District attorney wants to hire more lawyers for weekend jail duty
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón is pushing for $588,000 to hire new attorneys for the city’s jails so that people arrested on Friday nights don’t have to wait until Monday morning to get out.
Mayor Ed Lee included the funding for a weekend unit in his proposed budget, which went before the Board of Supervisors last week. The money would support two attorneys and two paralegals who would review the incident reports and booking sheets of those arrested to determine whether or not they should be charged.
Under the current system, the district attorney has two full business days to conduct these reviews. A person arrested early on Thursday morning before a holiday weekend might not get through the process until Tuesday morning.
To Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, who advocated for the funding, that seems unfair. She helped lead a working group that the supervisors convened last year on ways to reduce San Francisco’s jail population and prepare for the sixth- and seventh-floor Hall of Justice jails to be shut down permanently.
“I don’t think people should be in jail any longer than they’re supposed to be, and they certainly shouldn’t stay there if they’re not going to be charged,” she said Monday.
No action was taken in at least a quarter of the 4,418 cases that came before the district attorney in 2015, according to the office’s annual report.
“It’s obvious to us that some people are staying in jail two or three days without being charged,” Hennessy said.
The weekend rebooking unit is among several changes that Lee has proposed for San Francisco’s criminal justice system, with the idea of shifting away from incarceration and toward social services that can help keep people out of jail.
“This investment will ensure that no one spends time in jail unnecessarily,” Lee said. “We are always striving to improve our criminal justice system, and this pilot program will help individuals get back to work and back with their families as soon as possible.”