Below is a transcript of KVCR's Jonathan Linden's story on the three individuals running for Riverside County District Attorney.
Jonathan Linden: The June 7 primary elections are right around the corner, with three different candidates running for the seat of Riverside County District Attorney. You'll be hearing audio from a debate between current District Attorney Mike Hestrin and one of his candidate's lawyer Lara Grassley, while fellow candidate Judge Burke Strunsky spoke separately with KVCR but was asked the same questions. When asked about one law that needs to be passed, rescinded, or changed to help the DA's office be more effective, current District Attorney Mike Hestrin said Proposition 47 is the worst thing to happen to California in the last ten years.
Mike Hestrin: Proposition 47 has been a disaster. We can talk about homelessness later. But that's when the tent cities started popping up. That's when the homeless problem really just ballooned. And there's a reason for that. Proposition 47 probably unintentionally destroyed our drug courts; it destroyed the DA's ability to force someone into treatment, which is what we used to do all the time. We used to say; you're gonna go into treatment unless you want to go to jail, and guess what they would pick, treatment; we've lost that ability. And so, we need to come up with a way and to do it compassionately for addicts and homelessness... we have to be compassionate to them, but we have to force them into their services.
Jonathan Linden: Lawyer Lara Gressley agreed with the issues of Proposition 47 and says it needs to be amended.
Lara Gressley: I agree that Proposition 47 is a problem in many respects, and I agree that it needs to be amended. But I don't agree that it ties our hands in jailing people. It made felonies misdemeanors, but misdemeanors are still jailable offenses. So, we need to tackle the jail overcrowding problem that we have so that we can say you're going to jail. It's still a misdemeanor, and most misdemeanors are facing a year in jail. So, I'm not really sure why we're just saying that we can't do anything. I do believe it needs to change because you can't have people committing these crimes over and over and over and never facing a felony. So, I think that it absolutely needs to be amended as well.
Jonathan Linden: Judge Burke Strunsky also disagrees that Proposition 47 ties the hands of elected officials and says the county's lack of enough officers for county jails is the real issue.
Burke Strunsky: Changing Proposition 47 will make zero difference in our ability to enforce these low-level crimes, whether they're misdemeanors or felonies. Either way, right now, in Riverside County, we will not be able to hold those people in custody. So, you can change them to felonies right now today, and it would make no difference in our ability to hold them responsible for the crime.
Jonathan Linden: The candidates were also asked if there's systemic racism in the Riverside County criminal justice system. Here's current District Attorney Mike Hestrin.
Mike Hestrin: There are different rates of criminality in different groups, and it has nothing to do with race. It has to do with socioeconomic issues that are very complex, but certainly, there are too many black and brown people in our jails. But the solution is not to stop prosecuting; the solution is to prevent those crimes and help folks have opportunities in society. So yes, it is a problem, but we've got to be careful what solution we choose.
Jonathan Linden: Attorney Lara Gressley, on the other hand, did say systemic racism is a problem.
Lara Gressley: We need training, we need education, we need preventative measures. One thing I would propose so that the DA's office would not be under my watch accused of racially biased charging is a blind justice policy where to whatever extent possible, the filers don't know the race. I think we need to protect the deputies who are actually filing these cases from that claim because it's not a nice thing for somebody to say about you, and the ACLU just said it about Mr. Hestrins's office. So, I think we need to take measures to prevent that from happening at all.
Jonathan Linden: Currently, the Riverside County district attorney does do blind charging, but Judge Burke Strunsky thinks the DA could be doing more. Strunsky refers to an ACLU report that showed current DA charging patterns are biased regarding race.
Burke Strunsky: You can agree or disagree with the conclusion of that report. But one thing that I think is critical is the report clearly shows, and I think this is beyond question, that the Riverside County District Attorney's office is keeping lousy statistics on the demographic information about charging decisions and disposition decisions. So right now, there really is no way to credibly determine if racial bias is going on.
Jonathan Linden: Currently, the three candidates have no further debates or forums scheduled before the election.
