Primary Plan: Compton’s x Coalition

A Strategy for Liberating Compton’s Cafeteria from GEO Group and Securing an Intersectional Future at 111 Taylor Street

Opening

111 Taylor Street is the historic site of the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, the first well-documented uprising by trans and queer people against police violence. Today, this landmark is operated by GEO Group, the world’s largest private prison corporation and top ICE contractor with a long record of human rights violations, labor abuses, and carceral profiteering.

Since launching this campaign in early 2025, we have built a cross-sector movement uniting legal, political, cultural, and community power to remove GEO Group and secure community stewardship of this historic site. Despite widespread public testimony and media exposure, the San Francisco Board of Appeals denied our zoning appeal on July 16, 2025, and again denied rehearing on August 20, 2025.

We now move into a new phase. The November 6 Government Audit & Oversight hearing officially confirmed many of our core claims: that no city or state agency exercises oversight over 111 Taylor, that GEO Group operates through opaque federal contracts, and that conditions inside are carceral and unsafe. Testimony from the Public Defender’s Office detailed retaliation, overcrowding, and neglect, while GEO’s own representatives contradicted themselves on oversight, contracts, and abuse investigations.

The hearing placed these facts on the public record. With that foundation, our campaign escalates through litigation, landmark protection, ICE prevention, and public pressure toward permanent removal of GEO Group, protection against federal or private backfill, and community stewardship under a land trust model that centers trans, immigrant, and justice-impacted communities.

Vision Statement

To protect and transform 111 Taylor Street into an intersectional site of liberation and cultural memory, free from carceral control and corporate profiteering. The site will embody abolitionist futures, housing justice, ecological healing, and collective stewardship rooted in the Tenderloin’s history of resistance.

Objectives

  • Advance Legal Action: File nuisance, wrongful death, wrongful eviction, wage theft, and zoning enforcement lawsuits following new evidence surfaced in the GAO hearing.

  • Enforce Oversight Failures: Use hearing testimony to compel City Attorney and BOS investigations into GEO’s violations and lack of compliance with AB 32 and AB 3228.

  • Prevent ICE Conversion: Close all legal and political pathways for federal detention or surveillance at the site.

  • Secure Historic Landmark Protection: Ensure permanent protection against future carceral reuse.

  • Achieve a Just Transition for workers and people incarcerated at 111 Taylor through non-carceral, community-based reentry alternatives.

  • Leverage State Reforms such as AB 32, AB 3228, and SB 593 to limit GEO’s contracting power.

  • Establish Community Ownership through a land trust, COPA purchase, or eminent domain transfer.

  • Enforce Safety and Nuisance Standards through Building, Fire, and Health Code investigations.

  • Build Sustained Public Pressure through hearings, direct action, and cultural storytelling.

  • Center Cultural Memory and Collective Envisioning in every phase of site transition.

Strategic Pillars

1. Just Transition for Incarcerated People & Workers

  • Conduct updated gap analysis based on data from the Public Defender’s Office and Adult Probation testimony.

  • Resource community-based, non-carceral reentry providers.

  • Host listening sessions with formerly and currently incarcerated people.

  • Support worker organizing at GEO Group to expose internal abuses.

  • Develop nonprofit provider capacity for state and federal reentry contracts.

2. Legal & Policy Action

  • Call for the revocation of LoD by challenging the 1/28/26 issuance & original letter

  • File nuisance abatement, wrongful death (Melvin Bulauan), wage theft, and wrongful eviction cases.

  • Cite GAO hearing testimony and contradictions under oath as new evidence.

  • Advance landmark nomination to block future carceral use.

  • Pressure DBI and Planning to act on fire, egress, and zoning violations, now verified by public testimony.

  • Pursue ordinances requiring Conditional Use Authorizations for reentry centers in RC zones.

3. Government & Political Advocacy

  • Use the GAO hearing record to demand follow-up oversight and potential subpoenas.

  • Prepare Supervisors, Senator, Assemblymember and Congressmember for a Phase Two hearing on GEO’s federal contracts and safety violations.

  • Pressure Senator Wiener and Assemblymembers Haney, CA AG Bonta, Senators Pelosi, Padilla, and Schiff to push AB 3228 enforcement and SB 593 implementation.

  • Call for a city resolution urging CDCR & FBOP to terminate GEO’s contracts and support community transition.

4. ICE Prevention & Federal Oversight

  • Introduce a City ICE Ban Ordinance to prohibit ICE or BOP reuse of 111 Taylor.

  • Monitor FBOP contract renewal due March 25, 2026 and CDCR renewal June 30, 2028.

  • Launch a national solidarity campaign with other communities organizing against GEO Group.

5. Financial Pressure & Acquisition Readiness

  • Target GEO’s investors and subsidies through a public divestment campaign.

  • Leverage hearing findings to appeal to city and philanthropic funders for public-interest acquisition.

  • Prepare for COPA-triggered purchase opportunities.

  • Build a $15–20M acquisition fund through the Compton’s Legacy Fund and aligned institutional partnerships.

6. Public Awareness & Direct Action

  • Frame the GAO hearing as official proof of GEO’s misconduct.

  • Release a Zine 3 with key quotes and visuals from the GAO hearing.

  • Stage actions tying city inaction to ongoing harm and public risk.

  • Continue media pressure through local and national coverage.

  • Center the story of Melvin Bulauan and testimony from residents, workers, and families.

7. Stewardship & Site Transformation

  • Finalize governance through the People’s Council and Strategic Wisdom Council.

  • Publish the Envisioning Report and install a public exhibit of community design visions.

  • Incorporate hearing outcomes into policy advocacy for title transfer and historic stewardship.

  • Secure city support for acquisition and rehabilitation under Compton’s Community Land Trust.