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Rachael Rollins will be making history Monday when she is sworn in as US attorney for Massachusetts, the first Black woman to hold the job.<\/span><\/p>\n But she\u2019s leaving big shoes to fill in the Suffolk County district attorney\u2019s office, the position she was elected to a little over three years ago. Not only was she also the first Black woman in that office, but she also was able to make historic progress vis-\u00e0-vis criminal justice reform.<\/span><\/p>\n It is in that context that the appointment of Rollins\u2019s replacement in the DA\u2019s office should be seen. Governor Charlie Baker announced<\/a> Wednesday he selected Kevin Hayden<\/a>, who currently chairs the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board, to serve out the remainder of Rollins\u2019s term in the Suffolk DA\u2019s office.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The question on a lot of people\u2019s minds is: Will Hayden bring to the job a prosecutorial philosophy similar to Rollins\u2019s, or will he be a more traditional prosecutor? Suffolk County voters, in electing Rollins, already telegraphed their preference. It\u2019s why the new interim district attorney must carry forward the voters\u2019 mandate of progressive reform.<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s also why some in the legal community felt that Rollins should stay in the DA\u2019s office. In a Globe letter to the editor<\/a> published in October, a retired Cambridge District Court judge urged Rollins to reject the federal offer. \u201c[T]he communities of color within Suffolk County need your presence. Your mission here is not complete,\u201d Severlin B. Singleton III wrote. The retired Black judge argued Suffolk County voters elected Rollins three years ago because they wanted a fairer criminal justice system. \u201cThey were frustrated with the old way, and with years of district attorneys \u2014 mostly white males \u2014 who appealed to their base to get reelected through incarceration and more incarceration,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n Even though Singleton\u2019s plea is now moot, his larger point still stands, and echoes a similar sentiment<\/a> from others working to reform the criminal justice system in the region. That\u2019s because Rollins was largely successful in her efforts to reform the DA\u2019s office, and it would be disappointing to see that progress squandered.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that made Rachael an effective district attorney is that she really executed with fidelity the progressive vision that she articulated while on the campaign trail,\u201d said Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP. (Sullivan had reportedly been a finalist for the interim appointment<\/a>, but she declined to comment on that.) \u201cVoters truly did send her into office with a mandate for change with respect to the prosecutorial ideology of that office. And she delivered.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Little is known about Hayden\u2019s criminal justice positions. Does he subscribe to the principles of the social and racial justice movements that Rollins upholds? What are his exact views on police accountability? These are not questions about his competence, fitness, and qualifications for the job, or commitment to public service. Instead, advocates for criminal justice reform legitimately wonder if he\u2019ll try to stall, or even roll back, some of Rollins\u2019s boldest progressive policies. (Hayden wasn\u2019t available for an interview.)<\/span><\/p>\n Legal observers and advocates like Sullivan are quick to praise Rollins\u2019s record. \u201cShe focused on the prosecution of major violent crimes, she used the conviction integrity unit to get justice for those who were wrongfully convicted<\/a>, and she championed policies that looked for alternatives for incarceration,\u201d Sullivan said in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n Crucially, Rollins\u2019s work \u2014 ultimately aimed at what she said was stopping a \u201cfreight train moving toward mass incarceration of poor people and Black and brown people<\/a>\u201d \u2014 has been vindicated. Take one of her most controversial moves: her decline-to-prosecute list of 15 nonviolent, low-level crimes, like shoplifting and larceny. The intent is to abandon an overreliance on tough-on-crime tactics as a deterrent mechanism and instead focus on policies that divert defendants away from the criminal justice system and toward social service programs. She was right in believing in that approach. A recent first-of-its-kind study<\/a> that analyzed roughly 15 years of criminal complaints data in Suffolk County <\/b>showed<\/a> that defendants not prosecuted for low-level nonviolent crimes <\/b>are less likely to get arrested on a new criminal complaint.<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden, who formerly worked as an assistant district attorney, will have an enviable advantage should he decide to run for the permanent role in the Nov. 8 election. It\u2019s natural to expect he will \u201ccut his own path,\u201d as former Suffolk County district attorney Daniel Conley, who was Hayden\u2019s boss for six years during his tenure as DA, put it in comments to the press<\/a>. Conley also said he expects Hayden \u201cto pursue a more traditional prosecutor\u2019s role, one that is victim-centered and focused on serving victims and keeping neighborhoods as safe as they possibly can be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Compare that statement with Rollins\u2019s views that she not only represents the victim but also the defendant. There is a balance, and Rollins has proved that a system overly tilted toward prosecution is unnecessary and often unjust.<\/span><\/p>\n Marcela Garc\u00eda can be reached at marcela.garcia@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her on Twitter @marcela_elisa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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