Colin Flaherty: That's What You Voted For. That's What You Got - Criminal Justice Reform

That's What You Voted For. That's What You Got - Criminal Justice Reform Black Crime Murder - Colin Flaherty (Author of don't Make the Black Kids Angry) Commentary News Video "Down the ballot, liberal reformers take over the criminal justice system A victory in Boston caps off a breakthrough year for criminal justice reformers" black crime criminality armed robbery attack assault ak-47

The 47-year-old lawyer, who ran on ending “mass incarceration” and cutting off relations between Boston and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, won the Democratic primary for district attorney of Suffolk County in a rout, leading her closest rival by 16 points. If Rollins defeats her independent opponent in a general election that has no GOP candidate, the county's nearly 800,000 residents will have a chief prosecutor intent on remaking the criminal justice system. No more cash bail. No more civil asset forfeiture. No more racial disparity in who does and doesn't go to jail.

"I believe there are certain things we're just going to reject,” Rollins said in an interview before the primary. “I think there are certain charges that I don't want to prosecute any longer. Those are overwhelmingly the charges that fall on the mentally ill and those with substance abuse disorder."

Rollins, who spent just $230,000 on her campaign, is the latest in a string of reform-minded candidates who will be district attorneys in deep-blue cities — places that, for years, elected Democrats who ran on “law and order” platforms. The effort to elect them, which began before the 2016 election but has accelerated, has succeeded in Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis and failed in some other blue cities. But it's created a blueprint for electing reformist prosecutors and for shaping their agendas.

The first victory in the campaign came in early 2016, when George Soros plunked $300,000 into a PAC created to elect Kim Foxx as the state's attorney of Cook County, Ill. Foxx won the Democratic primary, tantamount to election in the deep-blue county, proving that the investments in races that sometimes attracted little money or attention could work.

In 2017, a larger coalition came together behind Larry Krasner, a defense attorney running in Philadelphia after suing the city's police force 75 times. He won the Democratic primary, then the general election, despite being opposed by the city's police union and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"When you talk to progressive voters, terms like 'mass incarceration' and 'the school-to-prison pipeline' — those are terms we all understand,” said Noah Phillips, the attorney who lost in Sacramento. “They need to resonate with moderate voters, too. They will once we do the work and they understand."

"Soros has come and leveled the playing field, and so has Real Justice,” Price said. “You don’t think it’s fair, huh? You thought it was going to be great, to have an unfair advantage?"

But at the doors, it was clear that some voters who considered themselves liberal Democrats were unready to back a reformist district attorney. Price spent close to 20 minutes with one voter who had complained to the city about a nearby house that was being squatted in by drug dealers; Price could not quite convince her that focusing on treatment instead of incarceration would keep her neighborhood safe.

"We are one of the most progressive counties in the country, and we have one of the most regressive justice systems,” Price said. “Soros isn’t the real story. The real story is the police money that came in from across the state to stop us. The real story is who owns our criminal justice system. Mr. Soros doesn’t own the system, they do."

By the end of summer, the movement seemed to regain its footing. In Missouri's August primary, Ferguson City Councilman Wesley Bell ousted St. Louis County's longtime prosecutor in a race colored by the aftermath of Michael Brown's killing by a police officer. And in the run-up to Sept. 4, the campaign for Rollins in Boston seemed to be coming together. She had a five-way primary, a compelling story and eventually the endorsement of the Boston Globe.

By David Weigel David Weigel September 5