Where Los Angeles County DA George Gascón and Nathan Hochman stand on the issues

With Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman advancing to November, this editorial board presents the responses of the two candidates to surveys sent to all DA candidates ahead of the March 5 election.

Previously, we published the views of candidates on select issues:

• Police accountability
• Proposition 57: The Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act
• Proposition 47: The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act
• The death penalty

Here, we present their views on building public confidence in the county’s justice system, their views of the progressive prosecutor movement and one campaign promise they’ll make that their opponent will not. This presentation was published earlier this year.

Full disclosure, this editorial board has endorsed Nathan Hochman.

What will you do to build public confidence in Los Angeles County’s justice system?

George Gascón: As Los Angeles District Attorney, I am working to reform the system by ending mass incarceration, holding law enforcement accountable, addressing sexual assault and harassment in our community, and prosecuting polluters. I am focused on public safety, while also reforming the overburdened and outdated prison pipeline.

I have made reforming our criminal justice system a top priority and I place community first when prosecuting crimes. Because we need a system that is about more than punishment, we need a system that holistically addresses root causes of crime and aims to make our county both fair and safe. I absolutely know we need to communicate much more effectively about the results–and myths–surrounding criminal justice reform.

Misinformation and fear compound the public’s sense of unease. We need to talk through those distractions so we can address the thoroughly valid experiences of families and communities, be they a small business owner worried about theft or a parent of a child who needs support to get their life back on track.

Nathan Hochman: The lack of public confidence in our justice system is a direct result of the failed leadership from our current DA, his pro-criminal policies, and his lack of consistency in enforcing the law. When the public sees the District Attorney boast that he has saved violent and serious criminals over 10,000 years in prison by failing to charge them to the full extent of the law and that he will not allow prosecutors to attend parole hearings with victims who confront their victimizers, the public confidence in the adversarial justice system is seriously impaired. To earn that trust back, my tenure as DA would be distinguished from the current DA starting with my background and experience.

Gascon has never personally prosecuted or defended a criminal case; I have personally prosecuted over 100 cases, from violent gang members, narcotics traffickers, and money launderers to corrupt police officers and public officials, environmental criminals, and tax and bank defrauders. I have also defended over 200 cases and understand the impact a criminal prosecution can have on a particular individual, family, and community. Thus, as both a former prosecutor and defense attorney, I will bring credibility in both worlds to the DA’s Office. I will lead by example.

Unlike Gascón, I will be the one to establish, for instance, an Organized Retail Crime Task Force rather than not even being invited to the press conference for the task force Mayor Bass set up.

On Day 1, I will address the public with the leaders of law enforcement, public agencies, and community groups at my side and explain to them why blanket, pro-criminal policies have not worked and why “hard middle” policies will. I will reverse Gascon’s blanket policies and set up or revamp or reprioritize task forces on homelessness, smash-and-grab robberies, fentanyl poisoning, and organized crime.

I will work with the county to ensure proper funding for the DA’s office and law enforcement to carry out the job or incarcerating the true threats to our public safety and offering community service or diversion programs for non-violent, non-serious criminals who qualify for them. I will be ready on Day 1 to remove politics from prosecutorial decisions and restore independence, honesty, and integrity to prevent crime, protect public safety, and ensure justice is served to all LA County residents.

My No. 1 priority as District Attorney will be restoring public safety and advocating for victims of crime and their families, which in turn will restore public confidence in the DA’s office over time. This approach will not only restore morale in the DA’s Office and encourage the best/brightest to apply for positions as prosecutors, but it will also re-establish morale with law enforcement as I will focus on law enforcement being a partner, rather than an enemy, of the DA’s Office.

What is your perception of the national “progressive prosecutor” movement? What are the lessons, both good and bad, you have learned from that movement?

George Gascón: When Los Angeles County voters granted me the honor of leading the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 2020, we set audacious goals. We wanted to start to right-size our own piece of a nationwide carceral system that was out of control, funneling people into the jail and prison system without questioning whether each decision truly promoted public safety.

For years, L.A. County had been leading the country in the number of people sent to jail, with little return, as we saw violent crime continue to increase. L.A. County also not only led in condemning people to die, but we used the death penalty disproportionately against people of color.

We sought the maximum punishment possible in the name of victims but have often heard from victims about how we failed to provide them with lasting support. And we didn’t stop to ask what policies and investments could actually prevent crime, to stop harm from occurring in the first place.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, and we have a long way to go. But in the last two years, our office supported tens of thousands of victims and helped them on their journey to becoming survivors.

We held people who caused real harm accountable, and we made sure that those with power did not evade accountability because of their privilege, as has too often happened in the past. We also increased our efforts to prevent crime and intensified our work with key partners to address behavior that is often criminalized instead of treated, like addiction and mental illness. These are hard issues to address but continuing to pretend the criminal legal system is a solution to them is simply unacceptable.

Nathan Hochman: The “progressive prosecutor” movement has as its primary objective something other than ensuring public safety and security, for example, like rectifying systemic racism by systematically releasing violent and serious offenders before they serve their full sentences and not prosecuting such criminals in the first place to the full extent of the law.

While the issues of systemic racism and disproportionate impact on low-income communities of color are very important, the primary mission of the DA’s Office is to protect the public’s and victim’s interests. The protectors of defendants’ interests fall within the scope of their defense attorneys. Having worked as a prosecutor and a defense attorney for over three decades, I fully understand the importance of each person properly filling their adversarial role in order for the system to work.

When a progressive prosecutor like George Gascon decides he will now routinely side with defense attorneys, it throws the adversarial system out of balance as no one is left to speak for victims and the public.

To the extent that the progressive prosecutor movement has identified and highlighted real problems in the criminal justice system, including for example racial bias in charging decisions, it has played a useful role. However, its solutions of blanket de-carceration policies have directly led to increased crime on all fronts as well as, with Gascon as Exhibit A, a destruction of the morale in the DA’s Office, the partnership with law enforcement, and the publics’ belief that their safety is paramount.

I would restore the primary mission to the Office from Day 1 while finding solutions to systemic racism that do not impair public safety.

Give us one campaign promise of yours that your opponents wouldn’t make.

George Gascón: Unfortunately I am the only candidate in this race who is committed to continuing to move forward, not backslide.

Nathan Hochman:  In order for the District Attorney to be truly independent, the District Attorney should not be registered to any one party but register as “no party preference” as I have. I have encouraged every candidate for this position to register as “no party preference” if they truly want to avoid any appearances of conflict of interest that they are favoring defendants, witnesses, victims, or the like because they share the same political party or disfavor them because they don’t.

For instance, when the DA’s Office decides to investigate and prosecute (or decline to do so) any local politicians, there will always be a cloud over such decisions if the District Attorneys shares (or does not share) the same political party as the target. That cloud has to be removed for the public to believe that the decision was based on the facts and the law, not a political ideology or partisan affiliation.

As part of being fiercely independent running for the nonpartisan position of District Attorney, I will not seek the endorsements of any political party.