train of thought. that's a senior moment. i was going to make a good point and i apologize. >> let me go to your neighbor, because i want to actually find out if you are in the minority. mrs. mccracken, does your organization support the election of money bail? or are you focused on other reforms? >> we are focused on other reforms. we advocate for the expansion or the implementation of pretrial services. there is great demand for that across the state of california. the criminal justice institute has been just recently awarded only two counties. technical assistance services in implementing pretrial services. but the demand was from 20 counties to have those services. so there is a great interest from california counties to look at this deliberate intervention to reapproach the criminal justice system. and san francisco and santa cruc county are examples. and they are both counties that had over-crowded jails. and the administrators made a deliberate attempt such as pre-trial services to change their system. and i think it has allowed san francisco and santa cruz to be ahead of the game. when realignment hits, you are better prepared to manage this increased responsibility. i think there are two case studies that we can look to and look for peer support from our local justice administrators to help other counties implement such services. >> mr. deong, would you address mr. simon's question of the tool that could have a discriminatory component. >> i want to add in there, thank you, matt, to add to what the district attorney is saying. we are currently evaluating our instrument and the half of dozen factors includes a current charge, felony, and the unemployed, drug abuse and having an opinion case. which i think is perhaps much different than say 10 years ago. and we are validating this information now in terms of comparing it to the mounds of data we have, if anything, any volunteer researchers out there. who want -- it really requires a lot of work and scrutiny. but i think it echoes what the district attorney is saying. we are mindful of the jails have been disproportionately african-american, hispanic, we are mindful the fact it's been really poor folks we have been dealing with. and it's obviously that our basis, our history is coming from the social service side. but i want to reiterate that those are the factors that the risk assessment tool is starting to look at and zeroing in on pretrial release. >> professor simon, historically ini in california was this a right-to-bail movement at one time? >> i wouldn't call it a movement. bail has existed on the surface. in the 60s and 70s at the time of due process for the pris. and professor foot turned to bail in the 50s. and argued that there was bail in california in the 60s. i can't say there was a grass root movement but when you look at that movement to warehouse people in mental hospitals, and shall initiatives. the state was looking to break down these very discriminatory patterns that focused on certain communities. there is a moment of that. but it was caught up in the fear of crime. i am old enough to remember in the 70s as the homicide rate continued to go up. and something has to be done but we throw it under the bus for risk prevention and poverty is -- and race are to be changed by proactive measure. >> let me take a question from the audience, professor simon, money system often taps the relatives assets. and then the relatives are motivated to help locate the fugitives. what would motivate them to rat out of fugitives. in other words what the question is getting at, sometimes having to post bail can cause the community around the accused to get involved in their life and take an active role of the charges. or if you have a situation a fugitive to get involved? >> i like the idea of community engagement and to lower the risk and that someone can benefit from the system. i would like to see evidence that taking someone's home will incentivize them to help them lock their son up. it might. but it my be incentivize detectives to be defenders but not to tie assets to it. >> i want to address the financial taking of someone's property and that's the norm of the bail industry. that is not, i have been in the system for 41 years and never taken one home. we do rely on our detective skills and our bounty hunter skills to get the defendant and get them back in custody. that's what we are good at. the involvement of friends and workers and co-workers, all that is used. our risk assessment tool has been very effective. i don't think that creating an atmosphere that will do away with corporate bail is the answer. it's not. we have to work with the pretrial system and law enforcement and judicial system, we are a part of it and i see we will be a part of it for years. >> we got a second question, i am going to ask it. if someone qualifies for release isn't inherently unfair that this person remains incarcerated because of the inability to post release, they don't have to post bail. are there instances where someone -- let me ask it differently. i have been in court where a judge charged them with a crime and could see a release. but maybe other issues going on. maybe barefooted and don't have a place they are living. and maybe get someone like you willie, in your organization voed and supervisor. is that appropriate? or is that violating someone's right not to have the oversight of the court and criminal justice system? will? >> how supervisor retrial came about was really in jail overcrowding. there are cases where, specific cases, getting a homeless individual. there are a group of case managers called court accountable homeless services. it targets homeless individuals. and mental health cases have been common. traditionally cases that the court is looking for supervision, but again as you might imagine the resources are severely taxed. and during the budget difficulties in the last years, the ability to manage large numbers. we are talking for example, homeless individuals, we see 30 individuals at any one given time. that's the active case load and it's driven by that. >> i have a question from the public defender for the law enforcement officials here. what reforms can you commit to at this point to reduce pretrial detention population? shall we start with sheriff mirkarimi or the district attorney? >> i will reiterate that the strategy that i think san francisco should seriously consider legislate a new criteria. that's what the penal code has empowered us to do. we could start right away by corralling a number of legislators and city hall to get behind this effort completely. and i suggest budgetary wise pretrial as will represents is not funded enough. frankly. and our ability to i think really discharge in a supervised capacity so there is an alternative to incarceration is something that the city should put on a higher pecking order. since it costs about $50,000 a year to incarcerate somebody. when i look at the collaborative court models. when we look at the pretrial supervisory models we are talking about here. they are really a fraction of the cost. and i don't think we have that on system down as fluidly we would like, i think many of these are eligible for that program. and that requires pretrial to staff and have expanded population. >> george, we will give you the last word, we are pretty much at our time. >> we are underway, the reality that several of us here are members of the sensoring commission, including our public defender, mrs. mccracken and sheriff mirkarimi and myself. and this is an effort that started last year, the goal is a two-year process to look for sentencing reform and looking at best practices to determine what is appropriate. and certainly pretrial detention is part of the mix. i go back to what i said earlier, i believe that pretrial custody should be based on appropriate -- and i want to underline appropriate, risk assessment tools. that will be race neutral. that will be gender neutral. that will be socially neutral. but assess risk, risk of violence, risk of not showing up for court. i believe that, that is an achievable goal. and i believe that the sentencing commission is a really good place. we have excellent resources at our disposal. we have a two-year plan. and we have basically every component of the general system and the community in this process. i hope we will come up with a pretrial releasing process. >> i want to thank all panelists for participating. and thank you all for attending. [applause] i think our public defender will make some closing remarks. >> in closing i want to thank all of you for attending this year's justice summit. as you heard we have many challeng challenges in areas to improve upon. we look for your support. we will continue through this year, and for more information about the gideon case or activities in your area, visit gideonslegacy.org. and we be posting more information on our website. and ask the public defender through this year. and i want to invite you a special event on may 9, sister helen rajeem will be here, and she's well known and played in deadman walking. that's may 9. i want to thank all volunteers and those who made this event possible. and all of you for attending. thank you and have a good evening. >> thank you all for coming today. hello, everyone, and good morning. my name is christina co-loan. i'm with the director of the office. welcome to the graduating seniors who live in public housing. (applause) >> it's incredible to see so many people here today to honor the hard work of these graduates. this important milestone and accomplishment marks the next chapter in these young people's lives. today's ceremony includes representation from the elected and city family, special guests from the professional athletic community, private and public sector representation, and most importantly, the friends and family of the graduates who have supported these young people during their journey to this point. we thank everyone here today for showing how important these graduates are, that your participation and attendance. ~ by graduates pay close attention to the stage advice you will hear from today's speakers. all of us older adults were in your shoes at one point, and now it is our turn to help guide you into the next phase of your lives. with that said, let's begin today's program with our first speaker who is the interim director of the san francisco housing authority, ms. barbara smith. (applause) >> thank you. good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i am thrilled and humbled to be here today with you to celebrate the challenges you've met and the accomplishments you've made as san francisco's 2013 high school graduating class. (applause) >> you make all of us extremely proud and thankful, yourselves, your loved ones, your community, people who have helped you get to this important milestone and share with you all of the joys of your successes. you've shown that you can do anything you put your minds, hearts, and souls to, anything. so, please, take a moment to congratulate yourselves and remember to dream big and pursue those dreams. the san francisco housing authority wishes you the brightest and best future as shining examples for our community and an inspiration for those young people who are going to follow you. to speak to our community's pride, it is my great privilege to introduce our mayor, honorable mayor edwin lee for his special words of congratulations. (applause) >> thank you. >> thank you, barbara. welcome, everybody, to city hall, people's house, yes. (applause) >> well, this is exciting. i'm sure it's exciting for the students as well because graduation has finally come. (applause) >> and i wanted you to know that we're proud of you. i know there's about 20 of you here today, but you're part of 126 graduates graduating this year and you truly, truly represent the incredible promise of our city of san francisco. thank you for being here and doing all that you did to graduate. (applause) >> and if you look around the room, you've got a lot of people in our network that wants to and will continue supporting you. right up in front here, our superintendent richard karanza is here, our board president, david chiu. of course, barbara is here. london breed, our supervisor, one of our newest supervisors here. scott wiener, supervisor scott wiener. supervisor malia cohen, thank you for being here. our police chief is here. thank you. and former mayor but still mayor, willie brown, thank you for being here. [cheering and applauding] >> our city administrator, naomi kelly, thank you for being here, naomi. (applause) >> phil ginsberg, thank you. and one of our great sponsors from comcast, thank you, hong. our mayor's office of neighborhood services and the public housing tenants association, thank you for being here as well. (applause) >> thank you very much. you know, we have -- this is just a part of the city family and there are many other elected officials and department heads throughout the audience and commissioners who support what you're doing for yourselves and for your family. and let me say i am personally proud of what you're doing, proud enough that i'm going to go to work for you every single day because your success means our success in the city of san francisco. and one of the ways -- (applause) >> absolutely. and one of the ways we're going to help each other is by making sure that this summer ain't gonna be a summer of just hanging around for everybody. it's a summer where we go to work for you, and in return, we create 6,000 jobs for you to go to work and earn your way this summer. how about that? (applause) >> how many of you want a job this summer? all right. [laughter] (applause) >> carl and i are going to joke around in a few minutes. but