Los Angeles County is in the midst of an incarceration crisis that is putting lives at risk, tearing apart families, shattering neighborhoods, exacerbating racism and racial injustice, and costing the state billions, with absolutely no evidence of improved public safety. No single person has as much power to bring this crisis to an end as the District Attorney.
Read and Download our FULL PLATFORM HERE, or read our Top 7 Demands for LA’s DA below…
DA Accountability Coalition’s Top 7 Demands for L.A.’s District Attorney:
1) Pledge to pursue racial justice.
The incarceration rate for Black people in LA County is 13 times more than that for white people. Over 80% of people in LA County jails are Black and brown, despite making up only 56% of the county’s population. Since 2012, every single person formally sentenced to death has been a person of color.
LA’s District Attorney should:
(1) acknowledge racial disparities;
(2) evaluate and address — with community input — how to eliminate them; and
(3) commit to blind charging, which prevents prosecutors from seeing demographic information before deciding whether to charge someone with a crime.
2) Pledge to decarcerate.
LA County has the biggest jail system in the world and is one of the most troubled in the U.S., with a long-entrenched culture of savage deputy violence. Too many of those incarcerated have underlying struggles that cannot possibly be addressed behind bars.
LA’s District Attorney should:
(1) commit to reducing incarceration by 25% by the end of their first term;
(2) strongly advocate for alternatives to incarceration;
(3) refuse money that could be used for community-based services; and
(4) break away from prosecutor lobbies to support reform and transformational measures.
3) Pledge to increase pretrial justice.
Traditionally, about half of those imprisoned in LA County jails haven’t been convicted of a crime; they simply can’t pay shockingly high bail amounts. It takes one day in jail to unravel a person’s life, and LA County traps people for days, weeks, and sometimes months before trials.
LA’s District Attorney should:
(1) stop seeking money bail;
(2) recommend release with the fewest restrictions possible; and
(3) advocate for needs-based assessments.
4) Pledge to treat kids like kids.
DAs assert massive influence on how young people are treated in the criminal legal system. Overwhelming research reveals that people’s brains continue developing until around the age of 25, and that children and young adults should receive opportunities for support, emotional well-being, and redemption instead of punishment.
LA’s District Attorney should:
(1) advocate for non-criminal diversion programming;
(2) never seek life without parole or strikes against kids; and
(3) publicly advocate for ending police and police searches in schools.
5. Pledge radical transparency in policies and data and continued and meaningful community input and oversight.
Too little information is made public about how a DA’s office operates. Oversight and input, along with fully transparent policies, practices,
and outcomes enable the public to understand the DA’s role and performance and allow voters to hold their DAs accountable.
LA’s District Attorney should:
(1) gather and publish statistics, policies, protocols, and Memoranda of Understanding;
(2) advocate for the creation of an independent oversight body and advisory board; and
(3) strengthen conviction review and integrity measures.
6) Pledge to prosecute law enforcement misconduct, brutality, and killings.
Too many officers disobey the law and hurt or kill people with impunity. Period.
LA’s District Attorney should:
(1) support an independent investigatory team outside of the DAs office to address law enforcement prosecutions;
(2) release all footage within 30 days of an incident;
(3) create a “Do Not Call” list for officers with a history of misconduct, dishonesty, racism or bias; and
(4) create a committee that is responsive to families who have encountered police misconduct and killings.
7. Pledge to protect immigrants and others from collateral consequences of convictions.
LA County is home to a large and diverse immigrant population. In recent years, undocumented communities have come under increasing attack because of vicious immigration laws that allow for deportation because of minor issues like drug possession. Too many people, especially immigrants, pass through the DAs office without understanding the collateral consequences of decisions impacting them.
LA’s District Attorney should:
(1) implement policies requiring attorneys to write a memo to their supervisors that relays adverse immigration and collateral consequences when making policy and negotiation decisions in charging, pre-plea, plea, and post-conviction contexts, and to proceed in ways that minimize or remove those immigration and collateral consequences;
(2) support prohibition of local cooperation with ICE, Border Patrol, or HSI;
(3) support post-conviction litigation from people who pled guilty without being advised of immigration or collateral consequences; and
(4) proactively engage with immigrant communities by holding regular community meetings to hear their evolving concerns and needs.