In Baltimore City, the office of state's attorney
is particularly important.
This year three candidates are running for
the top prosecutor job, and the Real News
will be sitting down with all of them to talk
about solutions to mass incarceration and
violent crime.
This is the second in a three-part interview
with incumbent Marilyn Mosby.
In the first part of our interview we traced
her first term, through the tumultuous period
leading from the death of Freddie Gray and
the trials of the six officers charged in
his death up to the recent federal police
corruption trial of the Gun Trace Task Force.
In the second segment of our conversation,
Mosby lays out some of her visions for a second
term.
So with me today for the Real News is the
State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
Thanks a lot for coming.
Thank you for having me.
So the last time, we're in the middle now,
it just kicked off really, the middle of the
state's attorney's race.
And the last time that you ran you were running
as the insurgent, as the challenger against
Greg Bernstein.
And now you are running on a record that you
have had in this job.
How is it different this time, how does the
campaign feel?
I feel really good about, you know, the difference
between then and now is that I'm running on
my record.
So you know, everybody knows that I'm fully
vested in the city of Baltimore.
I always say I don't have to turn on the news,
I don't have to open up the newspaper to see
the violence plaguing our community.
I live in the heart of West Baltimore raising
my two little girls.
All I have to do is open up the door.
Understanding and recognizing that my number
one priority is always going to be and has
been public safety.
We prosecute between 45000-50000 cases a year
in Baltimore City.
We have a 93 percent felony conviction rate.
My homicide prosecutors, which are tout as
being the best, the brightest, the most talented
prosecutors in the country, you know, even
despite the 20 percent increase in the number
of homicides that we deal with on a day to
day basis have an almost 80 percent conviction
rate.
So you look at that traditional sort of role
of a prosecutor, being reactive.
We have done our job.
But I think for far too long people in this
position have not taken a holistic approach
to prosecution.
We live in one of the richest states in the
entire country.
However, Baltimore's population, 24 percent
live in poverty and 35 percent of our babies
live below poverty.
We have to address those systemic issues as
to why crimes take place.
And so I've taken not just a reactive approach
in prosecution but a more holistic and proactive
approach.
So I'm ensuring that we're getting to young
people before they get to the criminal justice
system, giving individuals a second chance
at triumph who deserve it.
And you've talked about how mass incarceration
doesn't really make us safer as a city, and
yet it's still something that is a major part
of your job.
How do you how do you reconcile the two parts,
the outreach part and then the-.
So I think I draw a very clear distinction,
and that's with, you know, adults or juveniles.
If you hurt somebody, if you kill somebody,
if you maim, somebody if you are taking someone's
life you have to be held accountable.
And we're going to do just that.
You know, when you get a felony conviction,
you make a short sighted decision and you're
thinking about instant gratification, you're
not thinking long term, which most young people
do.
They get a felony conviction and then what
happens?
They can no longer apply for a job, they can
no longer apply for housing, they can't go
back to school because they can't get any
financial aid.
And then what other recourse they have but
to go out doing what they were doing in the
first place?
That in and of itself presents a public safety
concern, and one in which I should be concerned
with.
That's the reason why we started Aim to B'more,
for first-time nonviolent felony drug offenders.
They go through a probationary period where
they learn life skills, and job training skills.
They do community service.
And at the end of that probationary period
they 're given a job and their felony record's
wiped clean.
We implemented that in the height of the unrest.
I've had some young people who have gone through
that program who have gone from being homeless
and facing 20 years incarceration to now being
enrolled in community college and having a
career, a construction job.
You know, I think we're making a difference,
and we have to be able to address those systemic
issues if we really want to see long-term
sustainable change in our city.
It's been a very high profile and a very difficult
period of time in the city of Baltimore, especially
in your position.
So what are you, why do you want the job again
of instead of going and taking a nice high-paying
lawyer job somewhere?
And what do you want to do for the city the
next time around?
