A Reform Election

As a 39-year-old mother of two, Lucy Lang said there’s never exactly a right time for her to run for elected office. Throw in a global pandemic and it becomes an even more inconceivable undertaking. But as the current Manhattan District Attorney, and her former boss, Cyrus Vance, doesn’t look to be seeking re-election in 2021, Lang sees a window to make a big impact on the city’s criminal justice system.

“If I believe I have an opportunity to be a part of massive transformation that I think is necessary, then I owe it to my community, my children, myself to try to be a part of that change,” said Lang on her candidacy for DA. “And then when George Floyd was killed, I felt the increasing urgency of transformation.”

Vance’s current unpopularity — which critics say stems from his approach to so-called crimes of poverty and what’s been perceived as benevolent treatment of Manhattan’s elite — has invited a drove of candidates to enter the race. The nine candidates — including UES Assembly Member Dan Quart, a pair of civil rights attorneys, a public defender, and a number of experienced prosecutors — for the most part are trying to win over the progressive left. At a recent public forum hosted by WNYC and Gothamist, many candidates signaled they would run a more progressive office, with all saying they would not “tax” defendants who decline plea deals by seeking longer sentences. Lang, too, is positioning herself as a reformer, focusing on community building and restorative justice.

Lang spent 12 years at the Manhattan DA’s, prosecuting homicide and domestic violence cases. Lang said she was drawn to homicide after she’d lost a friend who had been killed by her brother, who had suffered from mental illness.

“So I watched kind of up close as this family who were both the victims, and were the family of the person responsible for the crime, try to navigate the system,” said Lang. “And I saw the ways in which I know the prosecutor could have better supported them in both respects. So it became really clear to me that there is this incredible potential for impact in the office of the DA, and that that was true, both with the set of people who are charged and the set of people who are victimized.”

Policy Ideas

Throughout her career, Lang said she’s kept this idea at the forefront of her mind. While she was still at the DA’s office, she created a college course in which incarcerated students and Assistant District Attorneys study criminal justice together over a semester and come up with policy ideas to better the system that they present to the DA and others. She said the class is meant to correct a system that does not encourage compassion for the perpetrators of crime.

“As DA, I will make that class mandatory for all Assistant District Attorneys; nothing could be more important than understanding the consequences of the decisions that a person who wields the kind of power that prosecutors wield has in all of their daily decisions,” said Lang.

Most recently, Lang has been working as the Director of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College, where she’s looked at criminal justice reform on a national scale. In 2018, Lang said she worked closely with family members, in collaboration with police chiefs and prosecutors, who lost loved ones to police violence to develop a set of protocols and best practices for ensuring police accountability. The policy was presented to the Congressional Black Caucus and has been adopted by a number of DA offices nationally.

If she were to be elected to serve as the Manhattan DA, Lang wants to shrink the system and implement more restorative justice practices, which she said means redefining policing and prosecution so that the system doesn’t get involved in instances in which it isn’t necessary.

“So that includes building out public health approaches to public health issues like mental health, substance use, and crimes of poverty,” said Lang. “It includes decriminalizing things that don’t directly harm people and then expanding, supporting within partnering community based initiatives that are better suited to respond to certain kinds of conduct and that have the potential to interrupt violence and serve as a preventative strategy.”

Homeless Crisis

She said this was an important way to approach the homeless crisis, which has become a major point of contention in certain Manhattan neighborhoods, particularly on the Upper West Side.

“While I believe that we should decriminalize crimes of poverty, and we should decriminalize homelessness, I also believe that the city owes it to all New Yorkers, to provide pro-social supportive services, not just shelter, to folks who have unstable housing and a myriad additional needs,” said Lang. “So what I envision is working with the police department, the Department of Health, the New York City public hospital system, and other related agencies to create pathways so that when law enforcement is called, someone appropriate — whether it’s law enforcement or not — responds and has an off ramp that helps bring people to supportive services rather than to a precinct or to central booking.”

If elected, Lang would be inheriting an ongoing investigation into President Donald Trump, a case that could have wide-reaching implications.

“The Trump investigation is an important example of why the next district attorney must be someone who has deep and extensive experience as a criminal lawyer,” said Lang. “Should the District Attorney’s Office hopefully find itself in possession of the President’s tax returns, it would be incredibly important that the DA know how to appropriately hire and manage a staff of serious lawyers who can build an airtight investigation and case.”

In a field of nine candidates, Lang said it was this experience in the system, and outside working in policy, that makes her stand out.

“I’m the candidate who has a depth of experience and expertise in criminal justice in Manhattan, who has responded to homicide scenes and worked beside families who’ve been victimized, and who has worked in prisons for people who’ve been through the system,” said Lang. “I’m also the candidate who has the perspective and transformative vision for a criminal justice system, that emphasizes safety, equity, and this added prong of human dignity that is so sorely lacking in the system.”