By Ella Rose Lipton
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – According to Mission Local, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has cut ties with the MacArthur Foundation—a letter received from the organization outlining its rationale for withholding the office’s $625K grant on Aug. 5 was the SFDA’s last straw.
“Our office will not be used as sharecroppers to a Foundation’s vision of criminal justice reform. Nor will we sit silently and allow structural racism to play out through a grant process,” Monifa Willis, the DA’s office chief of staff publicly announced.
“The MacArthur Foundation (is) a liberal organization that heavily funds criminal justice reform efforts across the country,” explains Mission Local. According to the original letter, it is “withholding $625,000…until the [DA’s} office shows it is ‘fully committed to the goals and strategies’ of reform.”
Willis explained the falling out is due to the “fundamental difference in criminal justice reform approach,” the organization’s cynical methods, and underlying racism, reports Mission Local.
“(The SFDA’s Office) response leaned heavily on the racial identities of Willis and DA Brooke Jenkins, both of whom are Black. Willis accused the MacArthur Foundation of racism for its tone and process in dealing with the DA’s office,” wrote Mission Local
“On multiple occasions you have sat in meetings with two Black women, lecturing to us about your concern for jail population increases, the injustices of the criminal justice system and populations that need serving…this is not a social experiment to us … it’s our real lives,” Willis writes.
The SFDA’s Office began receiving grants from the MacArthur Foundation in 2018 under then-District Attorney George Gascón “specifically” to reduce jail populations, reports Mission Local.
Under Jenkins, jail numbers have risen since the pandemic.
“Between 2020 and 2022, the daily jail population averaged between 850 and 931,” wrote Mission Local, noting that now the 180-day average is 1,151, and “According to the Sheriff’s Office…as of Friday, there were 1,213 people incarcerated in San Francisco jails.”
Mission Local explains SF Mayor London Breed’s “crackdowns…targeting both drug dealers and users alike” have resulted in SF jails being overcrowded. Deputies have been complaining about “inadequate staffing” and those in jail are describing the situation as “chaotic” as mentally ill and drug addicted residents are constantly “streaming in.”
According to Mission Local, Laurie Garduque, The MacArthur Foundation director of criminal justice, wrote in the organization’s Aug. 5 letter to the SFDA’s office “she was withholding a final payment of $625,000 ‘until measurable progress is made on the benchmarks (addressing the increased jail population, implementing a pre-arraignment program aimed at decreasing jail stays for those with behavioral health and other complex needs and launching the latest cohort of a fellowship program that brings people with experiences in the criminal justice system into weekly meetings with DA staff.’”
In their letter to the SFDA’s Office, the MacArthur Foundation explained the DA’s office must make improvements in all three areas before it could receive the grant, or “another agency should take the lead on the foundation’s criminal justice reform programs in the city.”
According to Mission Local, on Aug. 23 the SFDA’s Office announced the Department of Public Health and the Public Defender’s Office is now leading the program.
“It has continued to feel as though the ideological goal of reducing the jail population at all costs has conflicted with our emphasis on doing so responsibly and safely…the MacArthur Foundation’s approach to their office has been adversarial and biased, filled with constant reference to the previous administration’s irresponsible approach,” Willis wrote.
According to Mission Local, “scores of staffers have left Jenkins’ office,” stating Boudin’s focus on criminal justice reform has “vanished.”
Mission Local explains that while Willis supports the DA, she acknowledges DA Jenkins has made changes; Mission Local summarizes her statement when stating that the DA is “committed to criminal justice reform — but with caveats.”
“Our office has a mission to protect the safety of all those who live, work and visit San Francisco, and while we believe in the mission of identifying alternatives to incarceration, we must achieve it in a manner that does not come at the expense of the safety of our city,” states Willis.
