Jenkins – who took office on July 8 – said she had nothing to do with the allegations and plans to withdraw them. The charge of possession of drug paraphernalia – a violation of California Health and Safety Code 11364A – is almost always used in San Francisco along with other charges such as burglary, drug possession or gun possession. Data from the city shows that since the beginning of 2011, there have been 2,950 cases in which this charge, a misdemeanor (classified as 11364A/M/0 or 11364 in the database) has been filed, and in only nine of those 2,950 cases did the suspect faced charges only for 11364A. Public Defender Peter Calloway told SFGATE that after reviewing the nine cases, he believes only one was a true case of individual drug paraphernalia possession charges and the others were mislabeled. That’s why he and other members of his office were surprised to see that last week, Jenkins’ office filed autonomous drug paraphernalia charges in 17 new cases. Copies of criminal complaints dated July 13, 14 and 19 reviewed by SFGATE confirm that Jenkins’ office is filing these 17 individual charges for arrests between June 29 and July 7. That spike is deeply troubling to members of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office: Mano Raju, the city’s elected public defender, said in a statement that he “complains[s] these charging decisions by District Attorney Jenkins,” and Adam Lipson, another public defender, told SFGATE that the volume of stand-alone drug paraphernalia charges “is unprecedented.” Jenkins says she had no hand in it. “I have not made any policy changes regarding the charge for simple possession of drugs and paraphernalia,” she said in a statement to SFGATE. “My office will immediately drop these charges as they were made in accordance with our office policy. I am focused on holding serious drug dealers, particularly those dealing in fentanyl, accountable and not targeting and imprisoning those suffering from addiction. We will get the appropriate measures measures internally to ensure that our staff follow our policy.’ A complaint citing an additional stand-alone charge 11364A dated July 5 reviewed by SFGATE confirms there was at least one such charge issued three days before Jenkins took office. A source in the DA’s office said that at the end of Boudin’s tenure, the administrative staff overseeing those cases were on extended leave when charges were first filed. “Usually that charge is there to justify why the cops were involved with your client,” said public defender Alexandra Pray. “Having it as a stand-alone means the suspect isn’t even in actual possession of drugs. If you’re smoking meth, that means there’s a meth. If you’re only charged with 11364, that means you can’t even get hit with drug possession, you just have the inside to use drugs if you meet them. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around why we arrest and prosecute these people.” When speaking in the Tenderloin last week, Jenkins emphasized the importance of going after drug dealers, but she didn’t directly say whether she would prosecute people more vigorously for drug possession. Jenkins bills herself as a progressive who supports criminal justice reform, but disagrees with Boudin’s approach. Public defenders say there’s nothing progressive about stand-alone drug paraphernalia charges and that it’s a distraction from tackling more serious crimes in the city. “They take a lot of time, energy and focus from everyone to deal with,” Calloway said. “It’s a huge waste of resources for everyone except the police who will be working more overtime knowing they can harass people sitting on the pavement and make money for it. That’s not just the possession and paraphernalia charges, but the drug sales charges. The evidence is clear on both counts, arrest, prosecution and incarceration don’t work. We have 50 years of failed drug war policy to prove it.” “I respect that a new administration will have new priorities, but to make one of the lower offenses that is a mechanism for a crime instead of the actual crime, I can’t believe that’s one of the first policies they’ve implemented. ” said Pray. “I would understand it more if this was about the marketers, but this seems very effective. At the end of the day, what do you really do? How does this help fight the drug crisis? With most drugs you can find a way to consume without paraphernalia, it’s just harder and more dangerous.”
