San Francisco’s popular outgoing sheriff Michael Hennessey threw himself a retirement party at the county jail today, complete with a bottle of bubbly apple cider and a wrecking ball.
Infamous San Francisco County Jail No. 3 has long been a target of Hennessey’s reform efforts. In 1997, a federal judge declared conditions at the lockup to be unconstitutional, and the jail was finally shut down in 2006.
"This opened in 1934, the same year that Alcatraz opened," Hennessey said today. "Alcatraz was closed down in 1963. This building continued to operate for another 40 years after..."
Hennessey said that when he took office in 1980, the building known as "Sunshine Jail Farm" when it opened "was a pit and way past its prime. It just took a long time to get to the point where we can tear it down."
Incoming sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said there were once plans to repurpose the space, which sits on land bordering Millbrae, San Bruno and Pacifica, but the money for that is no longer available.