Contact Us Recruiting: | (415)554-7000 | Information: | (415)554-7225 | | | |
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CONGRATULATIONS RETIREES Senior Clerk Denise Otis 36 Years of Service |
Upcoming Events 6/13 5:30PM-7:30PM SF Main Library 100 Larkin Street Koret Auditorium 6/14: Custody Students 10AM Community Students 1:30PM 850 Bryant 6th Floor Police Auditorium 6/15 11AM-7PM Fillmore btwn Post and Turk Come see us there! 6/30 10:30AM Parade Kickoff |
Guest Contributor: Chris Cheng DID YOU KNOW:
1) install a trigger/cable lock or 2) secure the handgun in a locked container or 3) render the firearm unusable. Make sure to abide by the law! Chris Cheng is a six year San Francisco resident, and is History Channel's Top Shot Season 4 Champion. He worked at Google as a Program Manager for five years, and is now a professional marksman for Bass Pro Shops. |
© 2013 San Francisco Sheriff's Department Information Technology & Support Services |
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 A Message from Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi
The annual ritual of honoring Mother's and Father's Day is not lost upon us in or outside the San Francisco Sheriff's Department. Nearly 50 percent of the 2.7 million people incarcerated in US prisons and jails are mothers and fathers. In San Francisco, approximately 40 percent of the inmates are parents. For their children, the punishment does not fit the crime. But if we're committed to lowering recidivism and breaking the cycle of incarceration, we must get serious about restoring the family ties of the incarcerated.
Studies support what common sense suggests - strengthening the parent-child bond reduces recidivism. It also reduces the prospect that children of the incarcerated are more likely to violate the law. While maintaining appropriate safety and legal protocols, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department is reexamining policies that invariably damage or strain relationships between an inmate parent and child, starting with birth.
On May 9, the Community Works Jail Arts Program, working with our department, converted the lobby of the SF women's jail into a temporary gallery of art created by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated mothers. That show provided a warm environment to announce a policy first in California: The Birth Justice Project, designed to affirm the reproductive rights of all incarcerated women and provide prenatal and postpartum care during the trans-formative experience of pregnancy, birth and parenthood.
With the stewardship of Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, an OB/GYN from UCSF, along with the Department of Public Health, Zellerbach Foundation, and our volunteer doulas (professional birth assistants), we're radically distancing ourselves from the barbaric attitude of 33 states that still shackle women during labor. Rather, we seek to nurture the inimitable bond between mother and child. While most jails and prisons shun a lactation policy, we've unveiled our pro-lactation program. Breast pumps, refrigeration, and delivery are provided around the clock, facilitated by our jail health professionals. While the arcane national practice is to separate baby and mother after the third day of birth, we're working to maintain the connection. If we can't do it through diversion (alternatives to incarceration), then we'll continue to assess our facility in allowing mother and baby to stay together. Alternatively, I look forward to promoting breast feeding in San Francisco's jails.
For children of incarcerated parents, the absence of a mother is the loss of a primary caregiver. Ninety percent of incarcerated fathers in the US report that while away, their children live with the child's mother. In contrast, only 28 percent of incarcerated mothers report that their children live with their father. Routinely, her children are cared for by a grandparent or relative -- and about 11 percent are placed in foster care. Many children are bounced from caregiver to caregiver during their parent's incarceration.
These disruptions to a child's life negatively affect their social and mental development. Acknowledging the sense of disconnection experienced by children whose parents are incarcerated also means we must grapple with the emotional poverty that increases the likelihood of criminal behavior.
The people in our jails will eventually be released and will return to communities that historically have been under-served. We're trying to intensify resources toward exit planning for newly incarcerated parents and guardians. Depending on an individual's case, that could include a regimen of parenting classes, substance abuse and mental health treatment, domestic violence counseling, reunification counseling for parent and child, reading and writing comprehension, high school completion, life skills such as financial literacy, and vocational training.
Congratulations to the 65 upcoming graduates of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department Five Keys Charter School - the first charter high school in a U.S. jail system. Graduates will receive either their certificates of completion, diplomas or GEDs. And special congratulations to George Jurand, San Francisco Sheriff's Department, recipient of the Jefferson Award.
