'Every single person in that office has to understand the culture shift': How Jason Williams plans

‘Every single person in that office has to understand the culture shift’: How Jason Williams plans to remake prosecution in New Orleans


Jason Williams has presented himself with a difficult task. As the Orleans Parish District Attorney-elect put it in his victory speech, his election on Saturday marked the beginning of what he described as his fight to undo “300 years of backward thinking.”

More specifically: Williams has vowed to transform a “win at all costs” culture that he says has pervaded the DAs office for decades and nurtured aggressive and unethical prosecutions — leading to wrongful convictions, excessive sentences, community distrust, and to New Orleans having, historically, one of the highest incarceration rates in the country.

“The only benefit from the win at all cost culture was literally just notches on the belt, from prosecutors and prosecutors’ offices,” Williams said in an interview on Thursday. “No public safety benefits. No rehabilitation for offenders.”

Williams ran on a host of policy reforms — including reforming the money bail system, ending the use of the state’s habitual-offender bill, and no longer trying juveniles as adults.

Read more: https://thelensnola.org/2020/12/11/every-single-person-in-that-office-has-to-understand-the-culture-shift-how-jason-williams-plans-to-remake-prosecution-in-new-orleans/