It’s 2023, and just in case you thought it was an “off year” for elections, there are off-year elections! This year, Virginia is having its state and local elections. Today we are kicking off our 2023 progressive candidate profiles with Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (she/her/hers), who is the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church in Virginia. Parisa is the first Iranian-American Chief Prosecutor in United States history. Elected in 2019, Parisa ran on a platform of making the criminal justice system fairer to marginalized communities by no longer asking for cash bail, ending prosecution of marijuana possession, addressing racial disparities, not charging minors as adults, creating an independent body to review use of force by police, restoring voting rights to the formerly convicted, and creating a restorative justice process. In her first term in office, she has done all of that.

Where are you based?
Arlington, Virginia.

What is your position/what position are you running for?
I am the current Commonwealth's Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, Virginia. I am the chief prosecutor for my jurisdiction and was first elected in November 2019 and took office in January 2020. I am running for reelection. I have a primary on June 20, 2023. I am the first Iranian-American to be elected as a chief prosecutor in the United States.

Why did you choose this seat?
In 2018, when I first announced my candidacy, I noted that the American criminal legal system has long operated as a mass incarceration machine set on auto-pilot – and my own community was no exception. As a former public defender, I knew all too well how this machine dismantles communities, destroys families, uses bad science, and wastes money. For some, the mass incarceration machine operates out of sight and out of mind but for far too many communities, it is all too present. It disproportionately catches in its gears Black & Latino people, the poor, kids, and those who suffer from mental illness or addiction. The machine is so efficient that the US imprisons people at a higher rate than any other country on earth. Though 5% of the world's population, we have nearly 25% of the world's prison population. If our prison population was a city it would be the fifth largest in the US. As the most important piece of the machine, prosecutors have great discretion to classify nuisances as crimes, demand cash bail from the poor, treat kids as adults, stack up charges, compel plea bargains, seek the death penalty, and advocate against legislative reforms. I offered an alternative that would dismantle the mass incarceration machine and replace it with policies that pursue justice, increase accountability, prevent crime, prioritize serious crimes, and protect civil rights.

How would you briefly summarize your platform?
Safety and Justice are not opposite, but complementary values. No social reform aimed at making us a more perfect union — be it employment, housing, voting, mental health, education, family well-being, or the ever-pressing work for racial justice — can happen without a fair and humane criminal justice system.

What inspired you to run?
I ran because for decades before I started, this office was run by career prosecutors who’d only seen one side of the justice system. And we all saw the result: Defense attorneys forced to hand-copy the discovery, disproportionate prosecution of Black people, asking for cash bail, seeking the death penalty, separating families by ignoring immigration consequences. We were barely using drug court and we had no mental health court, no restorative justice, no adult diversion programs. Arlington was lagging behind every neighboring jurisdiction on criminal justice reform. In my first term, Arlington has gone from one of the most regressive jurisdictions on criminal justice, to one that leads the nation on safety and reform. Reform isn’t just a slogan to me. It’s the people who have been able to graduate from drug court since I expanded its use. It’s the people who have graduated from the mental health docket since I helped create it. It’s the woman who was able to stay in this country with her family because my conviction review unit overturned her wrongful conviction. We have protected the community, changed lives and made real progress.

How long have you been in office? What do you consider to be your major accomplishments so far?
I have been in office for approximately three and a half years. I ran four years ago because I believed we could build a more just, more equitable criminal legal system here in Arlington while still keeping our community safe.

And I’m proud that since I took office, we’ve done that:
-I promised to stop asking for cash bail — and we stopped;
-I promised not to use civil asset forfeiture to seize private without a conviction — we stopped and successfully supported a change in the law;
-I promised to stop prosecuting marijuana possession — we stopped and successfully supported a change in the law;
-I said we needed to expand drug court enough; we have an almost full drug court;
-I said we needed mental health diversion, we now have a full behavioral health docket — one that is so successful it’s about to double in size;
-I promised to create a restorative justice program — with massive community support, we’ve done that;
-I said it wasn’t fair that attorneys had to hand copy discovery — we’ve established fair open file discovery;
-I said we must end the death penalty — Virginia became the first Southern state to abolish it;
-I said I would never prosecute a doctor or a pregnant person for healthcare decisions, and as that threat becomes more real, I continue to stand by my word.
-I’ve also formed a conviction review unit; reduced the jail population; reduced usage of mandatory minimums that fuel mass incarceration; started to address racial disparities; treated kids like kids; supported an independent body to review use of force by the police; supported the creation of a civilian review board with subpoena power; supported restoration of voting rights for returning citizens; stopped using peremptory strikes to have more diverse juries; and held the first free expungement clinic in Arlington history.

All of that while Arlington remains one of the safest communities – and the second happiest community in the country.

What do you feel are the most important issues right now, why, and how do you plan to tackle them?
My top three priorities are: a) keeping our community safe and addressing gun violence; b) empowering victims and survivors; and c) building a fair legal system.

(a) Keeping our community safe and addressing gun violence: My office aggressively prosecutes serious crimes, and our trial conviction rates for violent felonies are nearly double those of the prior administration. I have used my lobbying power as a prosecutor to push for gun safety laws. In a second term, I will continue to focus on serious crimes, support our legislators in advocating for an assault weapons ban, and work with stakeholders to implement a gun buyback program.

(b) Empowering victims and survivors: I started Arlington’s first restorative justice program and switched our office to a victims-focused prosecution model so that one attorney is responsible for a case and victims don’t get shuffled around. In a second term, I will expand our restorative justice program and will continue my work to increase the allowance of mental health care for victims and to create a victim restitution fund to promptly compensate victims.

(c) Building a fair legal system: I have expanded opportunities for diversion for low-level offenses, including supporting a mental health docket and increasing participation in drug court. My office stopped asking for cash bail and instituted open-file electronic discovery to ensure a fair playing field. We are working on collecting and analyzing another round of data to check our work on racial disparities.

America is extremely divided these days. How would you hope to bridge that divide with your constituents to better unite Americans?
My position has long been that criminal justice reform is a civil rights issue that should unite all Americans. If you are progressive, you cannot be happy with a system that ensnares so many marginalized communities. If you are conservative, you cannot be happy with a system that spends so much money and results in such high rate of recidivism. If you are a person of faith, you cannot be happy with a system that leaves so little room for rehabilitation and redemption. And if you are a crime survivor, you cannot be happy with a system that does virtually nothing to make a victim whole once prosecution of the perpetrator concludes.

How would you foresee your unique identity and background to be an asset to you in office?
I am a former public defender, innocence protection attorney, and am now a prosecutor. I've stood in a small southern courtroom to argue for the release of a Black man convicted by a racist jury. I've sat across from clients who couldn't understand me because of the voices in their heads. I've waited at prison gates with mothers and children for the release of their sons and fathers who spent decades incarcerated for crimes they didn't commit. And, I've asked for a life sentence for a serial rapist. In short, I have defended the poor, freed the innocent, and now prosecute the guilty. I've seen all sides of the criminal justice system and that experience gives me a unique perspective to reform it.

What is your motto in life?
There really are two — one literary and one fortune-cookie wisdom. From James Baldwin: “The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.” From a fortune cookie I opened when I was 16: “The greatest pleasure in life is doing the things people say you cannot do.” The fact that I ran, the platform I ran on, and the work that my team has accomplished in the last 3.5 years really reflects these two mottos for me.

Where can we find out more about you?
My website is parisaforjustice.com — and you can follow me on social media! Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Our Favorite Progressive Candidates in 2023 - Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church