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SFSD Attends 2013 Peace Officers' Memorial Ceremony
Each year since 1977, the Memorial commemorates California peace officers who have fallen in the line of duty. Located at the corner of 10th Street and Capitol Mall, the Monument itself symbolizes the more than 1,400 California peace officers who have died in the line of duty. It is composed of three bronze figures, each about nine feet high, representing a deputy sheriff of the 1880s, a state trooper of the 1930s, and a city patrolman of the 1980s. The three statues look down upon the figures of a woman comforting a child who represent the families left behind.
Deputy Robert Lee Paris, Jr. (Stanislaus County Sheriff's Dept.) and Officer Kenyon M. Youngstrom (CHP/Contra Costa) who both fell in the line of duty this past year were remembered at the event. Fallen Officer Daniel C. Clark (San Bernardino), Inspector Brian D. Olcomendy (San Francisco), Officer Robert J. Quirk (Red Bluff), Sheriff William Elam (Placer), Deputy Constable Arthur D. Miner (Butte), Officer Timothy Duane (Oakland), Deputy Constable J. Edward Brown (Los Angeles), Deputy Ray C. Bogart (Lassen), Deputy Constable Charles A. DeMoranville (Los Angeles), and Deputy William F.Edwards (Mono) were enrolled from previous years and were also honored at the ceremony. Their Ends of Watch ranged from 1907 to 2011.
The San Francisco Sheriff's Department Honor Guard, working in tandem with officers from jurisdictions throughout California, formed a cordon for the families of the fallen officers to walk through as they proceeded to the Monument.
 Attorney General Kamala D. Harris acted as Master of Ceremonies for the event. Guest speakers included Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. The valor of these officers was lauded, and Attorney General Harris commended each and every peace officer throughout the state of California for their courage in facing tremendous risk every day.
The ceremony concluded with the playing of Taps, and a twenty-one gun salute, courtesy of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department. Lunch was served on the Capitol Mall. |
Mother's Day Art Show and Policy Unveiling  On May 10, 2013, the Sheriff's Department in partnership with Community Works, hosted a first of a kind Pop Up Art show and Mother's Day celebration at County Jail #2, located at 425-7th Street. The program featured a variety of speakers and an exhibition of restorative justice art by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists. In the jail's foyer, artist Evan Bissell displayed work from What Cannot Be taken Away: Families and Prisons Project, an exploration of the impact of incarceration on families. Also displayed was a collection of works culled from women in prison, children of incarcerated parents, survivors of violence and inmates participating in Community Works' Jail Arts Program.
Sheriff Mirkarimi announced his commitment to improving the bond between mother and child, introduced the Doula program, which provides care, advocacy and education to the incarcerated women at CJ#2, introduced our lactation policy for new mothers and described the One Family project, a program which allows incarcerated women supervised contact visits with their children.
The event also featured a performance by participants in Project WHAT!?, a Community Works' program for young people who have a parent in custody and a dramatic presentation by the Rising Voices theater troupe of formerly incarcerated young women. These performances illustrated the need to build stronger bonds between mother and child.
A Mother's Day gift exchange was conducted. Inmates and their children shared homemade gifts-created in custody by mothers. This gift exchanged occurred inside the jail visiting rooms while the art show and performances were happening in the jail's foyer. |
Sheriff's Star: George Jurand In April of 2013, George Jurand learned that he won a regional Jefferson Award for his ongoing work leading the support group The Healing Circle which George and community advocate Mattie Scott formally founded in 2004. He was featured in a video on the evening news in May 2013, and will attend a medal ceremony in January 2014.  | Photo courtesy of KPIX |
George started working with the Sheriff's Department in 1993 as a program contractor with the Northern California Service League. As a result of his work with the inmates and the Sheriff's Department's highly acclaimed Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP), George became a Sheriff's Department employee in November 1997. George is now the program coordinator assigned to the new Reentry Pod at County Jail #2. He was the first director of RSVP, and it was this work that informed him about the impact of violence and its effect on families and our communities. In reaching out to communities George started receiving calls from families who had lost loved ones to violence who were seeking his help to cope with their own tragic losses.
Sadly, George did not need to imagine what the loss of a child would be like. He lost a son and a daughter to car accidents. By nature George is a kind and empathetic person, and he shares that gift with many others to help them through the pain of a child lost to violence. The participants, who are from all over the Bay Area and come to bimonthly meetings held in the Ingleside, share with other families the photos and stories of those who will not be forgotten. |
SFSD inFocus: Part Five: County Jail #4 Part Five in a series of articles that will serve to inform and educate the public on the San Francisco County Jail system. Look forward to future editions where the other jail facilities will be spotlighted to detail the function and role that it plays in our system.
