More than 30 offers to plea bargain drug cases were canceled by District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, including one defendant charged in six different incidents of dealing Fentanyl in the Tenderloin District.
“Since 2020, nearly 1,500 people have died of drug overdose because dealers have been allowed to operate with impunity,” Jenkins said Wednesday at a press conference announcing her new policy.
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“The lethality of fentanyl presents a different challenge. We must immediately change course, so we can save lives and hold people accountable for the havoc they are wreaking in our communities like the Tenderloin and South of Market. Going forward, defendants holding lethal doses of fentanyl will face felony charges,” she said.
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This is in notable distinction from Boudin, who had a policy of pursuing less jail time for most defendants and treated drug offenses with social services instead than punishment. As a result, San Francisco has a crime rate higher than the rest of California, particularly with burglary, theft, and larceny largely perpetrated by drug offenders, police department records show.
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The number of thefts started rising and reached record levels under former District Attorney George Gascon, who is now in Los Angeles with the same policies as Boudin and faces a likely recall in the coming months.
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Jenkins left her job as a prosecutor under Boudin to organize a recall election against him, which succeeded last month. She was named his successor by Mayor London Breed.
Throughout the recall campaign, Jenkins and crime victims blasted Boudin’s policies as catering to criminals while victims languished in obscurity. Jenkins continuously stated that criminals were not punished under her former boss.
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Now, with her new policy, any dealers with more than 5 grams of drugs will face charges that could include enhancements if they deal within 1,000 feet of a school or office. Defendants who have extreme amounts could be detained pending trial.
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Boudin did not obtain any fentanyl convictions last year and only had 156 pending narcotics sales cases. Most cases involved fentanyl, including one in which a defendant had 308 grams.
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One defendant was arrested five times and repeatedly granted community service by Boudin. Non-jail punishments as part of a specialized drug court community service program are meant for drug users rather than dealers, Jenkins said.
The defendant kept returning to the Tenderloin to deal drugs despite being ordered by a judge to stay out of the area. He was offered a misdemeanor to settle all six of his cases.
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