Guess what? Lurie's war against drugs and small crimes is very expensive

The budget and middle committee – and to a certain extent the public and the news media, which observe a clear message on Wednesday: The price for the war of the Lurie administration against drugs and homeless is much higher than just overtime of the police.

Other arrests – and under the district prosecutor Brooke Jenkins, much more criminal prosecution – under pressure on the lawyers in the office of the DA, pressure on the prisons, pressure on the office of public defense lawyer, the pressure on the treatment facilities of substance consumption and the expensive pressure on any other part of the complex web infrastructure of public security in San Francisco.

The occasion was a rather unusual hearing: the household committee usually invites each department to do its case in the normal course of business, but SUP. Matt Dorsey asked for a special opportunity for the office of the Da to work for full financing if so many other departments are exposed to up to 15 percent cuts.

Jenkins said that the number of cases in which their office has to deal with has grown dramatically in the past two years. This is no surprise: the city arrested more people, charged with smaller crimes and some of them as serious crimes – and far fewer people are distracted.

“We are in the top capacity,” she said, “and cuts can threaten the team.”

On the reasons: further arrests for “quality crimes, warehouses and retail theft”.

If your office had to take the same 15 percent reduction as everyone else, this could lead to “the suspension of persecution of offenses and the progress in the security of San Francisco”.

Jenkins presented data from which it can be seen that the solution of cases can take up to 500 days longer than the pre-Pandemic days, and she accused the judges (as she does) the judges (who did not “” efficient “and the office of the public defense lawyer. She said that public defense lawyers had not accepted negotiations with offenses to negotiate as she would like.

Sup. Shamann Walton asked Jenkins whether she believed that the Supes should take money from the police department And switch to the office of the DA. “I didn't say that, but her budget is much larger and more interesting to browse around,” said Jenkins.

Then she accused non -profit organizations that receive city contracts for social services.

Walton then asked the public defender Mano Raju, who was in the listening room, to answer some questions. Jenkins became a bit angry: “Why can't he have his own hearing?” She asked and said that Raju's presence was “no coincidence” at a public hearing.

Again: Each department receives a hearing in the household committee. This, a special early hearing for a department, was unusual and extraordinary.

Walton said that there are many departments and agencies in the city that make up the infrastructure of the public safe, and the office of the public defender is one of them. If more people are arrested, the PD must also take over more cases, and that will cost more money.

Raju: “We do not decide who is arrested, how many cases are submitted. We are commissioned to provide effective support and we have responsibility according to state bar rules.” This includes all crimes, including offenses.

“There is a significant increase in arrests and charges,” said Raju, “40 percent in crimes and 27 percent in offense.” Many of these cases end up in the public defender's office.

Raju said that his lawyers indeed take their cases on trial instead of deciding. “Our exams have excellent results, non -guilty judgments and suspended juries,” he said. Of course, this means that many people are charged with crimes who are not in court.

With the added cases and no new staff, Raju said: “We can no longer take any further cases.”

The reality with which the Lurie administration and the Supes have to deal with is that this focus on arrests will cost the city a lot of money at a time when there is a major deficit. Nobody in the mayor's office seems to want to admit that. Oh, and if you eliminate social programs that keep people from the criminal justice system away, they climb these costs even more.

But when the Supes argue with the budget in the next few weeks, this is the reality that everyone will face.