We are a group of social workers, nurses, doctors, midwives, students and staff who care for patients at San Francisco General Hospital and DPH clinics. In June 2020, we organized to remove the Sheriff’s Department from our facilities in order to create a safe, healing environment for all. More information can be found at www.dphmustdivest.com.

We welcome all those committed to building safety without the use of surveillance, policing, and incarceration. We welcome all those who want to work with us in the spirit of collaboration and movement-building. If you are interested in joining our coalition, please fill out the following form and we will get back to you.

Join Us: https://cutt.ly/getinvolved

Since July of 2019, DPH Must Divest has engaged community members, hospital staff, hospital administrators, department of public health officials, and the SF board of supervisors to come up with a working draft of proposed alternatives. Our alternatives proposal is our best effort to represent a community-based vision of safety in the SF public healthcare system.

Moving towards safety, and ultimately towards justice, necessitates that we are in ongoing conversation with those most impacted by violence and marginalization- responding quickly to changing conditions and needs. We don’t have all the answers.

Our alternatives proposal is a working draft so we can incorporate community feedback while holding true to our abolitionist principles. DPH Must Divest is committed to building a public health care system that is free of state violence and carceral control. Any changes made to the proposal will be in the spirit of this abolitionist vision.

Abolition, or abolitionism, is a political movement that envisions an end to the prison industrial complex (PIC).

“The PIC is a system that uses policing, courts, and imprisonment to “solve” problems. We don’t agree that we need the PIC to keep us safe. Instead, we work to build safe and healthy communities that do not depend on prisons and punishment.”
Critical Resistance, [http://criticalresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/What-is-Abolition.pdf]

Modern day abolitionists are the political decedents of the abolitionists of the 1800’s who fought for the abolition of slavery. Just as they believed the political and economy system of slavery could not be reformed, we believe that the PIC cannot be reformed and must be abolished.

Abolitionist principles are our political compass in this work. They allow us to fight for incremental change while simultaneously envisioning a radically different system. Critical Resistance distinguishes between “reformist reforms” and “abolitionist steps” by asking the following questions:
- Does this reduce funding to police?
- Does this reduce the notion that police increase safety?
- Does this reduce the tools/tactics/technology police have at their disposal?
- Does this reduce the scale of policing?

Critical Resistance: Reformist Reforms Vs. Abolitionist Steps in Policing
[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59ead8f9692ebee25b72f17f/t/5b65cd58758d46d34254f22c/1533398363539/CR_NoCops_reform_vs_abolition_CRside.pdf]

1. Please consider signing on to this proposal if you support our alternatives.
FULL WORKING DRAFT HERE: https://cutt.ly/dphmustdivest-alternatives-proposal

2. Proposed changes are welcomed via individual conversations, community forums, coalition meetings, etc. If you’d like to propose a change the best way to contact us is by email at DPHMustDivest@gmail.com. You can also leave comments on the alternative - these comments will be incorporated into the working document as proposed changes.
MAKE COMMENTS ON DRAFT HERE: https://cutt.ly/dphmustdivest-alternatives-comment

3. Proposed changes are taken to the DPH Must Divest weekly coalition meeting. If you would like to join our meeting- let us know! Proposed changes will be incorporated on a bi-monthly basis via a consensus vote of our membership.
JOIN US: https://cutt.ly/getinvolved

4. An updated Alternatives Proposal will be posted to our website with an indication of new changes. Supporters who sign onto this working proposal will be notified of changes via our email list and are encouraged to contact us with any concerns.

Examples of Past Recommendations
Example #1: Sheriffs should wear polo shirts and not uniforms to appear less threatening to patients and staff.
Law enforcement, in or out of uniform, is a threat to our patients and staff. This suggestion upholds the power of sheriffs in our healthcare system and is not aligned with our vision. DPH Must Divest rejects this proposed change to the alternatives proposal.

Example #2: Any community leadership body should explicitly incorporate the voices of undocumented community memebers and compensate them at the same rate as other community leaders.
Those most impacted by systemic oppression should have meaningful power in creating alternatives AND their labor should be compensated. Including most impacted community members challenges the notion that police keep us safe. DPH Must Divest will incorporate this proposed change into the alternatives proposal via vote at a coalition meeting. The Alternatives Proposal will be updated with language reflecting this change and a new version will be sent out to our email list.

We welcome all those committed to building safety without the use of surveillance, policing, and incarceration. We welcome all those who want to work with us in the spirit of collaboration and movement-building. If you are interested in joining our coalition, please fill out the following form and we will get back to you.

Join Us: https://cutt.ly/getinvolved