A San Francisco program that increases the daily pay for jurors from $15 to $100 for those with low to moderate incomes has successfully diversified the city’s jury pools in terms of both economic status and race, according to a new report. Launched in March 2022 by the San Francisco Financial Justice Project under the city’s Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector, the Be The Jury pilot program aimed to broaden access to civic duty by eliminating financial barriers.
The report, released after the program’s first year, revealed that 84% of participants wouldn’t have been able to serve on their respective juries without the $100 per day stipend. Participants reported a median household income of $38,000, significantly below San Francisco’s median of $121,826, suggesting that the program successfully removed financial barriers to service.
A survey conducted in San Francisco found that 35% of residents cannot serve on juries due to the economic hardship it would cause, according to a press release from the San Francisco Financial Justice Project.
The Be The Jury program has also enhanced the racial diversity of juries. Of the over 1,000 participants who made up 9% of jurors in San Francisco criminal trials, 60% identified as people of color, reflecting the broader racial demographics of the San Francisco population.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed commented on the program’s impact, stating, “Be The Jury is groundbreaking because even when those discriminatory laws changed, low-income jurors — many being Black, Asian, Latino — struggled to be able to serve because they couldn’t give up their wages.”
Jurors qualify for the program if their household income is less than the Area Median Income, and they are not compensated for jury duty by their employer, or they are self-employed or unemployed.
Assembly Bill 881, inspired by the program, proposes to increase the daily stipend for jurors across more counties in California, including Alameda County, through 2025. The bill is currently under consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee.