Events
March 7, 2015 / 5:15 p.m.
San Francisco's Chinese New Year Parade
Market Street @ 2nd Street
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Undersheriff F. Rocha
Sergeant R. Winters
Director of Programs Riker
Ms. K. Monico Klein
Ms. L. Levitas
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© 2014
San Francisco
Sheriff's Department
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A Message from Sheriff
Ross Mirkarimi
We
continue our work
by strengthening public
safety in the community
and
strengthening community
in our jails. Bridging
our neighborhoods are
the three pretrial diversion
programs that allow individuals, especially
those who cannot afford bail, the opportunity to remain with
family,
working, or for the homeless, to receive intensive case
management,
while their case proceeds its way through
the criminal justice system. For those who are ultimately
released, the fewer ties are broken,
the fewer
ties that need re-connection.
As more people with severe
mental illness cycle the
criminal justice system, we must develop better
programs to divert them to an effective system of care.
In
July, we began the Station Unit Transfer (STU) pilot
project with the
SF Police Department, deploying
Deputy Sheriffs to transport and book
arrestees at
our Intake and Release Facility, County Jail #1.
This
time, we studiously collected data on
operational and staffing
mechanics, carefully
compiling a chronological and statistical file.
This data validates the conventional notion that this
program saves
money and keeps beat officers on the
street. Public safety is better and
more efficiently served.
In January we celebrated the Five Keys Charter High
School graduation ceremonies. These
diplomas and
all the accomplishment they embody are the result
of
innovative programming combined with the
commitment to: provide and
accept opportunity, give
and receive hope, and create a positive
community.
While incarceration is the intersection of so many
wrongs in a
person's life, Five Keys Charter High
School is the intersection of so
much that is restorative.
In
both our men's and women's facilities, we recognized
Black History
Month with special programs with
readings about famous African American
leaders,
community members speaking about their challenges and triumphs,
and shared the spoken word.
On
behalf of the Sheriff's Department, staff and inmates,
I want to thank
Dr. Joe Goldenson for his 28 years of
dedicated service and most
recently as the Director of
Jail Health Services. His dedication and
creativity
greatly improved health care for prisoners
and established
national standards for respectful
and compassionate healthcare.
Prisoners have a
constitutional right to health care, but that is
meaningless without the fine work of Dr. Goldenson.
Finally, we wish everyone happy and safe Lunar New
Year celebrations.
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Station Transfer Unit (STU) Pilot Proves Successful
In July 2014 the San
Francisco
Sheriff's
Department entered
into a formal Letter
of Agreement with
the
San Francisco
Police Department
to conduct a six
month pilot project
to
assess the
evidence-based
effects of conducting a limited station transfer operation.
The pilot project provided Sheriff's wagon services
for two
of the ten district stations, Mission and Tenderloin, seven
days a week, excluding holidays.
The
unit for the operation was comprised of supervisors and
deputy sheriffs
from throughout the department and with the
cooperation of Sheriffs'
Managers and Supervisors Association
(MSA) and Deputy Sheriffs'
Association (DSA). In addition to
capturing very specific data on
numbers of prisoners
processed, refusals due to medical reasons, days
and times
during which pickups were made, by station, we also
captured
data on SFPD escorted prisoners to SFGH for
medical treatment prior to
acceptance and booking into
county jail and other critical information
for future use
for potential budget requests.
At
the conclusion of the six
month pilot, it came as no
surprise that SFSD
performed
at very efficient and safe
levels. In addition to
capturing
data on the
busiest patterns for prisoner
pickups, we also tracked data
on medical refusals both at
the district stations and
at CJ#1. For the
six
month period we transported
1453 prisoners.
The
significance of these data points will be seen should
we move forward
with a budget request that includes
hospital transports for the SFPD.
This information had
not previously been captured and will be very
important
during any future budget negotiations for resources to
continue STU.
Finally, a huge note of gratitude to the deputy sheriffs
and supervisors who made this pilot so successful. Due
to these
efforts, the SFSD once again demonstrated
why we are an integral part of the public safety team
in San Francisco.
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African American History Month in the San Francisco County Jails
Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, has
been an annual observance celebrated each February in the United States
since 1976. It is acknowledged by the San Francisco Sheriff's
Department with a variety of special programs and presentations. This
year the following activities took place:
The Sisters in Sober Treatment Empowered in Recovery (SISTERS)
Program at CJ 2 honored Black History Month by inviting community
members to speak with the women about their struggles, successes, and
poetry. Every afternoon in February, clients honored a different
African American leader by reading highlights of their lives out loud to
the SISTERS community. Program partner Healthright360 provided a
special meal in the pod at the end of February.
A
Five Keys Charter School Case Manager worked with the women in the Life
Skills class in CJ 2's E Pod to write and perform a special program
called "Freedom Train." The case manager lined up additional speakers,
including Sheriff's Department's Rehabilitation Services Coordinators,
and a Deputy Probation Officer.
The
Roads to Recovery Program at CJ 5 in San Bruno honored Black History
Month with motivational guest speakers from the community coming into
the jail to talk about their struggles, successes, and poetry.
Every day
of February during morning meetings there were cultural readings
covering famous African American leaders from the past to the present.