i want to thank an agency that's here in the audience as well that's united way of the bay area. united way is teaming up with the city of san francisco and some hundreds of companies in the city along with all the 60 departments of the city, including our police, our fire, our public works, our public utilities commission, our school district, everyone working together to make sure there's at least 6,000 jobs targeted for disadvantaged, economically disadvantaged youth in the city, so you can have a job, you can earn your way to buy the things you need to buy, get ready and continue your education because for the jobs of the future, it is about getting a solid economic foundation and educational foundation for that. these are the best jobs, whether they're in health care, whether they're in administration, whether they're in technology jobs or financial jobs, some of the best salary earning jobs is being on the warriors payroll -- no, i mean -- [laughter] >> is being on jobs that have a technology foundation, jobs that are creative, are innovative, a job supporting major industries in the city, like tourism. you know, hotels cannot do a great job unless they're online, unless they're getting a lot of their clientele online. health care cannot do a better job unless technology helps them get to their patients. so, health care, tourism, all the kind of industries we're looking at need an under lay of technology. that's why europe is here today as one of our community based organizations along with tech s.f. they're helping to recruit -- yes. (applause) >> thank you, yera, thank you tech s.f. for having great partnerships and working with the city so that if you want that technology base, you can go through that program and get a technology base. you'll be even that much more prepared for the new jobs. but this summer we're going to get 6,000 jobs out there. going to be all earning pay. i want to thank president obama to leader pelosi, to all of the different -- (applause) >> yes, all of the different leaders who helped establish this goal for this city. last year we had a goal of 5,000. guess what? we created 5,200 paying jobs. we're serious about this. it apt just a number. we really can get to 6,000 jobs and hit every youth and public housing, if they want a job, earn their way forward, we can do that. ~ ain't so, as we embark on this, i want to make sure you know that our city family is behind you. you are the best investment we could be making in our city. that's our youth. and, so, not only is it graduation time, it's time to announce who our investees are, the people we're investing in you for your success. we're counting on you to be successful because if you are, you can take my job pretty soon. you can take a supervisor's job. you can take the police chief's job. you can take any job you want because you've got the talent, the focus, and the background to do it. that's what's open up here in san francisco for you. and be proud of it. i also want to say i'm proud of your family, your friends, your parents who are here, the people that have been with you all these years to support your focus on your education because it does take a village. it does take everybody saying, you've got to get through this, and you've got to do it right, and you've got to learn your way forward and you've got to put that academic record together. because looking forward, there's a lot of things open to you when you keep your mind focused. and, so, i want to say thank you. congratulations. we'll have other speakers coming up. but you hear directly from the mayor, we are proud -- i am proud of all of you. and i'll be personally helpful to you in your career. if you need a letter of recommendation, if you need a letter for a job that you're looking for, if you want to go to the next step in education, i'd be proud to be an author of a letter of recommendation for you. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you, mayor lee. and now we will hear congratulatetry remark from the member of the board of supervisors starting with the president of the board, district 3 supervisor, david chiu. (applause) >> good morning. anyone excited today for the class of 2013? let's hear it for these folks. [cheering and applauding] >> our mayor has thanked a lot of our dignitaries who are here. i did note he did miss one person who happens to play for one of our local nba teams, and i just want to welcome carl landry here. [cheering and applauding] >> but i also want to say that the most important folks here, while the warriors did very well and we know next year they're going to do even better. while our giants this year won the world series, today we are celebrating our young giants, our young warriors, the class of 2013edthv this is to you. (applause) ~ >> and all of us who are your elected officials, and i'm glad to be joined by many of my colleagues today, we all know the challenges that you faced. we know the challenges that our housing authority has face and had has overcome. we know the challenges that our school district has faced and is overcoming. we know the challenges that our law enforcement and our police officers have faced and we are all moving forward. i want to echo the mayor in saying that part of why all of us are here for you is we know that at some point in the very near future, those of us who are sitting in front of you, we're going to be gone. you are the future leadership of our city. you are our future tech workers. you are our future doctors. you are our future lawyers. you are our future elected officials. and like the mayor, i'd like to invite you, if any of you are interested in having an internship in the office of district 3 supervisor david chiu, i want you to let me know. but more importantly, i think it's important for you to know just how much we are counting on you to bring san francisco into the 21st century, to be our giants and our warriors. congratulations. (applause) >> and now we will hear from supervisor malia cohen, district 10 supervisor. (applause) >> good morning, everyone. today is an exciting day! my goodness, all the mothers and father's and uncles and aunts and godmothers, and aunties and sisters and cousins, everyone that brought us to this pointed to, thank you. and i want to highlight something. i think we've got 126 graduates, right? but 67 of them are from district 10. [cheering and applauding] >> that's because we are leaders of the pack, are we not? leaders, that's exactly what we're talking about here. so, i've just come to say congratulations. i'm so excited. like the mayor said in his remarks, that the future is really right in front of you. i understand that we all go through some challenges in life. but, you know, we are not defined by our challenges. as a matter of fact, what defines us is how we handle those challenges and we use them to continue to build and to continue to mfo