I'm fully vested.
You know, this is my heart.
This is my passion in reforming the criminal
justice system.
And I think that when you look at what we're
currently faced with, we have a federal administration
that is touting regression as making America
great again, you know, these local positions
are where the progressive change is going
to take place.
And we have so much more systemic sort of
change.
We have to build that bridge between the community
and the criminal justice system that serves
that community.
So you know, whether it's additional partnerships,
public-private partnerships.
I think that that's incredibly important.
When we look at the stakeholders within the
criminal justice system we traditionally only
look to the police, the mayor, the State's
Attorney's Office, and the judges.
And the community, of course.
But there are so many other components to
that, right.
The business community has a role in changing,
you know, what's happening in our community.
Last year we had an increase in youth violence.
I charged more juveniles with attempted murder,
twice as many juveniles with attempted murder
and murder than almost the past two years
combined.
And you know, we have to ensure that we're
getting to our young people, and it's not
just going to be the police, the State's Attorney's
Office.
It's also the business community.
It's the faith community.
Everybody has a stake in it.
So I'm looking forward to developing additional
public-private partnerships.
That was exhibited through the popup events
that we had where we looked at the crime trends
between the hours of 6 and 9 on Friday nights.
Every Friday night we had a popup event, and
it was something productive for our young
people to do.
Whether it was laser tag or bowling or skating
or experiences that they wouldn't otherwise
have.
We touched more than 2437 children.
We had more than 31 public-private partnerships.
We just introduced about two weeks ago Project
17, which is going to focus on the 21217 area
code where the uprising took place, which
also happens to be my area code, where we're
targeting truant, chronically truant young
people, 11th and 12th graders who essentially
aren't going to school.
But you know, who we want to get back on the
right direction.
Connect them to small businesses so that they
have mentorship opportunities and understand
the importance of entrepreneurship.
We have so much more work to do when it comes
to victim witness services.
This is the home of witness intimidation,
where the Stop Snitching mentality began.
We were thankfully able to get a 2.4 million
dollar federal grant, the largest grant we've
ever gotten for victim witness services, and
doubled the size of the victim witness unit.
But we have so much more to do, right.
We've relocated more than 125 families last
year, most of which were in homicide cases.
The year before that we relocated 131 families.
You know, I've gone down to Annapolis, I've
spoken to the mayor, to the governor.
You know, Senator Zirkin is introducing into
his crime bill more than five hundred thousand
dollars in relocation funds so that we can
better protect those that we serve.
We cannot do this job without the community,
and that's something that I'm going to continue
to fight for and fight with.
The average Baltimorean who listens to that
and says, well, but there were still 344 murders.
I still don't feel safe when I walk out my
door, and I'm scared of both police and of,
of criminals, how do you, how do you address
those concerns that someone may come to you
with, or how will you address it in the coming,
in your next term?
So what I'm going to do is to continue the
community engagement of it.
That portion of my office through crime control
and prevention.
The community engagement.
We have community days in court where we open
up the doors of the courthouse to the community.
We talk about the intricacies of the criminal
justice system and the importance of communities
partaking not just when they get on a jury
but understanding how the system works before
they're on a jury.
You know, we're going to continue to issue
the annual reports that summarized the activities
of the State's Attorney's Office.
We're going to continue to try to push out
the Court Watch program that allows them to
from their smartphone follow cases within
their community that are pertinent to them
in their neighborhoods.
We're going to continue to ensure that when
it comes to police-involved deaths in shootings,
you know, that level of transparency is the
root of criminal justice reform, and we're
going to be as transparent as possible.
We are the only States Attorney's Office that
publishes our rationale for declining to criminally
charge police officers in police-involved
deaths in shootings.
We are the only States Attorney's Office that
has a conviction integrity division where
we are exonerating people who were wrongly
accused and convicted of crimes.
You know, and so we have so much more work
to do.
But we have to be able to repair that trust.
