A growing number of people are detained in San Francisco\u2019s overcrowded, under-staffed and \u201cneglected\u201d county jails, according to a yearlong investigation by San Francisco\u2019s civil grand jury.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is left at a breaking point with no end in sight,\u201d wrote the team of 19 jurors in a 50-page report<\/a> released earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n The report\u2019s finding of overcrowding \u201chighlights a challenge we have been raising for years,\u201d wrote Tara Moriarty, a spokesperson for the sheriff\u2019s department. \u201cOur jail facilities are aging, our technology is outdated, and the population in our care has increasingly complex medical and mental health needs.\u201d<\/p>\n More people in custody, fewer beds<\/p>\n The number of people booked into San Francisco county jail and the number of people waiting to be processed each day has risen every year since 2021, according to sheriff and state data.<\/p>\n Rapidly increasing arrests for misdemeanor<\/a> drug crimes and \u201charsher law enforcement practices\u201d have dramatically driven up<\/a> the jail population, the jurors found.<\/p>\n When occupancy exceeds 80 percent capacity \u2014 as it did in 2025 and is on track to do again in 2026 \u2014 the sheriff is supposed to convene a \u201cCrowding Committee\u201d with other actors in the justice system, like the District Attorney, the report said.<\/p>\n This has not happened, the jurors wrote, and safety concerns have arisen.\u00a0<\/p>\n After overcrowding became an issue in 2023, San Francisco re-opened the Annex<\/a>, a 372- bed minimum-security facility attached to County Jail No. 3 in San Bruno. In February 2026, over 80 percent of the men housed there should have been in a medium or maximum-security facility, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jurors wrote that they \u201cheard concerns that the current system may be under-rating dangerous individuals in order to fit available beds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The crowding also affects where people in custody are held before court appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n At County Jail No. 1 on Seventh Street, people awaiting hearings are held beside people being processed for intake or release. Excess people are held in the gym, the report said. As a result, the gym often cannot be used for state-mandated exercise.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2015, the Board of Supervisors rejected a state grant that would have funded a 384-bed \u201cRehabilitation Detention Facility<\/a>\u201d to replace the jail inside the crumbling Hall of Justice. Five years later, the board voted to close that jail<\/a>, which could hold up to 402 people. There has not been funding for designated court holding cells since.\u00a0<\/p>\n The city\u2019s plan for where to put the growing number of people it incarcerates remains unclear. Once the system reaches capacity, the report said, people will probably have to be sent to jails in nearby Marin, Alameda or San Mateo counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n Defacto \u2018detox facility\u2019<\/p>\n The sheriff, nonetheless, has legal obligations to everyone in custody.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUntenable\u201d circumstances, the jury\u2019s report said, have made it more difficult to meet these obligations, among them exercise, medical care, and visitations. Earlier this month, nine women held in County Jail No. 2 sued<\/a> the sheriff\u2019s department over \u201cunhealthy\u201d conditions, like a lack of exercise facilities and hot water<\/a>.<\/p>\n San Francisco not only has more people in custody than in recent years, but more who have complicated health needs<\/a>, the report read.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mental health cases, prescriptions for psychiatric medications and calls for medical attention inside San Francisco\u2019s jails have increased over the last six years, according to state data.<\/p>\n The jail\u2019s intake facility is buckling under the \u201cstrain of constant use as a detox facility,\u201d the jurors wrote. It now operates the largest medical withdrawal management<\/a> unit in San Francisco, according to Department of Public Health officials.<\/p>\n Dozens of people booked into jail have recounted vomit<\/a> on cell floors from people experiencing addiction withdrawal. Many said they had mental health challenges that went unaddressed<\/a> during the short time they remained in custody.\u00a0<\/p>\n Confusion over record-keeping<\/p>\n The jurors described \u201cconsiderable confusion\u201d and \u201cinconsistency\u201d about how the jails\u2019 regularly backlogged booking<\/a> process works.<\/p>\n People must be processed into jail within 48 hours of arrest. Staff told jurors they were worried about meeting these deadlines because of the department\u2019s \u201ccumbersome\u201d interface and \u201cinexperienced\u201d personnel. There is a hiring freeze on non-sworn staff to assist with booking.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jail staff have been left with a \u201ctechnology infrastructure from a bygone era\u201d to process the constant flow of people, the report said. The jail\u2019s processing hardware, purchased in 2004 and installed in 2008, is \u201cso fragile that administrators are reluctant to reboot it,\u201d and\u00a0 \u201cprone to catastrophic failure,\u201d which would force the entire department to default to paper record-keeping.\u00a0<\/p>\n Holes in the foundation<\/p>\n This is all happening inside \u201cneglected, overburdened facilities,\u201d the civil grand\u00a0 jury wrote. The report looked at the facilities in detail, and listed jurors\u2019 observations of faulty appliances, leaks, and requests for renovations that were never funded.<\/p>\n At one point in County Jail No. 3, one of the four washing machines was broken. So was the dishwasher. Only two of the five dryers worked.<\/p>\n At County Jail No. 2, also on Seventh Street, cold showers<\/a> were a \u201cregular occurrence\u201d before water heaters were replaced earlier this year. People in custody there punched holes through walls made of flimsy gypsum board, photos show. Dilapidated buses, used for over 37,000 \u201ccustody transports\u201d a year, break down two to four times a month, jurors found.<\/p>\n Overtime overload<\/p>\n For years, the jails have been understaffed<\/a>. When facilities are below minimum staffing levels, people in custody receive less time outside their cell, medical attention, and visitation.<\/p>\n Jurors documented how the sheriff\u2019s department has spent its budget on deputy overtime rather than facility repairs, at times exceeding its overtime budget by millions<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n