Wake County District Attorney Candidate Responses 2022 04 27.xlsx

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Candidates for Wake County District Attorney (In order responses were received)

2				Damon Chetson	Lorrin Freeman
3	Q2		Q2 How concerned are you that North Carolina’s reliance on cash bail for pretrial release endangers the public because it doesn’t prevent a wealthy defendant from committing additional crimes, including witness intimidation?
4				A great deal	A lot
5				Wake County has traditionally had very high bonds. The News & Observer reported on December 2020 that Wake County was the least successful and reducing its jail population during COVID.	The General Assembly should set up a study of implementing a preventative detention system in North Carolina.
6	Q3		Q3 How concerned are you that over reliance on cash bail makes it more likely that poor, low risk defendants who are detained are more likely to commit new crimes upon release due to job loss, loss of housing and transportation or family issues?
7				A great deal	A lot
8				Wake County has implemented a risk assessment tool. But it remains to be seen whether this will actually enable low-risk poor people to get out of jail while their case works its way through the system. As your next Wake County District Attorney, I commit to using the power of the office to recommend bail amounts that enable people who are low-risk to get out of jail pre-trial. I will only ask for detention in cases where there is a real risk of danger to the community or flight from court.	I recently chaired a stakeholder group that completed an eighteen month study culminating in a policy that Wake County implement the public safety assessment tool to identify low risk defendants and aid in their release without a secured bond.
9	Q4		Q4 Would you support eliminating the detention of pretrial defendants who are not charged with a violent offense, do not pose a threat to the community and do not pose a failure to appear?
10				Definitely would	Definitely would
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12	Q5		Q5 Do you believe that North Carolina’s current cash bail practice is unfair because a disproportionate number of pretrial detainees are poor and unable to make bail or are more likely to cop a plea to a lesser offense?
13				Strongly agree	Neither agree nor disagree
14					The current system is subject to being unfair if not appropriately administered.
15	Q6		Q6 Are you concerned with the cost of litigation due to unfair cash bail practices given that the US Court of Appeals (5th circuit) found it violates indigent arrestees' rights to equal protection?
16				A great deal	A moderate amount
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18	Q7		Q7 Which of the following cash bail reforms do you support?
19		1	Consistent statewide guidelines for issuing citations or summons in lieu of warrants for arrest, (e.g. the model citation policy developed by NC Association of Chiefs of Police).	Yes	Yes
20		2	Adherence to statutory preference for non-financial conditions for pretrial defendants who are not charged with a violent offense and do not pose a threat to the community nor pose a failure to appear?	Yes	Yes
21		3	Requiring the magistrate to record reasons for imposing a bond.	Yes	Yes
22		4	Require ability to pay determinations before financial conditions are imposed on appearance bonds.	Yes	No
23		5	Requiring early involvement of counsel/public defender to be present and to have access to prior criminal history before any plea is accepted.	Yes	Yes
24		6	Expanding use of the NC court date reminder system to all jurisdictions and improving functionality	Yes	Yes
25		7	Offering pretrial services (e.g. mental health, transportation to court) with no up-front cost to defendants.	Yes	Yes
26		8	Do you support the Wake County Criminal Justice Alternatives/Pretrial Release Program?	Yes	Yes
27		9	Regular reviews of the jail population (alerting the Magistrate when necessary) to ensure that only people who need to be kept away from the community are in jail. (e.g. Jail Manager in New Hanover County and dashboards in Buncombe and Wake Counties).	Yes	Yes
28		10	Support increasing court staffing and other associated services to assure the most effective and efficient pretrial release practices.	Yes	Yes
29		11	Consistent and comprehensive collection of all jail population data documenting that only those defendants who are charged with a violent offense, pose a threat to the community, or pose a failure to appear are being housed.	Yes	Yes
30		12	Pre-charge diversion especially for youth, substance abuse, and mental health issues.	Yes	Yes
31		13	Aligning NC law with U.S. Supreme Court rulings regarding pretrial detention.	Yes	Yes
32		14	Funding the expansion of local programs for poverty and the homeless	Yes	Yes
33			Please Comment:	The statewide guidelines I favor should prioritize citations to the extent possible. In addition, I have called for the doubling of the Wake County District Attorney's office, which currently has just 43 prosecutors for a population of 1.1 million people. Charlotte-Mecklenburg has more than 80 prosecutors for a slightly smaller population. The lack of prosecutors in Wake County, which have not increased in the past 8 years, slows resolution of cases, leading to very lengthy pre-trial detention delays and delays to victims and victims' families. The high turnover rate at the Wake County DA's office (more than 20 ADAs have left since 2018, out of an office of 43) owing to the low pay and lack of good leadership in the office, similarly delays resolution of these cases. We should be willing to adequately and fairly fund our criminal justice system to ensure everyone remains safe, and justice is fair.	Over my tenure as District Attorney I have worked diligently to support these initiatives including, but not limited to, starting a pre-charge diversion program for non violent offenses by youth at schools, leading a collaborative to push for broader county funding of pre- arrest diversion resources for behavioral health issues and chairing an initiative that recommended six substantial changes to pretrial practices including ensuring counsel at first appearance and requiring that magistrates record reasons for requiring a secured bond.
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