S.F.'s system for chronic offenders broken

How is it possible that chronic behavioral malcontent George Miley assaulted a female police officer three weeks ago, but only ended up spending four days in jail? After all, his July 6 attack on Officer Lisa Frazer was followed by his 106th arrest since 2001.

Most everyone says the system for punishing quality-of-life crimes like public drunkenness and aggressive panhandling is broken in San Francisco, but Miley seems like an extraordinary case. How can he be on the streets today?

The answer is both complicated and simple: Lenient San Francisco juries, clogged courts, and judges who are more willing to settle cases than impose consequential sentences are among the problems.

And certainly, some of the blame has to fall on the office of District Attorney Kamala Harris. She is a supporter of the Community Justice Center, a pilot program pushed forward by city supervisors on Tuesday. It would punish blight crimes in the Tenderloin and SoMa but also offer chronic offenders like Miley targeted services such as drug counseling or job training and monitor their progress.

Harris knows the court program's offer of services for chronic offenders instead of jail time may be the carrot, but that her office also needs to provide the stick. People who don't get help and commit more crimes need to face real penalties.

That's how a frustrated police force sees it.

"I don't know who didn't do their job on Miley," said Capt. Steve Tacchini, Frazer's commanding officer at the Mission Station. "But I know it was not our fault. We served him up on a platter (to prosecutors). I'm upset about it and every police officer in San Francisco should be."

Chief Assistant District Attorney Russ Giuntini says the right things.

"There have to be consequences," Giuntini said. "With people like Mr. Miley, we take it seriously. We've got to crack down."

Giuntini also says, "We tried him twice already. The first time he was acquitted and the second time it was a hung jury, 11-1 (against conviction.)"

Those weren't his only two trials. He was convicted twice and served 30-day sentences in 2002 for public drunkenness, being a public nuisance and loitering with a knife.

Giuntini's point is that that the D.A.'s office is working with what it has available. San Francisco juries have a reputation for being reluctant to convict "quality-of-life" crimes. The D.A.'s office strenuously denies that it kicks cases that don't have a good chance of conviction, but it seems to settle for small victories.

Recently, for example, Assistant D.A. Jeff Ross said the office was able to negotiate a "motion to revoke" option. Until then, getting any action on someone who violated probation was a cumbersome and difficult effort. Now the process has been streamlined, and the D.A. can get the probation revoked and send the person to jail immediately, he said.

That's how Miley ended up with probation and a "stay-away" order from the Castro area location where he assaulted Frazer before he was pepper-sprayed, restrained and arrested. If Miley violates that order and returns to the 18th and Diamond neighborhood, he could be put in jail for a year.

Tacchini isn't impressed.

"Let me ask you this," he said. "If he got four days for assaulting a police officer, how many days do you think he'll get for violating a stay-away order?"

Yet even Gary Delagnes, the president of the Police Officers Association and generally no fan of the D.A.'s office, says he can't put all the blame on Harris' office.

"Far be it from me to defend the D.A.," he said, "but you've got everybody pointing at everybody else. What we really need is a comprehensive program for quality-of-life crimes that comes from everyone - from the mayor's office, to the D.A., to the criminal justice system."

That includes the judges. An independent team of consultants working for the California Administrative Office of the Courts reviewed the San Francisco Superior Court in March 2007.

The review found, among other things, that the longer a case dragged on, the better deal a defendant was likely to be offered. For someone like Miley, trial is a no-risk option because there is no incentive to settle for a guilty plea.

"If you get the same sentence after the trial as before and you have a free attorney, you might say, 'Hey, I'll take that excursion. And I maybe I'll even beat the case,' " Giuntini said, adding he was surprised that Miley agreed to plead guilty to assaulting Frazer. "He's been on such a roll."

Assistant D.A. Michael Troncoso said that might be changing. Local judges, getting the word from the community, have increased severity of sentences, he said.

That hasn't yet satisfied Tacchini.

"We've drawn 106 lines in the sand with this guy," Tacchini said of Miley. "And he keeps stepping over them. The system is being abused. We're running in quicksand here."

Nearly everyone agrees with Delagnes when he says that this is a problem that needs strong leaders who will stand up and make the tough, politically difficult decisions.

With that in mind, here's this note: After two days of me trying to get her to comment on this issue, District Attorney Kamala Harris couldn't find time to discuss it.