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Committee forwards district attorney grant increases and tech partnerships for conviction relief and mass‑casualty planning
Summary
The committee approved forwarding three retroactive authorizations for the District Attorney’s Office — a Cal OES increase for mass‑casualty response, an Urban Institute in‑kind research contribution, and Code for America technical assistance to automate Prop 64 conviction relief — and discussed how the technology can speed record relief.
Tara Anderson of the District Attorney’s office presented three retroactive authorizations sponsored by Supervisor Brown: a roughly $560,000 increase from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services to support local and regional mass‑casualty response planning and services; an in‑kind research contribution of about $50,000 from the Urban Institute to support a recidivism dashboard prototype for the San Francisco Sentencing Commission; and an in‑kind technical assistance partnership with Code for America (estimated at $150,000) to pilot an automated system to identify and clear eligible convictions under Proposition 64.
Anderson said the Code for America tool automates large parts of the conviction‑relief workflow and reduces manual 'rap sheet' review, expediting relief and reducing legal and administrative barriers for eligible individuals. The DA’s office said the pilot is ongoing and that broader replication will require state Department of Justice resources.
A member of the public raised an allegation about a former executive director (Barbara Garcia) and asked the DA’s office to use analytics to investigate. That accusation was made in public comment and not substantiated during the committee hearing.
The committee accepted the presentations, considered BLA clarifications, and forwarded the items to the full Board with positive recommendations.
