(OLA #: 029-02)

LEGISLATIVE ANALYST REPORT

To: Members of the Board of Supervisors

From: Adam Van de Water, Office of the Legislative Analyst

Date: April 2, 2003

RE: Criminal Justice Offender Profile (File # 021527)

Summary and Scope of Work

Supervisor Daly, through the Board, requested that the Office of the Legislative Analyst (OLA) analyze San Francisco's criminal justice system with a specific emphasis on the city's offender profile (race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and neighborhood of participants) relative to Alameda County. In addition, Supervisor Daly requested that the OLA describe current alternatives to incarceration as well as the cost effectiveness and efficacy of rehabilitation programs.

Executive Summary

San Francisco's racial, ethnic, and gender profile compares closely with that of Alameda County, with the primary exceptions that San Francisco has a higher percentage of Asian or Pacific Islander residents and a lower percentage of Black or African American residents.

This holds largely true within the continuously changing incarcerated population. At a rate of 257 per 100,000 residents, San Francisco has a slightly lower incarceration rate than Alameda County with 274 per 100,000 residents.

Snapshots of San Francisco's approximately 2,200 inmates show that over half are Black/African American, nearly nine out of ten are male, three quarters are awaiting sentence, and nearly half are held for drug crimes. Of the 956 held for a drug-related charge, nine out of ten were held for possession or sale of a narcotic or opiate and less than one out of ten were held for possession or sale of marijuana.

The San Francisco Sheriff's Department does not maintain statistics on the sexual orientation or home neighborhood of offenders.

The San Francisco Incarcerated Population

The San Francisco incarcerated population of approximately 2,200 inmates includes sentenced and un-sentenced offenders, out-of-county holds, juvenile warrants, and holds for state or federal correctional organizations (California Department of Corrections, INS, etc)¹. Inmates are held at SF General Hospital and six county jails including approximately 350 males in San Bruno County Jail #7, which the Mayor has proposed to close in the upcoming budget year. Demographic information on the incarcerated population comes primarily from `snapshots' taken on a given day, which may or may not accurately reflect the average population.

Gender/Race/Ethnicity

On June 5, 2002 the San Francisco Sheriff's Department (SFSD) took a snapshot of the incarcerated population broken down by gender, race and ethnicity. It found that 55 percent of the 1,995 inmates held on that date were African American, 21 percent were Latino or Hispanic, 19 percent were Caucasian, five percent were Asian or Pacific Islander, and the remainder were of some other race. On the same date, the survey found that 87 percent were male and 13 percent were female. This compares very closely to information provided by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office from just 10 days later, which found very similar gender and racial breakdowns of Alameda County's incarcerated population (see charts 1 and 2 below).

Overall this translates into the following incarceration rates:

Booked Offense

On September 1, 2002, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department (SFSD) conducted another population survey, categorizing all 2,122 inmates held on that date by booked offense². The survey found that 46 percent of all inmates held on that date were held on drug offenses (sale or possession), 32 percent were held on violent crime offenses (murder, rape, assault, battery, etc.), 15 percent were held on property theft charges, and the remaining seven percent were held for other charges (see Chart 3 below). These figures were largely mirrored in an earlier analysis by the not-for-profit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice on Monday February 18, 2002.

On February 24, 2003, SFSD conducted a hand count of all 956 inmates held for drug charges in SF County Jails. The count found that 54 percent were held for sale of opiates or narcotics, 37 percent were held for possession or possession for sale of opiates or narcotics, and the remaining nine percent were for possession or sale of marijuana (see Chart 4 below).³ Interestingly, in a survey of California's twelve largest counties conducted by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, San Francisco had the state's highest arrest rate for drug felonies and its lowest for drug misdemeanors⁴. According to the authors, "a disproportionately high number of arrests charges in San Francisco are reduced in the early stages of court processing. This reflects a historical pattern of inflated charging policy by the SF Police Department."

Age

A Goldman Fund study provided by Assistant Sheriff Michael Marcum provides a high-level summary of the age distribution of the San Francisco inmate population in 2001 (see Table I below). This is currently the only age breakdown of the San Francisco inmate population available and cannot constructively be compared to Alameda County's jail population profile.

Sexual Orientation and Neighborhood

According to Susan Fahey, SFSD Public Information Officer, SFSD does not currently track data on inmates' sexual orientation or neighborhood of residence. In addition, SFSD does not currently have the data capacity to connect racial/ethnic/gender information with booking charges for all inmates.

Sentencing

A jail population study taken at 9:00 am on the morning of February 18, 2002 by Alison Riker of the non-profit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice found that, of the 2,052 inmates who had San Francisco charges, 465 (23 percent) were sentenced and 1,572 (77 percent) were not sentenced. An additional 15 inmates had one case that was sentenced and another that was not sentenced.

Rehabilitation

SFSD has a number of rehabilitation programs aimed at improving education, breaking the cycle of violence, and reducing substance abuse addiction to prepare inmates for successful re-entry after release.

At the time of writing of this report, SFSD was unable to provide discrete cost information for their various alternative and rehabilitation programs.

Violence Prevention

Substance Abuse

Education

Vocational

Counseling

Mental Illness

In addition to these SFSD programs, the San Francisco Drug Court provides intervention, treatment, and rehabilitation for eligible non-violent drug defendants. Typically defendants with an underlying serious substance abuse problem who have yet to enter a plea or have yet to receive a judgement from the court can be referred to the Drug Court where they spend one year completing required treatment programs and securing stable housing and employment. A collaborative effort of eight city departments and offices, the San Francisco Drug Court has graduated 500 participants since its creation in March 1995.

Alternatives to Incarceration

Current SFSD alternatives to incarceration include:

Chart 4 at right shows one-year recidivism rates for these alternatives compared with a non-treatment control group. As shown in the chart, nearly two-thirds of all inmates who were released without an alternative to incarceration (the non-treatment control group) committed a repeat offense while those who were enrolled in alternative programs (all jail alternative programs) had a much lower recidivism rate of 33 percent⁵.

Another source of information on alternatives to incarceration is the not-for-profit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice's October 1999 publication, Shattering "Broken Windows": An Analysis of San Francisco's Alternative Crime Policies. This report can be found on the Center's Web-site at www.cjcj.org/pubs.

¹ This analysis focuses on inmates in the county jail system and does not include parolees or others not physically housed in the system.

² Susan Fahey, Public Information Officer for SFSD, maintains that the total jail population has risen since this time and currently averages close to 2,200 inmates. Where an inmate was held on charges for more than one offense, the more `serious' offense was listed as the offense. Therefore, if a custody was charged with felony drug possession and misdemeanor assault, for example, the case was categorized as a drug offense.

³ These offenses are governed by Sections 11350 - 11360 of the California Health and Safety Code and were classified by SFSD by the most serious charge for each person.

⁴ Males, Macallair, and Jamison. Drug Use and Justice 2002: An Examination of California Drug Policy Enforcement, November 2002. Online at http://www.cjcj.org/pubs/cadrug_2002/cadrug2002pr.html. According to the authors

⁵ Eligibility requirements do apply for all alternative programs, which may partially explain the different recidivism rates.