San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins launched the Access to Hope Healing, Reform and Reentry Partnership with San Quentin Rehabilitation Center to develop innovative crime prevention strategies by engaging in direct dialogue with incarcerated men.  Since the partnership launched, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office is now also partnering with incarcerated women at Central California Women’s Facility.

Through the partnership, prosecutors will witness first-hand the transformative power of effective rehabilitation programs and learn from incarcerated individuals what is most effective and impactful. Going forward, the District Attorney’s Office will participate in quarterly symposia with incarcerated individuals to inform crime prevention and criminal justice system reform policies and initiatives. In addition to collaborating with San Quentin’s civic engagement group, an incarcerated person led policy group.

To date over 100 prosecutors and other District Attorneys’ office staff have participated in symposia at San Quentin Rehabilitation Cetner and Central California Women’s Facility.

The goal of the Healing, Reform and Reentry Partnership is to develop innovative crime prevention and intervention strategies to make communities safer by engaging with those who are incarcerated and leveraging their unique insights and perspectives about the types of programs and initiatives that would have been most effective in preventing or intervening in their criminal behavior. These unique insights and perspectives will assist the District Attorney’s Office in developing and supporting impactful programs that prevent crime and victimization. Additionally, prosecutors will use the knowledge and insights gleaned from symposia to ensure case dispositions fairly balance accountability with appropriate opportunities for rehabilitation to prevent and deter future crime.