Philadelphia District Attorney primary today

The past blog entry "Philly DA: Independent Lens series, premieres on PBS tonight" calls attention to the PBS Independent Lens series on DA Larry Krasner, who is a leader in the progressive redefinition of local prosecution and its move away from a focus on incarceration.  (Also see "Yard sign, National Crime Victims' Support Week, April 18th-24th, 2021.")

-- "Can a Progressive Prosecutor Survive a 40% Spike in Homicides?," New York Times
-- "Larry Krasner vs. Everybody: Inside the Philly DA’s Crusade to Revolutionize Criminal Justice," Philadelphia Magazine

2017 campaign flyer.

The 7 episode series, showing on Tuesday evenings, is super well done, at least so far.  I frequently criticize documentaries for a constrained and often glib story arc, and that isn't the case here.  And the filming is really really well done.  

It's not being shown in Philadelphia out of fear of it influencing the primary election there, where in the Democratic race, In the election, Larry Krasner is facing a former prosecutor that he fired, Carlos Vega.  

The police union and related groups is out in force against Krasner, blaming him for a rise in murders, although Philadelphia's crime rise is comparable to that of other cities.

The local Democratic Party didn't make an endorsement in the race.  Some elected officials support him, others are quiet, and others support Vega, although Vega has lost some support because some of the anti-Krasner police groups sent out incendiary campaign materials.

The "Philadelphia Story" on criminal justice reform shows it isn't easy.  Some people who get released will go on to do bad things.  Many won't.  

One of the many interesting things from the documentary series is that the DA's office under Krasner has a data analysis team led by a criminologist, Oren Gur, and rather than rely on inferences, they study the issues and make policy recommendations based on data.