Prioritizing Incarceration: Does San Francisco Need a Jail on Treasure Island?

Published: June 18, 1997

Slated to open in January of 1998, the Treasure Island facility will house 80 to 138 women from San Francisco County Jail 8, allegedly, to alleviate what the Sheriff's Department calls "overcrowding." However, this allocation of public funds represents yet another increase in funding for the Sheriff's Department which has been the fastest growing budget in San Francisco government over the past decade.

Local law enforcement officials' reliance on the use of jails for low-level offenders represents one of the more objectionable trends in the City's criminal justice system. Eighty-five percent of the offenders entering San Francisco's jail are booked in for non-violent offenses.

Keywords: best practices, Daniel Macallair, jails, overcrowding, social services