DA Threatens Sellers With Extra Jail Time as Drug Crackdown Expands
Dope sellers in San Francisco now run the danger of harsher penalties and extra time behind bars—even earlier than trial—below a plan new District Lawyer Brooke Jenkins laid out for addressing the lethal fentanyl disaster.
Jenkins introduced a three-part technique Wednesday that features giving her workplace discretion to argue that essentially the most prolific drug sellers must be held in jail forward of trial—an choice usually reserved for these accused of essentially the most severe and violent crimes.
Her coverage additionally requires permitting prosecutors to file enhancements in opposition to suspected sellers caught inside 1,000 toes of colleges, growing the period of time behind bars they face if convicted.
The third prong of the plan limits the discretion her workplace has to ship sellers to collaborative court docket, the place they’ll entry social providers and keep away from a conviction. Not like within the earlier administration, Jenkins’ workplace stated, sellers caught with greater than 5 grams of fentanyl or different medication could not get a referral.
With out naming him, Jenkins steered that her predecessor, Chesa Boudin, was a minimum of partially guilty for the skyrocketing drug overdose deaths within the metropolis for permitting sellers to “function with impunity.”
Jenkins criticized Boudin for resolving too many drug-dealing circumstances as misdemeanors. She cited a report by The Customary that Boudin convicted three defendants of felony drug dealing in all of 2021 as an issue regardless of Boudin saying state regulation required him to think about immigration penalties for undocumented sellers.
“We should instantly change course, so we will save lives and maintain folks accountable for the havoc they’re wreaking in our communities,” Jenkins stated in a ready assertion main as much as her press convention. “Going ahead defendants holding deadly doses of fentanyl will face felony fees.”
Jenkins unveiled her three insurance policies on the identical time that she introduced the result of a assessment of open drug circumstances. Jenkins ordered the assessment on her first day in workplace final month to find out whether or not her predecessor, Boudin, supplied defendants any plea offers that she deems too lenient.
Jenkins has since determined to revoke misdemeanor plea affords in additional than 30 of these circumstances and can as a substitute proceed with felony fees in them.
Probably the most “egregious” of these circumstances, her workplace stated, is an alleged repeat offender arrested with greater than 500 grams of fentanyl and referred to collaborative courts greater than 5 instances. He was supplied a misdemeanor to settle six circumstances in opposition to him, in accordance with her workplace.
Jenkins has made taking over drug dealing and cleansing up the Tenderloin her prime challenge since Mayor London Breed swore her into workplace early final month to succeed Boudin, who she beforehand labored below till quitting the workplace late final yr to grow to be a spokesperson for the profitable recall effort in opposition to him.
Jenkins unveiled her technique two weeks after SFPD Chief Invoice Scott introduced that his officers would additionally ramp up enforcement to crack down on seen drug markets on the streets by specializing in drug customers in addition to the sellers. Scott ordered police to start citing folks for having pipes and different drug paraphernalia and arresting those that failed to point out up in court docket or violated the phrases of their launch.
Jenkins has but to point she would start charging these possession circumstances regardless of taking steps on her personal to extend penalties for sellers.
Jenkins is more likely to face criticism over her latest plan for restarting the failed Battle on Medication in San Francisco. She might also run up in opposition to perennial staffing points within the Sheriff’s Division and an absence of area within the jails that would make locking up extra folks a problem.
This can be a creating story. Verify again for updates.
Michael Barba will be reached at [email protected].
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