Participants volunteered to share any spoken word on Fridays during the
month to express their thoughts on Black History.
Healthright360
provided a meal at the end of month in honor of Black History Month. As a
tradition, every year in honor of Black History a program participant
sings the Black National Anthem.
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In Honor of Dr. Joe Goldenson
Dr.
Joe Goldenson has retired from his position as Director of Jail Health
Services, the division of the Department of Public Health responsible
for providing healthcare to San Francisco's most marginalized citizens,
those who are incarcerated in the San Francisco county jails.
Prisoners
are among one of the only groups in this country with a constitutional
right to health care. In San Francisco that right is embodied in the
healthcare services the Department of Public Health delivers to San
Francisco county jail prisoners through Jail Health Services.
Since
the 1980s when public health assumed responsibility for the healthcare
of prisoners, Jail Health Services has become known throughout the
country as the model for prisoner health care. The person most recently
responsible for that care is Joe Goldenson, MD who began working at Jail
Health Services 28 years ago when Jail Health Services' first director,
Nancy Rubin, hired Joe Goldenson as an MD.
Joe
Goldenson started at Jail Health Services first as a doctor, then as
Medical Director and then as Director of Jail Health Services. During
these 28 years, Joe Goldenson has worked for the improvement of
healthcare in incarcerated settings not only in San Francisco but also
throughout the country.
Joe
Goldenson's innovations and efforts are reflected in improved standards
of care throughout the country. Those protocols and policies Joe
Goldenson has promoted have helped establish a national standard for
compassionate and respectful care.
Joe
Goldenson's vision for a public health model for care in jails and
prisons has proven both creative and effective. In addition to
establishing a template for respectful prisoner healthcare, Joe
Goldenson has conducted his work with humor and respect directed to both
patients and staff.
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GRADUATION CEREMONIES
On January 22, 2015, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi had the great honor of
presiding over the San Francisco Sheriff Department's (SFSD) Five Keys Charter High School graduation ceremonies.
Two separate ceremonies were held at the Hall of Justice.
In
a morning ceremony, 21 inmate graduates walked across the stage to
accept their diplomas or certificates of completion, while in the
afternoon 31 community graduates accepted their diplomas or certificates
of completion.
This year, Five Keys Charter High School is one step
closer to reaching its critical goal of graduating 1,000 students since
its inception in 2003.
Five
Keys Charter High School is the first public charter high school to
operate in a county jail, infusing the ideals of community, family,
recovery, education and employment into its school curriculum.
Five Keys
Charter High School's positive impact has reached beyond the cement
walls of our facilities and is now embedded inside the Los Angeles
County jail system and operates 16 community centers throughout San
Francisco.
In 2014, Five Keys received the Hart Vision Award
at the annual California Charter Schools Conference (CCSC) for its
significant contributions to the CCSC's mission to increase student
achievement.
The SFSD Five Keys Charter High School graduation
ceremonies are the result of joint innovative community effort combined
with the commitment to provide opportunity, give hope and create a
positive impact on the lives of a unique group of attendees and their
loved ones. "Where incarceration is the intersection of so many wrongs
in a person's life, historically, within the U.S. prison and jail
systems, opportunities proved few in providing the ex-offender hope
through a working skill. However, those times are changing, as evidenced
by the durable reach of the San Francisco Sheriff Department's Five
Keys Charter School whose common sense approach to improving public
safety is by not letting incarcerated minds decay," stated Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.
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San Francisco Sheriff's Department Pretrial Diversion Project
The
San Francisco Sheriff's Department contracts with SF Pretrial Diversion
Project to operate three programs that provide alternatives to pretrial
incarceration.
The intended outcome of all three programs is
minimizing risk to public safety, while affording defendants the
opportunity to reconnect with family and community while meeting the
requirements of the court.
OWN RECOGNIZANCE PROJECT
The
purpose of the Own Recognizance (OR) Project is to interview eligible
in-custody defendants and present their cases to a judicial officer for
possible pre-arraignment release on their own recognizance.
A judicial
officer reviews the OR packet which consists of the interview, criminal
history which is also summarized and the arrest report, and determines
if the defendant should be released.
If the judge grants release, the
OR staff informs the defendant of the conditions of their release.
If
the judge denies OR or if the defendant is ineligible for
pre-arraignment OR release, the OR staff provide the defendant
information to the arraignment courts for possible release on court OR
or referral to Supervised Pretrial Release or Court Accountable Homeless
Services.
SUPERVISED PRETRIAL RELEASE
Supervised
Pretrial Release (SPR) is an alternative for those who do not qualify
for OR and cannot post bail.
SPR is a conditional release program in
which eligible defendants are released on their promise to abide by
court orders with their program participation closely supervised by
staff.
COURT ACCOUNTABLE HOMELESS SERVICES
Court
Accountable Homeless Services (CAHS) provides the most intensive
supervision on the continuum of pretrial alternatives to incarceration.
CAHS seeks to address chronic homelessness and concurring court
appearances through intensive case management.
Many of the homeless
offenders exhibit a host of issues that impede their ability to
successfully navigate the judicial system and must overcome a number of
unique challenges beyond homelessness.
To that end, CAHS provides the
court with an effective and comprehensive pretrial release program for
defendants with poor appearance records.
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