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Board committee approves supplemental funds to open San Bruno jail housing unit to relieve overcrowding
Summary
The Budget & Finance Committee approved the budget analyst’s recommendations to authorize supplemental funds—partly shifting salaries to overtime—to open a 48-person housing unit at the San Bruno jail to reduce severe overcrowding at the Hall of Justice.
The San Francisco Budget & Finance Committee approved budget-analyst recommendations to authorize a supplemental appropriation intended to relieve overcrowding at the Hall of Justice and open a 48-person unit at the new San Bruno jail.
Sheriff Hennessy told supervisors the appropriation mixes redistributed departmental surplus and new general fund money and would pay overtime to staff the unit because “we don't have new personnel coming in,” allowing the city to move prisoners off the floor. “We typically have anywhere from 60 to 90 people on the floor, on mattresses on the floor in our Hall of Justice facility,” he said.
Budget analyst Mr. Rose recommended three amendments, including retroactivity, a $43,337 reduction to General Fund revenues with a matching reduction in overtime, and creating a committee reserve for such supplemental requests. The committee adopted the analyst’s first three recommendations without objection.
Supervisors pressed the sheriff on recruitment and academy class sizes; the sheriff said nine deputies are currently in the academy and that, although classes historically ran about 15 recruits, recent classes have been 9–12 due to background-check attrition. The sheriff said a new academy class will be started in January and its recruits would be available for work about four to five months afterward.
The committee closed public comment and moved the item forward to the full Board with the committee recommendations. The action was framed as a policy matter for the full Board and intended to provide immediate relief while staffing fills over the coming months.
