Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey faces her first set of challengers as an incumbent this March.
After first entering office in 2012, Lacey went unopposed in 2016. This time, she faces two challengers with similar critiques of Lacey’s performance as DA of the largest local prosecutor’s office in the country.
Former public defender Rachel Rossi argues that Lacey’s office has consistently relied on incarceration, while underutilizing mental health diversion opportunities, when dealing with cases that come through her office.
Rossi sees herself as an extension of a national trend of more public defenders challenging district attorneys in an effort to counter mass incarceration through a greater focus on alternatives to incarceration.
In an unusual situation in which a former district attorney from one jurisdiction is challenging another is former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who previously served as assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Gascón, like Rossi, argues that Lacey has too often stood in the way of reforms that could not only serve the interests of justice, but do so without overly relying on incarceration as the means of achieving justice. “Incarceration is just when it is just and reduces crime,” argues Gascón, who co-authored Proposition 47.
It is notable that Lacey has opposed reforms backed by majorities of Los Angeles County voters, including Prop. 47, but also Proposition 57, and measures legalizing marijuana and ending the death penalty.
Lacey explains this discrepancy between her stances and those of L.A. voters by arguing that while she does support some reforms, she often finds proposals like Prop. 47 too full of problems to support.
It must be said, though, that looking at the state of crime and justice in L.A. County, that the status quo isn’t working. Can anyone say that L.A. County has a justice system worth replicating elsewhere?
Gascón has vowed to prioritize and use data to focus on violent and repeat offenders, while pursuing alternatives to incarceration when it makes sense to do so. With L.A. County’s justice system full of people with mental health and substance-abuse problems, it’s time to try something new.
We endorse Gascón.
