We all have the right to live in a safe and healthy community. The latest county statistics show that crimes committed can be broken down into property crime (52.8%), drug crime (17.9%), domestic violence (16.5%), which is predominantly perpetrated against women, and violent crime (12.8%).

As County Attorney, I will hold offenders accountable, while investing in the effective tools of treatment options and re-entry support to break vicious cycles of crime and re-offense.

I support the use of drug courts in District Court. Specialized courts are an effective way to divert people in our communities suffering with addiction from incarceration into effective treatment. This also decreases taxpayer expenditures.

As members of society, we are all charged with protecting the vulnerable. Caring for those impacted by violent crime through timely support and assistance can be fundamental to recovery. As County Attorney, I will ensure that victims and their families are protected from further harm, threats, and harassment by the offender, and that their experience within the judicial system is marked with dignity, respect, and fairness. This especially applies to the protection of children and the elderly.

Violence against women is a major public health problem. Women are the victims of violent domestic crime nearly 75% of the time. As County Attorney, I will create a protection unit with prosecutors specifically trained to handle cases involving violence against women.

I take violence against women seriously.

Our County is facing challenges related to the mental health of our citizens. To support those in mental health crisis and their family members, I will employ a range of programs and partnerships between community health and our justice system.

Today, people arrested due to mental health crisis (like a suicide attempt) go to the emergency room, to jail, or are handcuffed and transported to the State Hospital in Warm Springs. This short-sighted policy unnecessarily stresses the offenders in crisis, their families, and the justice and medical systems. I will tackle this problem head-on by creating a program to link people in crisis with established community treatment.

When there are justice-health partnerships for intensive outpatient services, it leads to fewer jail stays, fewer hospital stays, and fewer stays at Warm Springs, all which save the County taxpayer dollars and better serves everyone involved.

In the recent years of intense growth, Gallatin County has been mired in unnecessary conflict and lawsuits with the City of Bozeman, with business owners, and in land-use issues.

My training in collaborative law has prepared me to enter these negotiations as an exemplary and creative problem-solver. Litigation reduction through consensus building will allow the County to redirect hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The County Attorney’s office has been out of touch with the communities it represents. Going forward, I will assign and deploy prosecutors to communities in Gallatin County to talk with stakeholders regarding safety and other current challenges.

The public safety issues West Yellowstone faces are very different from Belgrade, which are different from challenges in Three Forks. I will start a conversation with stakeholders in each community to listen the their needs and identify how the County Attorney’s Office can be of service to citizens throughout Gallatin County.

Today, prosecutors in Montana are not required to share their data with the public in charging practices, plea-bargaining practices, and sentencing of defendants. This is wrong. I will initiate a practice to track and release data to identify and eliminate racial, disability and poverty bias.

In Montana, the Native American imprisonment rate is nearly 5 times higher and the African American adult imprisonment rate is nearly 6 times higher than the Caucasian adult imprisonment rate. Improved transparency promises to help eliminate implicit bias within the judicial system. Under my leadership, the County Attorney’s office will publish data and make it available to the public.