KEVIN HAYDEN<\/strong> <\/span>says the heightened attention in recent years to racial bias in the criminal justice system or ways that the most punitive outcome in a case isn\u2019t always the best outcome are a welcome trend, but are nothing new for him. The newly appointed Suffolk County district attorney said he has always viewed the job of a prosecutor\u2019s office as being to guard public safety while also dispensing justice in a way that looks to heal communities and doesn\u2019t perpetuate racist structures that may have contributed to disparate treatment of those who enter the criminal legal system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden spent more than a decade in the Suffolk DA\u2019s office, from 1997 to 2008, where his responsibilities included directing the Safe Neighborhood Initiative, which brought community members and law enforcement together to devise strategies to combat gang violence and other community problems. If anything, he said, what\u2019s happened is viewpoints that he has long embraced have become more widely accepted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if I see it too much differently than I did before,\u201d Hayden said of the role of the DA\u2019s office. \u201cI was involved in so many of the things that have become more of a focal point now for a more holistic and broader view of what prosecution should be. And so for me, personally, it really hasn\u2019t changed much. I would say that what has changed in that respect, though, is just a broader view and a broader consensus around ways that I already felt for so long.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden, who also spent time in private legal practice, referred to his return to the DA\u2019s office as a \u201ccoming home in so many ways\u201d \u2013 and he made it clear he aims to stay there for a while by seeking a full four-year term this fall.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t <\/p>\n \t\t Hayden, who most recently served as chair of the state Sex Offender Registry Board, was appointed to the DA\u2019s post earlier this month by Gov. Charlie Baker following the departure of Rachael Rollins, who resigned to become US attorney for Massachusetts. The 53-year-old Roslindale resident\u00a0 may claim no big change in his view of criminal justice issues, but he takes the reins at a time of great focus on the DA\u2019s role and he follows someone who made waves with her reform pronouncements and firmly placed herself among the vanguard of new progressive-minded prosecutors across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden doesn\u2019t embrace the progressive label when asked whether he considers himself part of that movement among prosecutors. \u201cI feel I\u2019m going to be part of doing what\u2019s right,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think that a lot of the notions that people are now characterizing as progressive are just the right things to do \u2013 whether it\u2019s reducing our carceral footprint, whether it\u2019s equity in our legal system, whether it\u2019s not criminalizing homelessness, poverty, those sorts of things. Those are the right things to do. I don\u2019t think those belong to any party.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden conceded that \u201cdoing the right thing\u201d can mean different things to different people, and it seems clear that he\u2019s trying to find some middle ground.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think too far left and too far right are a dangerous place to be,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden disagrees with calls, for example, to do away with the Boston Police Department\u2019s gang database, which has been criticized for sweeping up too many young people through its system for designating gang affiliation. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ordered the federal Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider the deportation order issued against a Salvadoran national living in East Boston who was included in the police gang database.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think the gang database needs to exist, and I think it needs to be used properly,\u201d Hayden said. \u201cAnd that, I think, is going to take a lot of hard work and examination and self-examination to make sure that it\u2019s not used in a disparate manner and to make sure that it\u2019s being used fairly.\u201d Hayden said the Boston police have acknowledged the need for changes. He said that will probably mean \u201csome paring down\u201d of the point system used as a criteria for determining gang affiliation. \u201cThat being said, I don\u2019t think it should go away entirely. I don\u2019t think you can throw away the baby with the bath water,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it would hamper law enforcement significantly and could have a detrimental impact on overall public safety in Suffolk County.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As for Rollins\u2019s most well-known policy \u2013 her declaration that the office\u2019s default position would be not to prosecute a list of 15 lower-level offenses \u2013 Hayden isn\u2019t committing to maintaining it, but he said he fully endorses \u201cthe overall notion behind it \u2013 the idea that our carceral footprint needs to be reduced, the notion that lower level crimes and criminalizing things like poverty, criminalizing things like race, criminalizing things like homelessness or drug addiction shouldn\u2019t happen or at least not happen without some very careful introspection as to what you\u2019re doing with that case.