San Francisco jails face crisis as overcrowding and staffing strain mount
The grand jury says San Francisco jails crossed the 80% crowding threshold and the sheriff never called the required committee, leaving inmates and staff in an aging system under strain.
Occupancy topped 80% in San Francisco’s jail system in 2025 and was on track to do so again in 2026, a level that should have forced the Sheriff’s Department to convene a Crowding Committee with other justice system leaders. The 2025-2026 San Francisco Civil Grand Jury published “When Making Do Doesn’t Work: San Francisco Jails in Crisis” on June 9, 2026, after a yearlong investigation by the 19-member volunteer panel.
More than 15,000 people cycle through San Francisco jails each year, and the number of people booked and waiting to be processed has risen every year since 2021. Three pressures feed one another: more arrests for drug crimes and retail theft, aging facilities and outdated technology, and a jail population with increasingly complex medical and mental health needs.
Those pressures are especially visible at County Jail No. 1 on Seventh Street, where people awaiting hearings are held alongside people being processed for intake or release. When the building fills up, excess people are placed in the gym, limiting the state-mandated exercise time that should be available to people inside. Since the jail inside the Hall of Justice closed, the city has not funded designated court holding cells, leaving no clear long-term plan for where people detained in San Francisco should be housed.
The Annex, the 372-bed minimum-security facility attached to County Jail No. 3 in San Bruno, reopened after crowding became a problem in 2023. By February 2026, more than 80% of the men housed there should have been in medium- or maximum-security custody. Jurors said they heard concerns that dangerous individuals may be under-rated to fit available beds.
In 2015, the Board of Supervisors rejected a state grant for a 384-bed Rehabilitation Detention Facility that would have replaced the jail inside the Hall of Justice, which could hold up to 402 people. Five years later, the board voted to close that jail. Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Tara Moriarty said overcrowding has been a challenge the department has raised for years, adding that the buildings are aging and the detained population has more serious medical and mental health needs. Mayor Daniel Lurie signed legislation on February 18, 2026 to advance the RESET Center, a proposed alternative to jail and hospitalization.
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