1/6 If we want to truly reform our criminal legal system (including policing) we have to realize that the key to reform is not just adopting progressive policies or instituting better training, but more importantly placing long term institutional constraints on the system itself 2/6 For example, in the context of prosecution, the reason eliminating cash bail is good is because by eliminating our ability to jail people just because they can’t pay their way out, it places an institutional restraint on the system.

1/16 The Attorney General for Virginia came to Arlington today to announce a new right-wing PAC designed to stop criminal justice reform. I hope he had a good visit and I wish him a safe journey home. But let's be clear this was political theater and not public safety. 2/16 Through the campaign & since his election, the AG targeted, often by name, Commonwealth’s Attorneys in NOVA, whose counties actually are the safest & have the lowest crime rates of any large jurisdictions in Virginia and country. This is particularly true of my jurisdiction.

1/4 I particularly relate to a powerful moment during Judge Jackson’s hearing when, after being wrongly criticized over and over again by Senators Cruz, Cotton and Hawley for her sentences in child pornography cases, she laid out what it means to deal with these cases 2/4 She explained to these men how, as a mother, not only does she have to read graphic descriptions of these materials but she has to look at the photographs and watch the tapes in order to pass sentence and how she has to live with these images every day.

1/x Tomorrow we vote. I’m using this thread to put down some final thoughts about why I ran. I’m not sure how long it will be and these thoughts will not be in order. Reason #1: parents and families I met whose loved ones have developmental or emotional disabilities 2/x Parents with children with developmental or emotional disabilities taught me that they want for their children “a life like yours”, a safe home, a meaningful job, valued relationships, and a criminal justice system that protects and treats them fairly.

1/2 Being at Arlington's 50th annual tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King led me to think about how the phrase most applied to him is "civil rights leader." He was certainly that but an equally apt phrase is "American founder," no less than, say, Jefferson. By that I mean this: 2/x In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King described his vision of the intersection between the struggle for Black liberation and equality and the founding creed of the United States as follows:

@neandermudgeon 1/x I’m glad you raise this point but unfortunately it’s not quite accurate for a number of reasons. The choice prosecutors face daily is not to apply the law or to ignore it, but rather how to exercise the enormous discretion the law gives them. Here’s one quick example: @neandermudgeon 2/x Most prosecutors have a policy of stacking charges, pursuant to which they bring multiple charges for a single crime so as to maximize the potential sentence the defendant will face. In negotiating the inevitable plea the prosecutor will offer to drop some of the charges.

1/x Why is a lifelong public defender and innocence protection attorney with over 18-year record of defending the indigent and speaking for the innocent running for Commonwealth Attorney (the chief prosecutor) for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, Virginia? 2/x My name is Parisa and the reason is simple: The American criminal justice system is now a mass incarceration machine set on auto-pilot. As a public defender, I know all too well how this machine dismantles communities, destroys families, uses bad science, and wastes money