We are a coalition of local organizations, residents and community members joining together to fight the expansion of imprisonment and criminalization in San Francisco.
Our coalition’s organizational members include:
- ACLU Northern California San Francisco Chapter
- Black & Pink
- Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)
- CA Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP)
- Coalition on Homelessness
- Community Resource Initiative
- Community United Against Violence (CUAV)
- Critical Resistance
- Human Impact Partners
- GLIDE
- TGI Justice Project (TGIJP)
- San Francisco Taxpayers for Public Safety
- San Francisco Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America
- Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) SF
- Young Women’s Freedom Center
For a more extended list of over 80+ SF Bay Area organizations that have signed-on to #ShutDown850 (County Jail #4), click here.
What We Do
NoNewSFJail Coalition began in 2013 and successfully defeated plans for constructing a new jail in San Francisco in 2015. Since then, our coalition has continued to work to reduce imprisonment and criminalization in the City, including the immediate closure of County jail 4 at 850 Bryant St.
Below is a timeline of the coalition’s origins, highlighting the work we’ve done the past seven years.
No New SF Jail Coalition, and many of its members, is abolitionist, meaning we work to fully dismantle the jailing and criminalization systems in SF, in order to change how San Francisco organizes its resources and responds to social, economic and political problems, all the while building community-based solutions to harm, conflict and inequality.
Abolition more practically is reflected in the Coalition’s demands in our 10-Point Program below. To learn more about what abolition means to NoNewSFJails, you can also visit our page on abolition here.
Our 10 Point Program
Fight Against the Criminalization of our Communities
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Shut Down 850 Permanently & Immediately.
We demand the City stops all bookings for quality of life crimes, end pretrial detention, increase the capacity of the Pre-trial Diversion Project, end SF Police over-booking practices, end warrants for technical probation violations and flash incarcerations to immediately decrease our jail population.
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No to Out-of-County Prisoner Transfers.
Keeping people close to their families and loved ones increases their ability to maintain strong family connections and the support structures that are so crucial for them as they come back into their communities.
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No New Jails.
We reject any proposals that would construct or expand new jail space in San Francisco. More jails will only entrench us further in the violent system of imprisonment that has separated families and communities. We also oppose the building of facilities that recreate the function of jails, such as “mental health jail facilities.”
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Stop Increasing Electronic Monitoring.
Electronic Monitoring (EM) surveillance tripled between 2017 and 2018, but the jail population continued to increase. EM increases pretrial surveillance and continues hardships, rather than serving as an alternative to imprisonment, or a method of decreasing the jail population.
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End Quality of Life Policing.
We must end San Francisco police’s strategies that use low-level charges, such as loitering, to harass people who are poor, unhoused, LGBTQ+, differently-abled, and people of color. Quality of life policing is an unethical practice that disproportionately targets certain members of our communities, disregarding the dignity and quality of their lives.
Fight For Strong & Healthy Communities
6. Invest in Community Solutions
Rather than focusing on incarceration, policing, and surveillance, the city should allocate funding and resources toward the maintenance, growth, and health of open, community-led programs and spaces. Emphasizing these solutions, such as mental and behavioral health centers, housing, and services, will effectively and holistically address the needs of San Francisco community members.
7. Housing for All
We need housing for all San Franciscans. Because a significant number of people held in jail were arrested for being houseless in the first place, we particularly must prioritize supportive re-entry housing for people coming home from jail.
8. Increase Equity & Access to Social & Medical Services
All San Franciscans deserve high quality public assistance, medical, mental health and substance use treatment services, delivered in ways that affirm their dignity. Everyone deserves the same access to the treatment services they need, and should not be subject to prolonged waiting periods and additional barriers because they are poor or are struggling with mental health needs and/or substance use. Funding for services should be based on fully meeting the needs of all San Franciscans. Obtaining treatment on demand should be a basic human right.
9. Increase Job Training, Employment Pathways, Stable Jobs & Living Wages
The San Francisco economy needs to be made more inclusive. The city should strengthen career pathways and advancement so people can have equitable opportunity to find a living or family-sustaining wage
10. Build Resources & Community Spaces
Residents also deserve to have beautiful and life-affirming open space in their communities—free and accessible to all. Parks, gardens and plazas are spaces for healthy social interaction and community restoration. Through education for youth and adults alike, these spaces facilitate healing and community cooperation for people impacted by harm. Wellness hubs or community centers can be constructed to offer activities or rooms for quiet reflection, as well as resources that promote emotional and physical health.
No New SF Jails 