D.A. candidates discuss reforms

Minus Henning, five candidates stake positions on bail, mandatory sentences

Yawu Miller

Yawu Miller is the former senior editor of the Bay State Banner. He has written for the Banner since 1988.... VIEW BIO

Five of the six candidates for the Suffolk County district attorney seat and the two running for Middlesex County DA gathered at a Greater Boston Interfaith Organization forum last week, with most signaling agreement with the group’s progressive-leaning criminal justice reform agenda.

Candidate Greg Henning, who reportedly told GBIO organizers he disagreed with the event format, declined to attend.

More than 500 turned out for the forum. Banner Photo

Henning’s absence, however, did not mean there was complete agreement among candidates on the eight issues highlighted by the interfaith coalition of congregants from churches, synagogues and mosques.

Asked whether they would prohibit prosecutors from seeking bail for offenses that do not carry the possibility of a state sentence, Suffolk candidate Linda Champion and Middlesex incumbent Marian Ryan both answered “no.”

Ryan said she would seek cash bail for charges of a second offense of possession of a firearm and driving while intoxicated with a child in a car. She noted, however, that she has effectively abolished cash bail for all minor offenses in Middlesex County.

Champion, who has staked out a right-of-center position in the race, also answered “no.”

Other candidates expressed strong support for the elimination of cash bail.

“Our prisons are debtors’ prisons,” said attorney Rachael Rollins. “People who are poor sit in jail. People who have money don’t.”

Shannon McAuliffe, a former defense attorney, said she was the only candidate who has not hit a defendant with bail.

“I always knew that the system is unfair and that bail is unfair,” she said.

Champion also differed with the other candidates on mandatory minimums for drug sentencing, with the other Suffolk county candidates stating they would direct prosecutors to not charge mandatory minimum sentences and instead leave sentencing up to judges.

“I will not agree to eliminate all mandatory minimums,” she said, although she added that cases of simple drug possession should not go to court.

Champion and McAuliffe said they would not institute a policy requiring every prosecutor to seek diversion programs instead of sentencing, when such programs exist.

The candidates in attendance did pledge to institute a policy mandating the collection and recording of race and ethnicity data for all offenders in the office’s database systems. They agreed with GBIO’s call to issue reports and hold annual meetings to make the data public.

Evandro Carvalho, Jay Gonzalez, Rachael Rollins and Marian Ryan. Banner Photo

All five Suffolk County candidates and both Middlesex County candidates agreed to institute a policy mandating racial bias training for staff in the district attorneys’ offices.

Candidate pitches

Last week’s event, held on Aug. 23, was the 17th forum in which candidates for the Suffolk County seat participated this year. The forum included independent candidate Michael Maloney, a self-described progressive who will not appear on the Sept. 4 primary ballot but will appear on the ballot for the Nov. 6 general election.

The candidates were given the opportunity to give one-minute stump speeches. McAuliffe spoke about her experience as a defense attorney for 15 years and as the head of a program working with gang-involved youths.

“I truly believe in my heart that I have to be the change I want to see in the system,” she said. “And that’s what I have done my entire career.”

Rachael Rollins pledged to make the criminal justice system fairer.

“We are going to end wealth and race disparities in the criminal justice system,” she said. “We are going to stop criminalizing mental illness, addiction and poverty, and under my leadership we are going to have a Suffolk County district attorney’s office that looks like the people that come in contact with the Suffolk County district attorney’s office every single day.”

Former state Rep. and Suffolk County prosecutor Evandro Carvalho, said he decided to enter the race because of the importance of the office.

“The district attorney has the biggest impact in communities of color in Suffolk County,” he said.

In her statement, Champion, a former prosecutor, said the office doesn’t work to alleviate the conditions that cause people to commit crime, yet didn’t present a vision for what she would do differently as a prosecutor. She did discuss her experiences growing up as the daughter of an immigrant in Boston.

“If you want to know what the face of homelessness looks like, it is me,” she said. “If you want to know what poverty looks like, it is me. I don’t have to walk a mile in the shoes of the kids in Orchard Gardens ’cause I’ve walked that mile already. If we’re going to change things, we have to focus on jobs, housing and education.”

Maloney, a defense attorney with his own firm, said he believes in second chances.

“The reason I am running is for change,” he said.

He stressed the importance of harm reduction and needle exchanges over prosecution in dealing with drug addiction.

Middlesex County

Donna Patalano, a former prosecutor, said she wants to bring transformative change to the Middlesex County district attorney’s office.

“It is time to make sure we have a justice system that treats everyone fairly,” she said. “And that’s not happening now.”

Ryan, the incumbent, said she has worked to implement many of the criminal justice reforms activists have been advocating since she was first appointed to the position by then-Gov. Deval Patrick in 2013, noting that she supported ending mandatory minimum sentences.

“I was an early and vocal supporter of the very progressive Senate criminal justice bill,” she said. “I have abolished the practice of cash bail in Middlesex County. I have stood up to the culture of fear in our courtrooms across Middlesex County being created by the policies of ICE during the Trump administration.”