children, families and communities. thank you. >> good afternoon, members of the board. and my brothers and sisters in the room. my name is kendall mason. i am chairman of the economic development division of our san francisco branch of naacp, i'm also an executive board member and deacon of durham baptist church. as a deacon of the church, i'm a member of the youth outreach ministry for juvenile hall. so i have experience with it. i'm born and raised in san francisco, the fillmore district, this great city. the first time i went to jail i was 12 years old. here in san francisco, not in solano county.

but i made it through and out of that cycle and that system. now i am totally opposed to closing that juvenile hall. simply put, this legislation makes no sense to me, not just because of the misguided merits of this measure, but for the basic facts that it includes no logical plan or structure and deals with what will be done with our children who are the residents of the facility and the facility itself. the probation department has directed $9 million to juvenile hall. a flat amount since 2011. even though the population has been covering half. it seems to me that the logical and prudent thing to do would be to reduce funding commensurate with the current fiscal needs of

the facility and its programs. we are at the naacp are not opposed to change. on the contrary, change is the most constant in our universe, but what we're opposed to is a lack of transparency, consideration -- [bell ringing]. >> next speaker. >> hello, everyone. my name is eddie wilson. i'm a community member. i live in bayview hunters point and i was born and raised there. i'm thankful for this time we have for the community to speak up on this. this is really important to me. and from observing everyone that has spoken from the probation officers and those who work in juvenile hall, but it seems to be for the support for them to support our youth is to send

them to these organizations and non-profits that were here today. and upon release, they direct them to the very organizations that are here today saying we need to close ygc. as co-chair for the california youth connection, i support the shutdown of the youth guidance center. many of the youth behind bars are taking a stand against ygc because of the dehumanization from being incarcerated. as a community member who has done time, i know for a fact that solitary confinement and separation from my community did not rehabilitate me, but gave me more rage to live with. our community saying that they care for youth and will uplift them and embrace them. i stand behind the movement in favor of healing and serving our youth in a non-institutional place of detention. thank you.

>> it is only a small percentage of that land that is being used and it's not all being utilized. i'm moving to shut it down and by the same response have a section of it used for the youth, not as a jail type of situation where you incarcerated, but to rehabilitate and provide living conditions for a person to graduate from school and continue into vocational programs and elevate themselves. not no jailhouse surroundings where you're programming and brainwashing people to have that type of mentality start now at a childhood age. that building should be shut down, and millions should be spent renovating it turning it into a complex for homeless and people who you got in that type of situation use the building for now. that land, that building should

be renovated for about 8,000 unit build complex for low and low-income bracket people for counseling departments in the building to address the issues of the kids that you're trying to help. taking kids and putting them in that kind of situation when you get biased cops and biased security guards at an elementary junior high school which is lying about the kids' performance and calling the police and treating them like they're some kind of goddamned criminal and tying them up in that system brainwashes them so when they're turned into an adult, they're more biased against the system than they were before they got that deep into the system. the they think i think to do is renovate that land and not only the land but the building itself and make the affordable housing for the people that are homeless in the city of san francisco to

take care of the overall problem in the first place. instead of a wasting land like -- [bell ringing]. my name is damon burris, i'm a 23-year employee of the san francisco juvenile probation department. i work for five years in the rose unit. it's been said that institutions cause detrimental long-term to these youth. if you close the juvenile hall, these kids many time will not provide the structure, but what happens, what do you think will happen with juvenile crime when it surfaces and word gets on the street there is no -- that you will not have to go to juvenile hall if you commit a crime in the city? what will happen, there will be increase in juvenile crime in san francisco.

so the question then becomes, which will produce long-term detrimental outcomes for kids? institutionization? or lack of accountability? the answer is not a or b. the answer is both. because those of us who have children know, kids must have structure. whether it's the structure of a juvenile hall program remains to be debated and this blue ribbon commission and the thought-providers and the cbos and all the partnerships we have now will hopefully come up with something that will serve our youth who find themselves in these positions. but the closure of the juvenile hall, maybe making it something smaller and more nimble, does need to happen so we can address these issues. we, as the counselors, stand ready to be in partnership with the solution.

