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Our Top 10 Financial Justice Accomplishmnts in 2023

Dear Partners in Financial Justice:

In 2023, our team at the San Francisco Financial Justice Project continued to build the movement for Financial Justice and ensure that fines and fees do not adversely impact low-income people and communities of color.

We are deeply grateful for all of our partners. With your help, this year we lifted $15 million dollars of fines and fees off of over 200,000 San Francisco residents, launched innovative pilot programs, and brought Financial Justice statewide and nationwide. Here’s a snapshot of what we accomplished together in 2023:

1. Welcomed our 1,000^th participant into the Be The Jury Program, which compensates low- to moderate-income San Francisco jurors $100 a day for their jury service. The one-year evaluation shows success in creating juries that are economically and racially diverse, reflecting the diversity of San Francisco. Our local program inspired the introduction of AB 881 Be The Jury CA, which passed the Legislature with bipartisan support. Read media coverage here and here.

2. Implemented the nation’s first completely free tablet program in San Francisco jails. The tablets support incarcerated people to prepare for reentry by enabling them to search job listings and housing, participate in educational and well-being programs, and access free e-books, audiobooks, movies, and music provided through a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco’s tablet program serves as a model for jails and prisons across the country to provide free tablets with a range of free features. Read media coverage here.

3. Eliminated expungement and dismissal fees in the criminal legal system and championed AB 1186, the REPAIR Act in partnership with the Debt Free Justice California Coalition. The REPAIR Act aims to provide crime survivors with more equitable and stable compensation while setting youth who have caused harm on a more meaningful path toward rehabilitation and accountability. AB 1186 builds on our local San Francisco AFTER Program and will continue to advance through the Legislature next year.

4. Published an impact report on the San Francisco Museums for All program. SF Museums for All provides free admissions to 20+ museums for low-income San Franciscans. In 2022, over 130,000 people used SF Museums for All to visit museums. This issue brief describes how the program launched, outreach strategies used to advertise the program, the impact of the program, and how other cities and jurisdictions can expand museum access to all residents in their communities. Read media coverage here.

5. Advanced reforms to bring equitable reform to our state’s child support system to support low-income families with the Truth and Justice in Child Support Coalition. After years of advocacy, the Coalition applauds the CA Department of Child Support Services, which issued new guidance that is estimated to relieve 62,000 California parents from $500 million in uncollectible, government-owed child support debt. This comes after two 2023 legislative wins: 1) SB 343 (Skinner) requires child support orders to be based on a parent’s ability to pay; and 2) AB 1148 (Bonta) extends the amount of time a formerly incarcerated parent receives before reinstating child support orders. Read more here.

6. Published a new issue brief: Incarceration Without Exploitation, which highlights the impact of eliminating markups on items sold in the jail store, also known as commissary. This brief dispels myths about the commissary and demonstrates the case for statewide reforms to limit commissary markups through SB 474, the BASIC(s) Act, which passed the California legislature and was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in October 2023.

ending intergenerational incarceration icon

7. Transformed a county jail storage room into a family-friendly visiting room to improve the visiting experience for incarcerated parents, in partnership with the San Francisco Public Library, community groups, and the Sheriff’s Office. Our goal was to create a welcoming, child-friendly space for parents and children to bond and take steps toward ending intergenerational incarceration. Read media coverage here.

8. Launched a multi-media campaign to build awareness and take-up of our fine and fee discounts, in partnership with City departments and community groups. We encourage our partners to continue to get the word out by using this social media toolkit.

9. Successfully advocated for Bay Area bridge toll violation waivers and payment plans after years of advocacy. These new waivers and payment assistance plans come after the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) moved to reduce the total possible fines and fees last year from $70 to $20 for Bay Area bridges. Read more about the issue here.

10. Supported six jurisdictions through Cities and Counties for Fine and Fee Justice in partnership with Fines and Fees Justice Center and Results for America. We supported six jurisdictions with technical assistance over the past year as part of the second cohort of this national leadership network. The selected teams were awarded $50,000 and access to technical expertise and guidance. We have worked closely with our partners to support these teams to develop and implement reforms to fines and fees, share approaches and breakthroughs within the network and with other cities and counties.

We are thankful to all of our community and government partners. We look forward to continuing to advance Financial Justice with you all at the local, state, and national levels in 2024.

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season!

Yours in Financial Justice,

Michelle and Cecilia

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