Should California’s Crowded Prisons Look To San Francisco’s Shrinking Jails?

In the 1980s, San Francisco faced a court order similar to the one the state is facing now to reduce overcrowding. Rather than simply throwing the book at people, the city now often treats jail as a last resort and focuses on reintegrating ex-offenders back into society.

When Paul Henderson graduated from law school, he says, “Nobody clapped.” That’s because his family was wary of his goal of becoming a prosecutor. Henderson grew up in the San Francisco housing projects, where law enforcement was often seen as an adversary, and his career decision didn’t sit well with his mother, a public defender, or his grandmother, a community activist. But Henderson rejected the notion that as a black man from a poor neighborhood, he was destined to represent criminal defendants. In the world where he was raised, racial minorities were disproportionately charged with crime—but also disproportionately victims of it. He chose a career in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office because he wanted victims and witnesses to be able to speak with someone who shared their background. But he also believed he could change the criminal justice system from within.

Henderson, who is 46, spent nearly 20 years as a prosecutor. Now he is deputy chief of staff and public safety director for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. But he remains an activist on criminal justice reform. And he is well versed in the challenges facing a state whose tough-on-crime approach hasn’t done much to improve public safety, best illustrated by the much-criticized “three strikes” laws. “People do bad things, and they absolutely should be arrested, and there absolutely should be justice,” says Henderson. “But what that justice can look like has to be a broader discussion than ‘more jail—end of discussion.’”

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