Endorsement: Jackie Lacey’s cautious yet open-minded approach to criminal justice merits her another term as L.A. County D.A.

There is only one box for voters to mark when they get to Los Angeles County district attorney portion of their June 7 ballots. Jackie Lacey is running unopposed and will be reelected without a November runoff. With no choice to make, voters will have one less opportunity to debate some of the most important issues that have arisen over the last four years: Do police officers too easily escape prosecution for use of excessive force? Is the county doing all it can to divert drug addicts and mentally ill people accused of petty crimes from prosecution and jail and get them treatment instead? Are local officials who break the public trust being persecuted or properly being brought to justice?

The lack of choice might have been a more serious problem with an incumbent other than Lacey, who has done a pretty good job in her first term, and who received a “B� when she was evaluated as part of The Times’ report card project. She above all deserves credit for leading the county’s effort on jail diversion, an approach that is not merely more useful and humane for the accused than awaiting trial or serving time in jail untreated, but makes better use of scarce and valuable jail beds while giving neighborhoods a better chance that the patients will be less prone to criminal behavior when they come home.

The Times endorses Lacey for another four-year term.

Although there will be no candidate face-offs, the debate over the criminal justice system and the district attorney’s place in it will continue. Lacey has been skillful – or lucky – at avoiding becoming the center of the debate, but it would be to her benefit, and the county’s, if she were seen and heard from more often.

Lacey offers a very cautious yet open-minded approach to the important issues in the criminal justice system that focus on crime and the adequacy and appropriateness of punishment. As the county’s (and the nation’s) historic plunge in crime rates has slowed and now reversed, her perspective and policy decisions will become even more important. The question of whether the county incorporates into its philosophy and daily operations the kind of reforms she sparked with her diversion initiative – or whether it instead gets bogged down in bureaucracy and a hidebound culture – is in large part in her hands. She, along with Sheriff Jim McDonnell and the Board of Supervisors, must help craft a smarter, more efficient county government that not only protects people from wrongdoing but safely reincorporates the offenders into society whenever feasible.

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