OIG Newsletter #6/August/2024

Dear San Francisco, 

I hope you had a safe, peaceful, and restful summer. This is also a busy time of year for many of you getting ready to start the new school year with your children. It serves as another reminder of how incarceration profoundly impacts parents and their children. In my role as Inspector General, I am committed to finding ways to mitigate the damage of separating families, including ensuring that children have the opportunity to stay connected with their incarcerated parents.

Tuesday, August 6th is National Night Out, an annual campaign that aims to strengthen community partnerships and foster camaraderie among neighbors. This event provides a wonderful opportunity for millions of neighbors across the country to build positive relationships with their local law enforcement. The San Francisco Sheriff's Office and the San Francisco Police Department will be participating in events throughout the city, creating a welcoming and friendly environment to meet and interact with the leaders and members of both the SFSO and SFPD. I look forward to meeting you at some of these locations. 

Thank you for your ongoing support.

-Terry

I am committed to regularly visiting and inspecting the conditions of our jails. This month, we revisited County Jail #3 in San Bruno to focus on an area known as the "Annex" due to concerns raised by community members about the Annex reopening to accommodate the recent surge in the jail population. I would like to express my gratitude to President Soo and Board Member Afuhaamango for joining this visit and to Chief Jue, Deputy Chief Adams, and Capt. Quanico for facilitating the visit.

The CJ #3 Annex consists of six pods named Pod-A through Pod-F. Each pod houses approximately 60 inmates in an open dormitory-style setting with no locked cells and dedicated outdoor space. At present, only two pods are in operation.

During our visit, we had the opportunity to spend time with and talk to the entire Annex population. Many of the inmates were on their tablets when we arrived. Their tablets offer free movies, games, music, and the ability to register grievances electronically. A special thanks to Sgt. Esposito for interpreting between Spanish and English for our conversation with the monolingual inmates. Both the inmates and the deputies expressed a strong preference to be housed in and assigned to the Annex because it is less restrictive due to the absence of locked cells and has access to outdoor space. However, only inmates with lower-risk classifications can be housed in the Annex. It is also due to the lower classification levels that the Annex currently houses a larger proportion of Latinx and Hispanic inmates facing non-violent charges. 

We invited all the inmates in the pods to voice their complaints and we welcomed their input. I am pleased to report that none of the feedback related to serious misconduct by the deputies or staff. Many inmates actually had positive things to say about the staff and were empathetic to deputies scrambling to handle their tasks amidst staffing shortages. One of the pods even spontaneously provided a round of applause in appreciation of the dedication of their assigned Jail Behavioral Health service provider. 

The common complaints we heard related to issues with their laundry service, the quality of their food and water, the comfort level of the ambient temperature, and delays in medical care. I am looking into these complaints. Some of the issues were caused by a broken laundry machine, a malfunctioning air conditioning unit, and old water pipes. Capt. Quanico had already completed some of the repairs and addressed the complaints about the cleanliness of the blankets by ordering all the blankets to be cleaned that day. 

Overall, the inmates appeared healthy, well-groomed, and surprisingly in good spirits considering the setting.

I have learned that the SFSO has onboarded 13 new deputies since our last visit and plans to add 15 more soon. They have implemented a new system for background checks and have added Prop. F (retiree) background investigators to expedite employment processing. Moreover, the SFSO is increasing its recruitment efforts from colleges and the military.

Even though regular lockdowns persist when staffing levels drop below minimum requirements, the SFSO is implementing new strategies to reduce the negative effects of lockdowns on programs and visitation. I am optimistic that these strategies prioritizing keeping important services operational and the increased hiring efforts, will help avoid the jail violence, excessive lockdowns, and the related issues we witnessed earlier this year.

I will continue to monitor the situation and offer recommendations.

On July 17th, to promote awareness of the San Francisco Office of the Inspector General and contribute to the national conversation about law enforcement accountability, I participated in a National Bar Association Panel entitled, "Effective Methods of Ensuring Police Accountability."   

The National Bar Association is the nation’s oldest and largest global network of predominantly Black American attorneys and judges. The NBA represents the interests of approximately 67,000 lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students.

This was a great opportunity to get to know other prominent leaders interested in supporting the effort to build more effective, humane, and constitutional law enforcement organizations across the country.

To keep you informed about our ongoing activities and projects, below is a preview of what to expect in the next few months.

• Regular visits to the County Jails to hear input from the inmates and staff about the jail conditions. We will be alternating between the jail facilities in San Francisco and San Bruno.
• Regular town hall meetings to inform the community about the role of the OIG and available services and to engage the community in a dialog about where to prioritize our efforts. We are planning a town hall meeting in the Mission District soon. Please stay tuned for notices of these town hall meetings. 
• Using this newsletter to amplify the voices of the most impacted community members by creating a section for community perspectives and opinions. We want to thank Board Member Ovava Afuhaamango for assisting with this effort.

In 2020, San Francisco voters passed Supervisor Walton's Proposition D, which resulted in the formation of the Sheriff's Department Oversight Board and the Office of the Inspector General. The primary function of these entities is to provide independent oversight for the Sheriff's Office. On December 20, 2023, the board appointed Inspector General Wiley, who officially assumed his role on January 8, 2024.

We appreciate your patience and support as Inspector General Wiley builds the Office of the Inspector General to become operational. While the Inspector General seeks funds through the budget process to serve the people of San Francisco and deliver on the promise of Proposition D, the Department of Police Accountability will continue to provide independent investigations into complaints of serious misconduct against San Francisco Sheriff deputies and in-custody deaths pursuant to existing agreements.  

Please stay tuned for updates about the transition of this work.