Love her or loathe her, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is running an experiment that San Francisco desperately needed: what happens when you actually prosecute crime?

Jenkins has been unapologetic about her "tough-love" approach since replacing the recalled Chesa Boudin in 2022. Her office is filing more cases, pursuing more serious charges, and — here's the part that makes progressives squirm — filling up jails and clogging court dockets in the process. Jenkins argues the tradeoff is worth it: the city is safer, her office is smarter, and the message to would-be offenders is finally clear.

She's not entirely wrong. San Francisco's property crime and retail theft numbers have shown improvement, and the open-air drug markets that once defined entire neighborhoods have at least shrunk in visibility. There's a reasonable case that consistent prosecution creates deterrence — a concept so basic it shouldn't be controversial, yet somehow became radical in this city.

But here's where fiscal conservatives should pump the brakes before throwing a parade. Filling jails costs money. Exploding court dockets cost money. Every defendant sitting in county lockup awaiting trial is running up a tab that San Francisco taxpayers are footing — roughly $300-400 per inmate per day, depending on who's counting. If Jenkins' strategy is going to be sustainable, it needs to be paired with a serious conversation about efficiency: faster case processing, smarter diversion for low-level offenders who genuinely need treatment over incarceration, and a court system that doesn't move at the speed of continental drift.

The Boudin era proved that non-prosecution is a disaster. But the answer to a policy of doing nothing isn't a policy of doing everything at maximum expense. It's doing the right things, targeted and cost-effective.

Jenkins deserves credit for restoring a basic social contract — commit a crime in San Francisco, face consequences. That shouldn't be a radical proposition. The next chapter, though, has to be about doing it without bankrupting the city in the process. Accountability for criminals is great. Accountability for the budget? That's the part we're still waiting on.