After less than 24 hours officially on the job, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins has a long to-do list. A day after she was sworn into office — making history as the first woman and first African-American to take on the role of Boston’s top prosecutor — she’s getting to work. That includes defending her controversial plan not to prosecute certain crimes, including trespassing, shoplifting, larceny under $250, receiving stolen property, and drug possession with intent to distribute.
“What I’m saying is: Jail as a last resort,” Rollins told Jim Braude when she joined him Thursday on Greater Boston. “In particular, with respect to these 15 misdemeanors that are nonviolent, more quality-of-life crimes ... I believe we can hold people accountable without sending them to jail.”
Rollins said she has been talking with her senior staff and soliciting input about their goals and in what direction they want the office to head in the future. But she also has priorities of her own, which include tackling inequalities in how people of different races are treated in the justice system.
“We have significant race-based disparities, for sure,” Rollins said about Boston, in response to a claim Sen. Elizabeth Warren made in August that the nation’s criminal justice system is racist. “What I think we need to do is understand that when we talk about race, it’s uncomfortable. When we discuss these disparities, people feel as though we’re placing blame. But we need to get really comfortable with being uncomfortable, because until we start discussing these disparities, they’re never going to change.”
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Rollins also weighed in on the case of Sean Ellis, who was convicted in 1995 of killing a Boston police officer and spent 22 years in prison as a result. His conviction was overturned in 2015 and, last month, prosecutors declared they would not re-try his case. But Ellis’ attorneys argue someone should look further into what they believe were misdeeds by the Boston Police and prosecutors surrounding his original trials.
“I’m not going to second-guess the decision,” Rollins said about the move to drop the charges against Ellis. But as for whether she might take another look at his case, she left the door open.
“I am going to be looking at every single thing that our office has done, if there are open matters … I am going to make sure that we’re looking at everything with a fresh set of eyes and if we believe that mistakes were made on our part, or with respect to our partners in law enforcement, we’ll be talking about those as well,” she said.
Read more: Sean Ellis On His Dropped Charges — 25 Years Later
Rollins’ community work extends beyond the job, too, and into her home. She estimates that on more than 50 occasions over the last three years, she’s hosted children who the Department of Children and Families determined needed emergency placement because they were in some form of imminent danger.
“We need to put our money where our mouth is,” Rollins said about why she takes on the role. “It is a small piece we can do on the worst night of that child’s life — to give them a bed and a clean home to live in and food and shelter.”
Rollins also shares her home with her two nieces, over whom she has custody, and her 14-year-old daughter, Peyton, who delivered an emotional introduction for her mother at Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony. Re-watching the clip on Greater Boston, Rollins, too, got emotional about the exchange.
“It was such a proud moment for me as a mother,” Rollins said. “One of the most important things you can do on this planet, as a parent, is to create good people, and I just looked at her and was beaming with pride.”
