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Boosted by jwz:
scott@carfree.city ("scott f") wrote:

the SF public defender's office is so backed up they're not taking new cases, partly because Brooke Jenkins is now prosecuting people merely for being homeless. can you imagine a more wasteful and ineffective way to deal with homelessness?

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/sf-public-defender-caseload-20329216.php

Another recent phenomenon is arrests — and charges filed for — illegal lodging (or encampments) even without other charges like narcotics possession alongside it. Arrests for encampment charges were almost nonexistent in the years before and during the pandemic, and charges were rarely filed. But since the city started sweeping encampments more aggressively last summer after a court decision allowed it, the arrest numbers started increasing. Since November of last year, the DA has been filing charges for unlawful lodging every month — a departure from before, when months would go by without any at all. The cases are most often categorized as “disorderly conduct,” leading to the jump in such cases so far this year.