San Francisco Rebrands Criminals: 'Justice-Involved Person'

The city of San Francisco is sanitizing language used for criminals and getting rid of words like "offender," "addict," and "juvenile delinquent."

A non-binding resolution adopted by the city's Board of Supervisors last month includes changing "convicted felon" to "justice-involved person," the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting. An offender released from jail will be a "formerly incarcerated person."

A person on parole will be referred to as a "person under supervision."

Drug addicts will become a "person with a history of substance use." And a "juvenile delinquent" will be called a "young person with justice system involvement" or a "young person impacted by the juvenile justice system," the newspaper noted.

Officials are hoping the new language will change people's opinions about those who commit crimes.

"We don't want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done," supervisor Matt Haney said.

"We want them ultimately to become contributing citizens and referring to them as felons is like a scarlet letter that they can never get away from."

Fox News reported San Francisco is fighting one of the highest crime rates in the country.

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