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Prosecutor Brooke Jenkins loses more than half of victim services staff
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Prosecutor Brooke Jenkins loses more than half of victim services staff

On May 26, 2022, 12 days before the eventual recall of then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Brooke Jenkins chastised her former boss for failing crime victims.

give reference San Francisco Chronicle colon Jenkins said, citing five district attorney staffers who said Boudin ignored the victims. he tweeted During a meeting with the mother of a murdered child, Boudin “turned his pen around, not making eye contact”: “These are the Black voices he ignored and tried to silence because they did not feed his agenda,” Jenkins wrote.

In a subsequent tweet, Jenkins said: History It found that 20 of 42 employees in the DA’s Victim Services Division had left the office. Jenkins wrote that this revealed Boudin’s lack of commitment to crime victims.

“This is exactly why he needs to be recalled,” he said. wrote.

Now, more than two years into his term and a day before Jenkins’s re-election vote, his own Victim Services Division has seen a mass exodus far greater than under Boudin and is grappling with recent missteps that critics characterize as gross mismanagement .

According to the DA’s office, 28 of the Victim Services Division’s 48 staff members have left the office since Jenkins was sworn in on July 8, 2022; This is eight more than those who resigned in a shorter period under Boudin. and Jenkins said that forced his recall.

The Victim Services Division had 48 employees; That means 58 percent of the office left under Jenkins’ tenure for 849 days, compared to 48 percent who left Boudin’s office for 869 days. The unit currently has 43 employees, according to the District Attorney’s office.

“Morale is at an all-time low,” said one former member of the unit, citing high turnover. Like other current and former members of the office, they requested anonymity for fear of professional retaliation. “We used to try to help victims of violent crime connect to services and begin their path to recovery. That’s not what our unit is about anymore.”

Instead, the unit became less structured and advocates and leaders alike were “controlled”, the former worker said.