Pamela Price Speaks Out as Alameda County DA’s Office Enters a New Era

As Alameda County’s new district attorney begins to reshape the office in her first days on the job, former lead prosecutor Pamela Price sat down with KQED to discuss the obstacles she faced during last year’s recall election and the concerns she has for the county’s future.

Price was recalled less than two years into her term, facing criticism for what some residents said was her office’s ineffectual response to rising crime rates in cities such as Oakland. As a progressive prosecutor, she was vocal about pursuing alternatives to mass incarceration and reforming the county’s justice system.

While many residents are hopeful that District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson, a former judge, will do more than her predecessor to improve public safety, there are some who are concerned that the criminal justice reform movement will be set back, especially as Jones Dickson begins reversing some of Price’s directives.

“The public will have to wait and see how it works out,” Price told KQED. “We have to wait and see what the new district attorney is able to accomplish, but she certainly will have the foundation of all the things that we were able to do over the last two years.”

One of the policies Price implemented was a charging directive that requires prosecutors to get supervisory approval before pursuing sentence enhancements, especially for juveniles. The policy was meant to improve accountability and transparency on the part of prosecutors, Price said.

Jones Dickson rescinded that and several other Price directives on Wednesday, including one that established stricter guidelines for prosecutors seeking to charge minors in adult court. It was one of Jones Dickson’s first official acts after being sworn in last week.

Price argued that her policies allowed supervisors to check the validity of a particular charge or sentence request, making it less likely to be thrown out due to accusations of discrimination in a challenge under the California Racial Justice Act.

“If a conviction is tainted by racial bias, it has to be overturned,” Price said. Jones Dickson “doesn’t have to take my policy, but you need to have a policy. Otherwise, public safety is definitely at risk because people can be let go.”

Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods called the policy reversal troubling, saying that it could allow a prosecutor with minimal experience to charge young people as adults without any oversight, potentially resulting in more Black and Brown children entering the adult system.

Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of the nonprofit Prosecutors Alliance Action, said she hopes that Jones Dickson will consider other measures to ensure that prosecutors are judicious with sentence enhancements. Data shows that harsher sentences do little to reduce crime rates, DeBerry said, adding that the office needs to be innovative if it wants to effectively address public safety.

Putting more people in jail for longer periods of time is not the answer, she continued.

Although Jones Dickson said during her campaign that she is not opposed to finding alternatives to incarceration and to pushing for reform efforts, those initiatives will not be her primary concern as district attorney. She has repeatedly emphasized that her first commitment is to support victims of crime.

There are effective ways to do both, Price countered, pushing back on the idea that her office didn’t do enough for victims.

The number of victims’ advocates in the district attorney’s office increased by 35% during her tenure, Price said. Her office also made significant headway in addressing a backlog of victim compensation applications that existed prior to her election and in reorganizing support systems for victims and witnesses, she said.

“My office certainly did a great deal of work and created tremendous advances for victims in this county,” Price said. She added that she had plans to do more before her term was cut short by the recall election.

Every district attorney needs time to adjust to the role and to figure out what problems there are in the office, Price said, calling the public outcry that she faced so soon after starting her term a disservice to her administration and to the county. When it comes to addressing a backlog of cases and figuring out how to best work with prosecutors and other agents in the system, it takes time to find the proper footing, she said.

Price plans to discuss the issues facing Alameda County — including those that will need to be addressed by the new district attorney — on a new podcast she is launching Tuesday titled “Pamela Price Unfiltered.”

She said she is unsure of what Alameda County’s future looks like. But whether or not it swings in a more conservative direction on crime and public safety, Price noted that Jones Dickson will need to figure out how to reconcile her approach to justice with what’s demanded of her by different groups — including the law enforcement unions that recommended her for the job.

KQED’s Alex Hall contributed to this report.