By the end of 2023, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office lost $3 million in potential restorative justice funding from the philanthropic foundation Crankstart, according to documents released through a public records request. Mission Local.

The foundation committed up to $6 million to fund a restorative justice program in San Francisco as part of a three-year grant launched under then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin. known as Improving Justice Initiative, It diverted people from prosecution by creating alternative forms of liability.

Crankstart is the personal foundation of billionaire Michael Moritz and his wife, novelist and sculptor Harriet Heyman. Moritz is a venture capitalist deeply concerned In San Francisco politics, to give or promise something $17 million to public pressure group TogetherSF and spending heavily to elect law-and-order mayoral candidate Mark Farrell.

The district attorney’s office accepts millions of dollars in outside donations from foundations and the state to fund a variety of programs, and Crankstart’s $6 million was its largest donation yet.

The program, run by the district attorney’s office and funded by Crankstart, was launched as a pilot project under Boudin but never fully realized. If both victims and perpetrators agreed, the criminals would apologize to their victims and take a series of monetary steps, such as paying restitution for a robbery or participating in programs usually overseen by a nonprofit organization. The program focused on adults and transitional youth between the ages of 18 and 24.

Under Boudin, the district attorney’s office hired staff and partnered with nonprofits to create referral staff. It received $1 million from Crankstart in 2020 to launch the program. The duration of the grant was for three years, from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2023.

But as soon as District Attorney Brooke Jenkins takes office in mid-2022 stopped All restorative justice referrals for adults. He said at the time that the move was temporary, but his office never resumed adult referrals. Many people close to the program said this was surprising because restorative justice programs have been shown to reduce recidivism and even tough-on-crime advocates see their value.

“It really slowed our work down. There were so many delays, so many points of indecision; it was really confusing,” said Sandra Rodriguez, a restorative justice program specialist at Impact Justice, one of the nonprofits selected to work with the district attorney’s office on the grant at the time. “It actually stopped completely when Brooke Jenkins took over.”

A lack of attention to restorative justice convinced Crankstart to halt funding, according to many people close to the program. On December 11, 2023, the district attorney’s office specifically requested an extension, citing Jenkins’ “support for restorative justice practices.”