Some San Francisco Supervisors want to close Juvenile Hall by 2021.Hillary Ronen, Shamann Walton and Matt Haney are drafting legislation that would close the facility.
They claim the city is spending extremely large amounts of money for the facility which on average is 75% empty. They want to create new programs as an "alternative to incarceration" for youth who don’t need to be detained and a smaller rehabilitative “non-institutional” center for those who need to be in a facility by law.
The SF Chronicle reports that of the 40 youth in the facility in December, 1/3 were there for misdemeanor offenses and 90% were diagnosed with mental health issues.
The legislation is 2 votes away from being veto proof and passing.