SF’s 30-year-old Drug Court was intended for non-violent drug offenders to avoid jail for low-level drug crimes. But now people with pretty violent charges are sneaking in, and Supervisor Matt Dorsey ain’t happy about it.
San Francisco’s Drug Court was established in 1995, and is meant as a diversion program so that low-level drug offenders can avoid normal court and jail, and instead get "services in the community” designed to get them out of their drug and crime situations. A nice idea, but a Chronicle report earlier this month detailed that Drug Court cases are ballooning in numbers, and that Drug Court is taking people charged with violent crimes like “attempted murder, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.”
Drug courts can be highly effective to protect safety and help offenders recover from addictions that often lead them to commit crime.
— Matt Dorsey (@mattdorsey) January 28, 2026
But San Francisco’s Drug Court is failing.
A @SFChronicle investigation found many problems — and I’m calling for a hearing to fix them. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/I2rigVAvFs
Certainly there may be more to the reasons that these cases were diverted to Drug Court. But either way, the Chron found that the number of cases accepted into Drug Court (instead of normal criminal court) has tripled between 2023 and 2025. So now the Chronicle reports that at Tuesday’s SF Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Matt Dorsey called for hearings into SF Drug Court, and its effectiveness.
Though it seems Dorsey has already made his conclusions before the hearings, declaring in his tweet above (in bold text) that “San Francisco’s Drug Court is failing.”
So, I’m inviting…
— Matt Dorsey (@mattdorsey) January 28, 2026
⚖️ @SFDAOffice @BrookeJenkinsSF;
⚕️ @SF_DPH; and
👮 @SheriffSF Paul Miyamoto...
...to present.
I’m also asking recovery community members to share their experiences and perspectives on what we can do to make San Francisco Drug Court more successful. (3/3) pic.twitter.com/NLUTYorycV
“As someone in recovery from addiction myself, I yield to no one in the strength of my belief in the life-changing — and even life-saving possibilities of drug treatment and recovery,” Dorsey said at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. “Drug Court diversion is not — and should not be — a get-out-of-jail free card. Still, if done right, it is perhaps the best and most important intervention we could offer in many circumstances. And that may well include violent offenders.”
We mentioned that the number of Drug Court cases had tripled in the last few years, and DA Brooke Jenkins says that’s an abuse of the law. The Public Defender’s Office counters that Jenkins’s office just overcharges on too many defendants, hence the more serious charges slipping into Drug Court.
But the reality is that state law changed; more cases are now eligible for Drug Court, so more defense attorneys are asking for Drug Court (and getting it). So in 2023, 180 defendants got Drug Court, whereas in 2025, 608 defendants got it.
The Chronicle and Dorsey present this as an inherently bad thing. Is it? There is no reporting on the outcomes of any of these defendants, or whether they continue to offend.
We’ll see if Dorsey’s hearings explore any aspects like this.
Image: SFGovTV
