Rock County District Attorney/Procurado de Distrito Del Conado De Rock
The district attorney is the chief law enforcer in every county in Wisconsin. The county district attorney s office investigates and prosecutes violations of state laws and county ordinances. They also litigate child protection cases in the County Circuit Court. Voters elect the district attorney to serve a four-year term in partisan elections. There is no term limit._______El Procurador (abogado) de distrito es el principal agente de la ley en todos los condados de Wisconsin. La oficina del procurador de distrito del condado investiga y procesa violaciones a las leyes estatales y ordenanzas del condado. También litiga casos de protección infantil en el Tribunal de Circuito del Condado. Los votantes eligen al procurador de distrito para cumplir un mandato de cuatro años en elecciones partidistas. No hay límite de plazos.
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Jason D. Sanders
(Dem)
Please describe your priorities for your term in office and your specific qualifications to effectively address those issues.
What is your standard for an acceptable use of discretion when determining which cases to prosecute?
What is your approach to negotiating plea bargains with the defense attorneys of the accused?
What role, if any, do you believe District Attorneys play in reducing recidivism and reducing the prison population in Wisconsin?
Do you believe any adjustments would be appropriate in the District Attorney’s charging decisions and recommendations for placement into diversion programs? Please explain your answer.
My priorities are to put our most dangerous or violent offenders in prison, and to use common-sense programming on low-risk offenders to help people turn their lives around, when possible. Having spent the last decade of my life as a criminal trial attorney -- both as a prosecutor and as a public defender -- I'm confident that I have the experience to know when we can protect the public by helping someone rehabilitate themselves, and when we can only protect the public by taking someone out of the public.
My standard for discretion is this: "Do what you think is right, consistent with ethics, the law, and these particular facts." It is a simple standard, but don't confuse "simple" with "easy," for those are distinctly different things.
This is going to sound a little repetitive, but when it comes to plea negotiations, you do what you think is right, consistent with ethics, the law, and these particular facts. Trials are costly, inconsistent things, and they often require a victim having to relive one of the worst days of their lives, in public. When you can come to an agreement that's in the range of "what you think is right," you should probably take it.
District Attorneys have some significant influence on the prison population, and on reducing recidivism. We can (and do!) utilize diversion programs, treatment courts, and other avenues to try to help people correct their own course before they end up incarcerated. Unfortunately, criminal courts are just one part of a community, and crime reduction needs more than any one District Attorney could ever influence. If we want to reduce crime, we need to invest in kids, schools, mental health services, and stable living situations.
I am proud of the many deferred prosecution programs within the Rock County District Attorney's Office, and our ongoing participation in our county's many treatment courts. We must always remain open to new ideas, but at this point, I don't see a need to adjust our approach. I see a need to keep evaluating the evidence of how people do in these programs. Future adjustments should be driven by facts.
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