Priorities
Mary’s wife and her stepfather were both police officers and she has spent her professional career seeing firsthand the devastating effects of drug and alcohol addiction on families, our criminal justice system, law enforcement professionals, and our communities.
As District Attorney, Mary will continue to:
Tackle gun crime. People have a right to own and use firearms. However, too many guns, too easily, end up in the hands of felons or domestic violence abusers. Mary will crack down on gun crime and get guns out of the hands of violent criminals.
Keep drunk drivers off the road. Mary’s office flipped the script on DWIs by ensuring that all evidence was in-hand before accused drunk drivers went to trial, ensuring that dangerous driving doesn’t go unpunished due to lack of evidence. The conviction rate for driving while intoxicated has soared, and more drunk drivers are off the road.
Put the full power of the District Attorney’s office behind reducing crimes against children, by working with CYFD and the schools to identify at-risk children and offering early intervention services and treatment to the whole family, providing wrap around victims’ advocate services to child victims, and prosecuting violent crimes against children to the fullest extent of the law.
Send violent criminals to prison. Those who commit the most heinous crimes will be sent to prison, period.
Targeted prosecution of worst offenders. The District Attorney’s office will target the small percentage of people in our communities that commit the vast majority of crimes. Several studies have shown that 6-10% of people commit nearly 60% of the crimes in most communities. The DA’s office will not only target those people, but offer more intervention and diversion services to the 90% of people that are not major offenders in our communities.
Pursue drug and alcohol diversion and prevention programs, including increasing access to rehab programs. The state’s emphasis on incarceration for low-level offenses has simply not worked. We need to treat substance use disorders as a medical and mental health issue. If we don’t treat substance use at its root, crime driven by substance abuse will only continue.
Work with and protect our immigrant families. We will work to build the trust of immigrant communities so that people who commit crimes against them are properly held accountable, as with any victim.