>> hello, everyone. thanks for having us here to speak on behalf of our kids at juvenile hall. my name is deborah bill. i've been there for 30 years. we've seen kids, parents there. then we've seen their kids come through. our biggest concern in juvenile hall, and i think i speak on behalf of a lot of my colleagues, that we're not saying it's not unhealthy to lock kids up, it is unhealthy and that has been proven over and over. but this city has also failed our black and brown kids. for years and years. nobody has done anything about the police riding in our neighborhoods. i grew up in san francisco. i'm going to get off the thing for a minute, but i grew up in san francisco, but i grew up at

a time when america cared about their kids. i grew up at a time when teenagers had somewhere to go. i grew up at a time where we had the beach to go to. we had recreation dinners to go to. we had after-school programs to go to. i don't have that anymore for our kids. all these community-based programs are coming along saying we have what it takes and you guys are talking about closing us down and sending our black and brown kids to these community-based programs when, who is going to hold them accountable when the kids come up missing from their programs? how do we know what -- how do they know what is best for the kids? not to get down on community based programs, about you the city needs to -- but the city needs to look at the racist system we have here. why aren't the police in other areas? those kids also commit crimes. so look at the whole picture and create a model that we can all

see and understand that our kids are not going to be left behind once again by people saying we won't help these black and brown kids. >> thank you. good afternoon. i don't like speaking to empty chairs, but i'm glad i'm speaking to three supervisors who are able to face us today. i don't care about your decisions closing the juvenile hall in two years, because in two years i'm going to retire. but i was thinking why i wasted my time to speak for nothing. but i thought hard. two kind of people in san francisco. number one, the victims in san francisco. the general public of san francisco who are victims of crimes the many visitors who come here to san francisco, san

francisco make a lot of money out of those visitors who have been victimized because of crimes. juvenile hall is only a detention center for a very limited time. before the judge make a decision where to send the kids to serve their time or to get services. i've been in the juvenile department 27 years. i'm a victim 11 times from head to toe. injuries. and think of this, 50 youth in a juvenile hall. let's say half of them commit robberies and serious crimes, times three, four, five victims. we're talking about hundreds, 200, 300 victims. those are the people i want to speak about. the safety. imagine, i'm glad to see supervisor williams with the phone. imagine the kids take your phone, hit you in the face, get your phone away from you? then you will realize this.

the second are the people. the youth who are being served. last month, last summer, a girl came to my office say, remember me? i say no. i say i got this scholarship to go to mississippi state university. this last month. i got a call from my -- [bell ringing]. >> thank you so much. >> name is joyce washington, i'm a resident san francisco. and what concerns me about what i'm hearing today is i hear a lot of putting the cart before the horse. i don't know why closing juvenile hall, especially after

the list of infractions, things wrong, like cement beds and visiting hours and silence and shackles. those are all policy things. those are not reasons to close juvenile hall. those are things that can be fixed now. you can't close it until you have an alternative. and i don't understand talking about closure before you have an alternative. the community agencies that have spoken, what i didn't hear people say is, they're all proud of the work that they do after the kids are in juvenile hall. did they do anything before they got to juvenile hall? i did hear somebody say the kids that were helped by the community centers, the community

agencies, the kids did not hear about those agencies until after they got to juvenile hall. you need to look the your agenda -- at your agenda and rearrange it. thank you. >> thank you. are there any more speakers for public comment? are there any more speakers for public comment? if not, public comment is closed. colleagues, do you have anything to say? supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: thank you, supervisor walton. first of all, i wanted to thank you and supervisors ronen and haney on this bold measure. thank you to all of the young people, community advocates, and service providers who spoke out today and have been working on juvenile justice reform and restorative justice for years, or even decades.

