50 years. A 93% public safety rate. A 96% court appearance rate. More than doubles every city dollar. SF Pretrial is one of a small handful of independent, community-based pretrial programs operating at this scale in the U.S. — a proven Bay Area public safety innovation — and the city is quietly handing the work to the San Francisco Adult Probation Department, an armed law enforcement agency. In the bluest city in the bluest state.
* There's still time to stop this.
For 50 years, the San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project (SF Pretrial) — an independent community-based nonprofit — has handled the city's pretrial services. Supervising people released from jail before trial. Making sure they show up for court. Connecting them with housing, treatment, and stability.
On July 1, 2026, the city plans to dissolve SF Pretrial and transfer all of that work to the San Francisco Adult Probation Department — an armed law enforcement agency under the Superior Court.
Every comparison on this page is between those two: the current SF Pretrial program (50-year community-based nonprofit) and the proposed replacement (a sworn probation department).
The single agency doing more to keep San Franciscans safe — and at a fraction of the price — is the one the city is about to dissolve.
"[SF Pretrial is] the greatest thing no one's ever really heard of." — Toney Chaplin, Former Assistant Chief, SFPD (30 years)
Not opinions. Not anecdotes. Audited outcomes from 2023 — the kind decision-makers should have been seeing for years, and somehow haven't.
The data on SF Pretrial is exceptional and unchallenged.
The decision to dissolve it is not about outcomes.
The city pays SF Pretrial $7.5M for pretrial services. SF Pretrial more than doubles that — into $15.5M of total programming, leveraged with grants and Medi-Cal revenue. Comparable probation supervision for the same population would cost the city ~$58M. None of the leverage transfers.
A program that more than doubles every city dollar — and produces better safety outcomes — is the kind of result governments are supposed to be looking for, not throwing away.
The Probation Alternative:
The city is being asked to pay more, to hire fewer people, to deliver worse safety outcomes, on the same population SF Pretrial is already serving better than any probation department in California.
SF Pretrial isn't just exceptional in San Francisco — it's one of the most-studied community-based pretrial models in the country, a Bay Area public safety innovation that other counties are now reaching out to adopt. The city that built it is about to dismantle it.
Most U.S. jurisdictions run pretrial services inside a government agency. SF Pretrial is one of a small handful of independent, community-based programs operating at this scale and breadth — alongside peers like NYC's Criminal Justice Agency, JusticePoint, and Berks Connections in Pennsylvania. The model itself is the innovation.
SF Pretrial built the case-management platform the field didn't have — outcomes-first, wraparound-integrated. An SF innovation in pretrial infrastructure. Counties across California and other states are already reaching out.
Nationally, pretrial services are shifting toward community-based, independent supervision. SF Pretrial has been operating it for 50 years — long enough to have answered questions the field is only beginning to ask, and long enough to have trained professionals in jurisdictions across the U.S.
Not "an organization." Concrete things. Specific things. Things that took fifty years to build.
The law being used to justify moving pretrial services into probation departments across California carved San Francisco out by name — because the program already exceeded the standard.
Per the Judicial Council of California's Pretrial Pilot Program Final Report, San Francisco was excluded from the SB 129 program based on the existing program's scope and pre-existing capacity. The state agency administering the law is on the record that it does not apply to San Francisco.
— Source under fact-check; pinpoint citation forthcoming.
The Superior Court is invoking a law that, by its own administrative body's reading, doesn't apply here.
One more thing. AB 102 — a separate California statute that could potentially apply to pretrial services in San Francisco — has never been put to SF Pretrial. If asked to comply, SF Pretrial will. The premise that this transfer is about compliance is contradicted by the fact that no one has asked.
A decision this consequential — affecting public safety, the city's budget, and a 50-year SF institution — was made without anyone responsible for the work in the room.
The proposal to dissolve SF Pretrial and transfer its work to Adult Probation was reached through informal channels — phone calls, side meetings — among the Superior Court, Adult Probation, and the Mayor's Office.
The decision was reiterated as final before any formal data request was ever made of SF Pretrial.
SF Pretrial — the organization being dissolved, providing the service for 50 years — was not invited into substantive discussions.
No public comment period preceded the decision.
The 1,800 presumed-innocent people whose cases are being transferred were not consulted.
The 105 SF Pretrial staff were not consulted. The 200+ community partner organizations in SF Pretrial's network were not consulted.
The data on SF Pretrial is unchallenged. The legal basis for the transfer doesn't apply. And the process that produced this decision could not survive five minutes of public scrutiny.
Multiple hearings — May 27, then early June — decide whether SF Pretrial survives. Four things you can do to keep it alive.
The Mayor submits his FY26 budget to the Board.
Public comment on the SF Pretrial contract — on the record. Committee referral to the full Board. Show up.
The contract goes to the full Board. Public comment is still open. This is the vote.
If nothing changes by then: SF Pretrial dissolves, cases transfer to Adult Probation, the walk-in center closes.
Note: Even after the Board votes, the Mayor can put anything back into the final budget. The current City Attorney will void the contract if the Mayor asks. The Mayor is the last lever.
This is preservable. The city has the authority. The data is unchallenged. The clock is the only enemy.
Public comment at the Budget & Finance Committee hearing on the SF Pretrial contract. Two minutes on the record. People's Budget Coalition is mobilizing. Same fight at the full Board in early June.
Get hearing detailsFive supervisors hold the committee vote. The full Board follows in June. We've drafted the email — safety case, cost case, legal carve-out. You add your name and send.
Open pre-written emailThe Mayor has final say — he can put SF Pretrial back in the budget at any time, and the City Attorney will void the contract if he asks. Three of the Mayor's senior staff are named in the transition memo. Pre-drafted — open and send.
Open pre-written emailMost San Franciscans have never heard of SF Pretrial. Most journalists haven't either. Help spread the case for preserving it — the data, the leverage, the legal carve-out.
Share nowDocuments, data, and named voices. While Trump dismantles federal criminal-justice reform, the bluest city in the bluest state is quietly dissolving the country's most effective community-based pretrial program. The blue-state firewall is failing — on a tight clock. Reporters welcome.