San Francisco has an extensive history of pretrial services, which dates back to 1964. The earliest incarnation of local pretrial justice was a pilot program within the San Francisco Bar Association. With funding from the San Francisco Foundation, this program, the O.R. Project, supported indigent people who were arrested and could not afford to pay bail. The earliest incarnation of local pretrial justice was a pilot program within the San Francisco Bar Association.
The Own Recognizance (O.R.) Project
With funding from the San Francisco Foundation, this program, the O.R. Project, supported indigent people who were arrested and could not afford to pay bail. The O.R. project’s work included interviewing jail detainees, submitting recommendations to the court to inform whether the person was a good candidate for release from jail, and coordinating social services to support that person’s transition back into the community. Although the program was originally scoped to operate for only two years, it eventually became an enduring feature of our local justice system. In 1968 the San Francisco Bar Association was recognized for the program’s impact with the “Award of Merit” from the American Bar Association
In addition to the widely-held notion that it provided an integral public service, the O.R. Project was valued for its independent position within the justice system; a 1965 article written by the Bar Association of San Francisco recognized that “because of the adversary nature of the proceedings, some agency whose function is non-adversary, appears best suited to assume responsibility for future operations.”
In 2003, the O.R. Project’s core operations were transferred to SF Pretrial, a non-profit organization contracted through the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office. SF Pretrial had nearly 20 years of experience administering programs for recently arrested people, and the O.R. Project’s scope of work was deemed a fitting addition to SF Pretrial’s existing spectrum of services.
Citation: Levin, G. S. (1969). The San Francisco Bail Project. American Bar Association Journal, 135-137.
Strategic Growth and New Programs
SF Pretrial has continued to grow over the intervening years and, today, provides a diverse collection of programs designed to reduce unnecessary incarceration and promote public safety. Through multiple local and state-level grants, the organization oversees
- reentry planning
- individualized case management services
- behavioral therapy groups
- training for local partners
- healthcare access for justice involved people
- in-person consultation to support judicial decision making
- housing placements
The evolving and increasingly sophisticated scope of our organization represents, in large part, a responsiveness to the shifting needs of the population we serve. As our client’s have increasingly displayed challenges related to behavioral health and homelessness, we have adapted, bringing in more services and expanding the network of service providers we use to make referrals. After close to 50 years of work in San Francisco, we are more committed than ever to continued improvement and innovation.
