Criminal justice reform is on the ballot in communities across the country—but not in a yes/no “do you want to reduce mass incarceration” form. Instead, sheriff and district attorney races carry the possibility of change for the better—or of officeholders who will double down on racial disparities and prosecuting minor drug offenses, cooperate with ICE, and encourage fear over reform.
The Appeal’s Daniel Nichanian has an invaluable guide to 30 top sheriff and district attorney races to pay attention to, and if you live in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, or Texas, you should pay attention, because you may have a chance to vote in one of these races.
In Arizona’s Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio isn’t on the ballot for a change—but one of his former deputies is, seeking to oust first-term Democratic Sheriff Paul Penzone and reinstate many of Arpaio’s most abusive policies. That’s not the county’s only race that could determine how just criminal justice will be, though: Julie Gunnigle, the Democrat running for county attorney, has “staked a goal of cutting incarceration by 25 percent, for instance by declining to prosecute a slate of lower-level offenses and not using certain charging practices that trigger higher sentences.”
Moving to California, Los Angeles County has the largest local prosecutor's office in the country, as well as the largest jail system, so the stakes are high for the race between incumbent District Attorney Jackie Lacey and progressive challenger George Gascón, who wants to change the fact that “LA County has come to a place where they use the most expensive and the most intrusive tools of the criminal justice system to deal with every behavior, and that is prosecution and incarceration.”
In Florida, sheriff’s races in Pinellas County and Brevard County and state attorney races in the 9th District and 13th District give voters choices between, for instance, a candidate who would reduce ICE contracts and one who made sure Black Lives Matter protesters were denied bail; between candidates who stoke fear and candidates who push for reform.
If you live in any of these states, check out the full list to see if you can vote for reform, for racial justice, against mass incarceration.