Eileen Hirst

Vegan Fight! Activist Doesn't Want PETA Getting Credit for Vegan Meals in Jail

takver / flickr​Last month, SFoodie discovered that if you're vegan and you go to jail in S.F., you can get vegan meals. Eileen Hirst, Chief of Staff at the Sheriff's Department, told us that vegan food in S.F. County jails came about because of vegan PETA protestors who were arrested in anti- ... More >>

Arrested Vegans Get Vegan Meals in S.F. County Jails

my_southborough​If you're vegan and you go to jail, do you get vegan meals? In a city with a substantial vegan population, this is no trivial question. It turns out that, while the law does not require jails to provide vegan options, S.F. County jails do serve vegan meals on request, and we've ... More >>

Deputy David Wong, Candidate for Sheriff, Gets Fired

David Wong's campaign is off to a rocky start​Well since we no longer have Supervisor Chris Daly and Mayor Gavin Newsom going at each other, City Hall has been a snoozefest. But wait, there seems to be a little excitement happening in the quiet corner of the Sheriff's Department -- and it doesn't ... More >>

Gov. Jerry Brown Ready to Send State Prisoners to County Jails

Gov. Brown is dumping prisoners in your hometown ​Last month, SF Weekly told readers about a Supreme Court decision to force California to cut its inmate population -- drastically. Today, Gov. Jerry Brown told the courts that he has the perfect plan in mind: Shift state prisoners to county jails.A ... More >>

Second Alleged Funeral Scammer in the Slammer

In custody. ​Donald Rollins didn't stay on the lam for long. The former funeral home operator who is accused of bilking living clients out of money for future services turned himself in Wednesday afternoon, says Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst. "Mr. Rollins is with us," she said ... More >>

Conservative Immigration Think Tank Wants To Kill San Francisco's Federal Dollars

Sorry, Buster. No more money to keep you here...​San Francisco jails should lose roughly $750,000 in Department of Justice dollars. That's the gist of a  memo released this month by the Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank Center for Immigration Studies, which accuses San Francisco ... More >>

New Tech Makes it Harder To Skip Jail By Using a Phony Name

No really: I'm Guy Fawkes​A year ago, it was possible to get busted for a crime but evade jail time by getting booked under a phony name, according to a lawsuit we reported on Thursday. Sadly, that sort of gambit's now harder thanks to a recent overhaul of the jail's prisoner-identification system ... More >>

SF Jails Wrong Luke Smith For 11 Days, Lawsuit Claims

They all look the same to me...​In an apparent jailhouse version of babies accidentally switched at the hospital, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department allegedly switched identification numbers of two Luke Smiths who happened to be in jail at the same time last May, according to a new lawsuit. Th ... More >>

Is Philadelphia More Immigrant-Friendly Than San Francisco?

Does Philly's Michael Nutter have more spine than Gavin Newsom?​Philadelphia's deputy mayor said yesterday that his city will likely cease cooperating with federal immigration officials by sharing records of local arrests, a policy change that would put it in the vanguard of so-called "sanctuary c ... More >>

'Secure Communities' Program Nails 29 Illegal Immigrants In S.F. Jail

After all, now we have finger prints...​ICE touts success stories of new program -- but San Francisco sheriff's department would have reported "criminal aliens" anyways under old sanctuary city policyIn the first nine days after the San Francisco Sheriff's Department begrudgingly implemented the f ... More >>

Sheriff Mike Hennessey Asks To Opt Out Of Immigration Fingerprint ID Program

​Beating out a resolution to be introduced today by the Board of Supervisors urging him to do so, San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey asked the state attorney general today for assistance in opting out of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) fingerprint screening program known as Secure C ... More >>

Motel Hell

It took years for the city to move against an SRO that was full of pests. So one resident took her case to court.

Schwarzenegger Proposal Could Burden Underfunded S.F. Jails

Be sure to wear a flower in your hairThis week has seen California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger scrounging for a few billion dollars beneath the sofa cushions after his stop-gap measures for narrowing the state's budget shortfall went down to defeat in Tuesday's special election. Among the consequence ... More >>

Former S.F. Supe Silver Resigns From Sheriff's Department, Cites Desire to Legalize Drugs -- ALL Drugs

Carol Ruth Silver has sued for peace in the War on DrugsThe old commercial used to show an egg sizzling in a pan and note "This is your brain on drugs -- any questions?" We always wondered how they knew we like our brains sunny-side up. But former San Francisco Supervisor has a better question -- wh ... More >>

Cell Phoney

Making phone calls from jail, Harley Mike allegedly helped three prisoners escape and conned parole agents, sheriff's deputies, and judges.

Cothran

Choke Hold on City Hall

The Grid