San Francisco County Jail #4 at 850 Bryant Street has a long history as the City's high security jail facility. Located on the 7th floor of the Hall of Justice, CJ4 houses almost all inmate classifications but is best known for holding high profile and special security inmates.
The 51 year-old Bryant Street Hall of Justice was completed and opened in 1962, replacing the old Hall of Justice on Kearny Street, which had been in use for 47 years (1915-1962). At Kearny Street there were two jails: the Sheriff's Department operated "County Jail 1" for held-to-answer felons, and the Police Department operated "City Prison", the booking/intake jail.
The current Bryant Street Hall of Justice was also built with two jails, essentially replicating the set-up at the old Kearny Street Hall-in this case "City Prison" was on the 6th floor and "County Jail 1" was on the 7th floor.
In 1976, Sheriff Richard Hongisto negotiated the operational transfer of City Prison from the Police Department to the Sheriff's Department. The jail numbers were immediately changed and "City Prison" became "County Jail #1", while the 7th floor jail became "County Jail #2".
In the early 1990s two additional county jails were built on the grounds of the Hall of Justice. A number of years after the number designations were once again changed and the 7th floor became "County Jail #4".
Deputized staff at County Jail 4 work 12 hour watches, with staffing divided into two day teams and two night teams. CJ4's kitchen provides approximately 2700 meals a day, 365 days a year, for all those housed in the four Hall of Justice jails.
Individuals housed at CJ4 have access to SFSD programs and maintain connections with their families through infant/child visits. |
Lions Clubs Honor SFSD members  | Captain Kevin Thaddeus Paulson |
The San Francisco Coordinating Council of Lions Clubs honored two members of the Sheriff's Department on March 30, 2013 at their 50th Annual Peace Officers, Firefighters and Sheriffs Awards Banquet for their work for the Garden of Innocence.
San Francisco Senior Deputy Sheriff Dwight Gunn and Sheriff's Captain Kevin Paulson volunteer for the Garden of Innocence, a nondenominational, apolitical organization founded in San Diego in 1998 to provide a dignified service for infants who have died abandoned or unidentified. They also tirelessly donate their time in their individual communities for many organizations as well as their children's schools. | Sr. Deputy Dwight "Mike" Gunn |
Dwight, a volunteer for three years, is now the coordinating director of the Bay Area chapter. His longtime friend and co-worker Kevin has been a volunteer since late 2010. The San Francisco chapter has laid six babies to rest. In the Bay Area the bodies are cremated and placed in the Columbarium in the Richmond District of San Francisco.
Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was in attendance to present the awards with Lion Lydia Taylor, a retired Sheriff's lieutenant. Everyone remarked on what an enjoyable dinner it was and how convivial and welcoming the Lions members were to all those whom they honored for their service.
The San Francisco Coordinating Council of Lions Clubs is dedicated to supporting all types of public service, especially providing eyeglasses and supporting health care for the underserved. They also are known for responding to natural disasters through financial and on scene support such as evidenced extensively at the San Bruno fire disaster. |
Deputies Serve as Celebrity Waiters in Tip-A-Cop Fundraiser
Sheriff Mirkarimi authorized San Francisco Sheriff's Department to sponsor a "Tip-A-Cop" event with proceeds benefiting the Northern California Special Olympics.
On Monday, April 29th, the "Tip-A-Cop" event was held at the Outback Steakhouse in Daly City.
Celebrity Deputy Waiters at the event included a lieutenant, a sergeant, several deputies and family members. The event was heavily attended by department staff, sworn and civilian. Daly City Vice Mayor David Canepa also attended this event to show his support. In just four short hours our volunteers raised over $1,300 for Special Olympics!
Great thanks to Stephen House, Proprietor/Owner of Outback Steakhouse in Daly City, for hosting this event and for his generous support of those in law enforcement. A great thanks to all of the volunteers who waited tables, cleared dishes, greeted customers at the door and made this event a huge success.
We look forward to organizing more Tip-a-Cop fundraisers in the future and have already begun planning our next event which will be held in San Francisco. Stay tuned for future announcements, as we continue to demonstrate the department's strong support of Northern California Special Olympics.
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On Monday, May 6, Sheriff Mirkarimi led the Department's Honor Guard to Sacramento for the 2013