海角大神

George Gasc贸n鈥檚 honeymoon period as Los Angeles County鈥檚 district attorney lasted all of 24 hours.听

On the day of his swearing-in last month, he announced for the office, eliminating the use of cash bail for nonviolent offenses and banning prosecutors from seeking sentencing enhancements in most cases. He declared that the office would no longer pursue the death penalty or try juveniles as adults, and he launched a review of thousands of cases to consider potential resentencing and to look for wrongful convictions.

The criticism began and shows little sign of abating. He has taken 听from multiple directions, including staff prosecutors, police union officials, judges, fellow district attorneys, and victims鈥� rights advocates.

Mr. Gasc贸n, a former LA beat cop who later served as San Francisco鈥檚 police chief and its top prosecutor, remains undaunted. He won election in November on the strength of his reform agenda 鈥� defeating a more traditional, 鈥渢ough-on-crime鈥� incumbent 鈥� and belongs to the growing ranks of progressive prosecutors who have vowed to in America.

The Monitor spoke with Mr.听Gasc贸n about the human and financial costs of mass incarceration, the effect of George Floyd鈥檚 death on reform efforts, and his quest to 鈥渞aise the integrity鈥� of the criminal justice system. This interview has been edited and condensed.

You campaigned on a platform of change across . What principles inform your overall philosophy?

The direction I want the office to take is deeply rooted in the belief that people can be rehabilitated and redemption is possible. Offering people a path to redemption is not only the humane thing to do but it鈥檚 the right thing to do for our public safety.

We have a system that 鈥� especially in the last few decades 鈥� has been very heavily leaning on the punitive side of criminal justice, and we have seen over and over again very high rates of recidivism, which creates more crime and more victims. We鈥檝e also seen this punishment-based approach take funding and resources away from all the other services that create more sustainable, more livable communities 鈥� public health, education, public housing, social services. All those areas have suffered the consequences of our very heavy-handed, very punitive, very carceral approach to our work.

What was the impact of George Floyd鈥檚 death听and the ensuing racial justice protests last year on the political fortunes of progressive prosecutors?

There鈥檚 no question that the message that myself and others have been talking about for years started all of a sudden to resonate with a broader segment of our population. George Floyd鈥檚 murder shocked the conscience of this country, including in many places where people perhaps were not thinking about these issues. And Black Lives Matter has crystallized the inequities and the inherent racism in so many parts of our community, and has made those issues a mainstream conversational item. The movement for progressive prosecutors has certainly benefited from this moment in history.

The emphasis on听听in recent decades has contributed to longer prison sentences. Are you trying to reset the balance in weighing the rights of defendants?

District attorneys are the people鈥檚 lawyers. We鈥檙e not the lawyer for one group over another. When we鈥檙e talking about victims, yes, we are there to represent the victim, but we鈥檙e not there to effect vengeance in the name of one victim.

So it鈥檚 really having that very deep conversation with yourself as a prosecutor and as an office, and understanding that we鈥檙e the people鈥檚 lawyers. That means the people, plural, not one single individual or one class of people. We鈥檙e impacting our entire community 鈥� including, frankly, the person who is being accused. We have a responsibility to that person as well as his or her family in the community.

That brings up something you mentioned during your swearing-in 鈥� your desire to 鈥渞einvigorate the presumption of innocence.鈥� What do you mean by that?

The single-dimensional approach to quote-unquote 鈥減rotecting the victim鈥檚 rights鈥� often ignores our obligation to due process and the constitutional concept of presumed innocence. We often have thrown that out the door as prosecutors and basically said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not our work, that鈥檚 the work of the defense.鈥� And we know that [public] defense in this country is听thoroughly underfunded, and that鈥檚 why we have so many wrongful convictions.

We need to start thinking clearly that, as the people鈥檚 lawyer, we鈥檙e supposed to be protecting everybody 鈥� not only the victim that is here with you but also future victims as well as the person that is accused and the rest of our community. We have a moral imperative to represent the entire community.

The estimated cost of mass incarceration in the US exceeds听听a year, and LA鈥檚 public protection budget is听. How might the reforms you鈥檙e pursuing reduce that spending?

The biggest problem in the criminal justice system is that most people only see the front-end costs 鈥� the budget of the DA鈥檚 office or the police department, which are high enough as they are. But what is often not seen are the downstream consequences of our work.

When the district attorney seeks to send someone to prison for five or 10 or 20 years, there are financial and resource costs for every year of that sentence. If you can fix the problem in five years but you send someone to prison for 15 or 20, what you鈥檙e doing is extending the financial impact. In a county like LA, you鈥檙e dealing with thousands and thousands of people 鈥� we have over 100,000 cases every year 鈥� and when you start sending thousands of people to prison, you are actually writing billion-dollar checks for future generations to pay.

What鈥檚 the purpose of the case review you ordered beyond the possible effect on individual inmates?

One of the problems we鈥檝e seen is the lack of legitimacy of the criminal justice system in many parts of our communities, for many good reasons: the excesses of policing, especially in African American communities and other communities of color; the impact of over-incarceration in some parts of our population that clearly has racial overtones.

So for us to take a step back and say, 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to see whether we got it right, and if we didn鈥檛, we鈥檙e going to admit it鈥� 鈥� it starts to bring a new level of credibility in communities that, quite frankly, believe that we鈥檙e not there for them. It also offers an opportunity for us as prosecutors and as a criminal justice system to open up to our communities and say, 鈥淲e鈥檙e willing to rethink what we did before.鈥� And whether we may have been right or perhaps in some cases wrong 鈥� either way, we鈥檙e willing to reconsider and reevaluate. When you do that, you raise the integrity of the system overall.