Alameda Co. DA Pamela Price holds community forum discussing accomplishments, challenges recall
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price held another in a series of public forums Saturday night in Oakland.
"The position that you all have elected me to fulfill is about accountably," she told the crowd.
Part of the panel discussion was to explain what exactly a District Attorney does.
"As the district attorney, I believe that I am the guardian of public safety," says Price, who is facing a strong recall campaign. "I am not the police. I work on things after the police do their job."
She listed off some of her accomplishments since taking the office in January. Those include hiring more crime investigators, expanding victims services, and creating reentry and resentencing commissions.
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Joining her were those who were formerly incarcerated, including Lawrence Cox. He who spoke of how rehabilitation and reentry programs leads to stronger public safety.
"The police over police our neighborhoods. The D.A.s over prosecute us. They give us excessive sentence and then they just send us away," Cox told the crowd.
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"Whether it's education. Whether it is looking for housing. Whether it's looking for work. I think it is imperative that we have reentry programs not just through nonprofits, but the same agencies that sentence us and send us away," adds Cox, who is with the group All Of Us Or None, a legal advocacy group for the formerly incarcerated.
There was also praise for D.A. Price's progressive approach that factors in more context around sentencing, which they believe can reduce over-sentencing, especially for people of color.
"Creating a situation where the people that (were) once committing these crimes, have an opportunity to reform. Have direction. I don't know any other district attorney's office that does this," explains Shedrick Henry, who served decades behind bars and who now mentors others.
MORE: Alameda Co. DA Pamela Price tackles crime in Oakland at community forum
In attendance was Brenda Grisham, a co-leader of the campaign to recall D.A. Price. She says even if Price boasts of new programs that doesn't mean the programs are successful. And, she thinks DA Price needs to do more for victims.
"These children, boys, girls, mothers have lost their life. They are in a grave. So they don't get an opportunity to have a second chance at life. They don't get an opportunity to come back and get a job. They don't have an opportunity for any of that, but there is never any talk about these victims and believe that is very unfair," says Grisham.
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Price recently launched "Protect The Win" in an effort to challenge the recall. All the while, focused on what she has been elected to do.
"And that my deputies understand that they mandate is not just to get a conviction, but to do justice," she says.
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