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A <\/span>study released last year<\/span><\/a> found that those not prosecuted under Rollins\u2019s policy were more than 50 percent less likely to face a new criminal complaint over the following two years than those who faced prosecution for similar charges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t <\/p>\n \t\t For all the attention it received, Rollins\u2019s policy was less a sea change than a ratcheting up of an approach already taken by the Suffolk DA\u2019s office. Hayden points out that many of the crimes on Rollins\u2019s list had been diverted from prosecution under her predecessor, Dan Conley. Notwithstanding the results of the recent prosecution study, one change Hayden said he wants to see is for the DA\u2019s office to step up its accountability for those who aren\u2019t prosecuted for lower-level offenses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you \u2018revolving door\u2019 a shoplifter six times through the system in a year [and don\u2019t prosecute the case] every time without addressing the actual underlying issue as to why that\u2019s happening, then you haven\u2019t helped anybody, you haven\u2019t helped the community that he\u2019s shoplifting from you haven\u2019t helped him or her,\u201d Hayden said.<\/span><\/p>\n Rollins often brought a no-holds-barred approach to issues, lashing out publicly at one point at Baker and his public safety secretary and berating a television news crew that appeared outside her home. Asked how he\u2019ll come off to the public after a DA who made quite a splash, the more buttoned-down Hayden said, \u201cI hope I\u2019ll make equal splashes. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll do it in the same way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a man of deep faith,\u201d Hayden said when asked to describe himself. \u201cMy faith and my spiritual walk is vitally important to me. It\u2019s not something I do just when I go to church on Sunday,\u201d said Hayden, who worships at Jubilee Christian Church in Mattapan. \u201cIt informs a lot of who I am. It informs how I view the world. I believe people can change. I believe that they don\u2019t necessarily have to be thrown under the jail and buried there. That same spiritual walk that I\u2019m on also has accountability in it and has responsibility \u2013 social responsibility, community responsibility \u2013 all incorporated into it, and that\u2019s a huge part of what guides me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden said he plans to prioritize the office\u2019s handling of gun prosecutions, but he said even for these cases, he won\u2019t take a one-size-fits-all approach that seeks to charge every case under the state\u2019s stringent gun possession statute, which involves a mandatory-minimum sentence for those convicted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Boston has had far lower homicide and gun violence rates than most US cities, something Hayden said he\u2019s determined to maintain \u2013 and try to improve on. Boston <\/span>had just 40 homicides last year<\/span><\/a>, while Baltimore, with nearly 100,000 fewer residents, had nearly 10 times as many with 337 murders. Hayden said the city\u2019s enviable track record is the product of work over many years that recognized the vital role of partnerships between law enforcement and the community. \u201cBoston, Suffolk County has been engaged in this thing we call community prosecution and policing for a long, long time, and working really hard at it and recognizing that there needs to be a heavy dose of intervention and prevention before you get to enforcement,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Later on Monday, Hayden\u2019s office announced the formation of an 18-member community advisory committee. The panel, co-chaired by Rev. Ray Hammond, a founder of the clergy-led Ten Point Coalition that took on gang violence starting in the 1990s, and Robert Gittens, who has served in top human services roles in state government and was formerly the first assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, will evaluate and make recommendations on the full range of activities of the DA\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden, a Democrat who grew up in Newton and now lives in Roslindale, has not formally announced that he plans to run for the DA\u2019s post this fall when the current term expires, but it was clear in the interview that he will be looking to win a full, four-year term.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAn announcement will be coming soon,\u201d he said, before adding that \u201ctaking a job for nine months is not where my focus was when I took the appointment.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n No other candidates have announced a run for the office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hayden\u2019s excitement at the challenge of his new position has been tempered by the death of his father on January 23. <\/span>Robert Hayden<\/span><\/a>, who was 84 when he died on Martha\u2019s Vineyard where he had lived for many years, was the author of several books of Black history, including <\/span>African-Americans in Boston: More than 350 Years<\/span><\/i>. He worked in various roles in education, including as executive director of the METCO program in the early 1970s. In the 1980s he served for several years as president of the Boston NAACP.<\/span><\/p>\n Meet the Author<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/189zzz1i6zsp27269c1jgegd-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/author-cutout-michael-jonas-600.png\"\/)