i would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the work of sunset youth services in my district. as a result of the supportive, encouraging and rehabilitative environment of sunset youth services, their youth have a 94% rate of non-recidivism, showing how it's possible to find alternatives to incarceration. also, thank you to chief nance and all of the dedicated staff of the juvenile department for all of your positive work and highlighting all of the positive things that are happening at juvenile hall. providing new access for the relatively small number of people placed in your custody, to health care, nutrition, and so many other things. i believe these are all supports for our youth that absolutely should be continued as we move forward with major changes to our juvenile justice system, but

i'm in strong agreement with my colleagues, with the young people, and the community advocates, that it's now time -- it's now long overdue for us not just to reform, but to transform our juvenile justice system. now is the time to re-imagine how we prevent incarceration and recidivism of at-risk young people. as many have spoken to, i believe we have a moral and fiscal responsibility to close juvenile hall and reinvest the $12 million in annual funding and costs into programs that more effectively and justly reach our young people. i'm happy to support this important measure on moving forward to the full board. >> thank you so much, supervisor mar. supervisor brown? >> supervisor brown: yes, i also want to thank everybody that came here today for this long hearing. the folks who work at j.p.d., i

hear your passion and your dedication to kids. [please stand by]

>> there needs to be major changes. for me, i want to learn. i wanted to hear from the experts because i am not an expert. i really want the city to take the time to do it right. these are kids and these are kids that we are responsible for them, whether they are biological kids or not, they are our kids. we have to look at it this way. everything we do has to be the right step. i don't want to make a wrong step where we could hurt these kids even more than they have been hurt from society. i also think, you know, closing the hall is one part of it, but we need a better diversion strategy and making sure these kids don't end up reoffending or

going to jail when they hit 18. also, and i think one thing missing in this conversation is probation which is a bigger part of the jpd system. i think that we need to have better probation practices to keep the youth on the right track. i think that is something we really need to structure a lot better and finding homes and shelters for these kids who can't come home for safety reasons, and i personally working in city hall have seen a lot of those kids that can't go home. they don't have a home to go to that is safe for them. we have to remember this. i would like to see the working group and blue panel working together to figure this out.

i really appreciate labor and city workers to be a part of this conversation. i am going to move this forward. i think it is something we need to do, and i think everyone today for coming forward. >> thank you, supervisor brown. i want to thank everyone who came out today to give testimony. all of our folks who work in the hall, juvenile probation, chief nance is here today. i want to thank our community representatives who come out today, young people who came out to speak. as you can see this conversation is very important. i want to say a few things. then i want to speak on the amendment to move forward. if you don't believe me, if you don't believe my colleagues, if you don't want to listen to me or my colleagues, at least listen to the young people you

heard from today. i am not going to reiterate anything we heard from the young folks. i heard about third hand information about how excited young people are in juvenile hall. listen to the young folks we heard from. if you don't want to take it from me, if you don't want to take it from my colleagues, listen to the young people who have spoken not only today but continue to speak. this is not an attack on the staff. this is an attack on the system and a push for more opportunities for our young people. we are not eliminating programs that work or pushing out people who do a good job. if you listen to the legislation, we are proposing an alternative experience that does a better job for young folks. there is much opportunity for the great work to be done. i heard someone talk about if the young people were not in

juvenile hall they wouldn't be connected to some program. there will be engagement and work to young people to connect them to programs that work. i want everybody to understand what we are doing here. actually take the time to read legislation and see what we are proposing. two years is enough time, and it is actually an extension. there is a lot of data out there to tell you how this system is currently not working. the great reporting of the chronicle and the data and information that is in there, all of the reports that we have heard, all of the experts we have talked to. there is a plethora of information that says this is a thing to do years ago. two years is an extension. it is more than enough time. if you believe in the leadership of jpd and innovation and leadership of folks in t