\u201cI hope it sends a strong message to would-be drug offenders looking to travel to San Francisco that the party is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the RESET Center, people enter through a door with a metal detector that opens into a waiting area. There are showers and bathrooms, and two large white rooms with 25 gray reclining chairs. In the middle of the space, behind glass windows, is a command station for law enforcement and other staff monitoring people brought to the center.<\/p>\n
Supporters say the purpose of the new facility is to offer an alternative to jail and free up space in hospitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe drop-off process for officers\u2026 is designed to make sure that law enforcement personnel can get right back out onto the street,\u201d Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said. \u201cThe intent of this entire resource is to provide a space for people to come, to not go to jail, not go to hospitals, but to a space where they can sober up, where they have access to services and healthcare and people who want to see them get into services and care and put them on a path to recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheriff deputies will be on site, along with medical staff, case managers and peer support specialists, to check in on people as they rest and sober up.<\/p>\n
Miyamoto said that individuals who are brought there will be required to stay for a period of time before they are discharged, but will have the option to stay for up to 23 hours.<\/p>\n \u201cThe exact same thing happens when we bring them to jail. They\u2019re put into what we call a release-when-sobering cell. So we wait for 48 hours to see what their state is, if they\u2019re able to take care of themselves, if they\u2019re sobering up. Then they\u2019re released from our custody,\u201d Miyamoto said. \u201cBut the difference here is we\u2019re not releasing them from jail. We\u2019re releasing them from a chair that they\u2019re sitting in.\u201d<\/p>\n City officials defended the approach and said that new ideas are needed in the current overdose crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not jail, and it\u2019s not the hospital. It\u2019s a third way. It\u2019s another option for people. It\u2019s another option for our law enforcement, and we\u2019re going to pilot this,\u201d Lurie said.<\/p>\n While the Department of Public Health is not operating the facility, officials said that there will be vans available to direct people to other health facilities and services after they stay at the RESET Center.<\/p>\n If someone wants to be connected to drug treatment, including opioid addiction medications like buprenorphine, a pharmacist could be called to the RESET Center to provide those kinds of services, too.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a range of ways to make sure they can get that very quickly, including having people able to come here to prescribe and get them the medication very, very rapidly,\u201d Public Health Director Daniel Tsai said. \u201cSo that is part of the workflow that has been built in with the Connections Health team.\u201d<\/p>\n Connections Health Solutions, a company that operates across the country but will be working for the first time in San Francisco, will provide health services at the RESET Center.<\/p>\n CEO Colin LeClair said the RESET Center is their first and only project where sheriffs completely run the site.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery other facility we operate, law enforcement and us are hand in hand. Most of them though are not owned or operated by the law enforcement,\u201d LeClair told KQED. \u201cThis is the first step toward building out a continuum of services, so this is not a panacea. This is just a great first step.\u201d<\/p>\n People can only be brought to the RESET Center by police, meaning there is no walk-in option for people looking for a space to sober up indoors or drop-offs if people want to bring their friends or loved ones.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a stark difference from the city\u2019s existing sobering center, called SoMa Rise. That facility, run by the Department of Public Health and the nonprofit HealthRIGHT360, is a voluntary walk-in sobering center with trained medical staff on site.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s street outreach teams, which are part of the Department of Public Health, can also drop people off at SoMa RISE.<\/p>\n People can also leave SoMa RISE at any point and can also obtain transportation or connection to other health services.<\/p>\n \u201cInitially, people won\u2019t want to come here because they are being arrested, they are being detained, they\u2019re being brought in and compelled to come to this facility,\u201d Miyamoto said of the RESET Center. It is \u201cnot a part of the criminal justice system, not a voluntary system, but something that actually shakes them and wakes them up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/04\/042906RESET-CENTER_GH_003-KQED.jpg\")
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