LOS ANGELES – The incoming district attorney for Los Angeles County, Nathan Hochman, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his first task upon taking office is to eliminate the “broad pro-crime policies” of one of California’s most prominent progressive prosecutors, George Gascón .

That means bringing back gang-related sentences, allowing prosecutors to file juvenile charges more freely, and for prosecutors to once again participate in parole hearings with victims’ families, where they can help argue against releasing convicts, Hochman said.

The former Republican-turned-independent plans to return to prosecuting low-level nonviolent crimes that he said the current district attorney did not, such as criminal threats, trespassing, disturbing the peace and loitering, which often involve those experiencing homelessness.

Anyone who breaks the law will face “proportionate” consequences — there are no more “get out of jail free” cards, Hochman said in the interview Wednesday.

At the same time, he wants to look for solutions that don’t necessarily involve locking up criminals, such as drug treatment, community service and court-mandated restitution.

“There is a culture of wrongdoing” that has been “perpetuated” by Gascón’s office, Hochman said.

“We’re going to reverse that,” he said. “You’re basically saying, ‘Here are the lines in our society, the lines are the laws, I’m going to apply them consistently, fairly and impartially, and here are the real consequences on the other side. So if you want, test me. If you think I’m bluffing, I’m not bluffing.'”

Hochman says he doesn’t want to simply fill the prisons again.

“This is my message to people who believe in criminal justice reform: I believe in it, too,” Hochman said. “The difference between me and my predecessor is that there won’t be a lot of talk.”

Hochman’s Nov. 5 victory to become the top prosecutor in the nation’s most populous county, with 10 million people, reflected growing discontent in California, with progressive prosecutors who promoted criminal justice reform.

Gascón, a former San Francisco police chief, was elected in 2020 during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement after the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota as part of a wave of progressive prosecutors elected nationwide .

He made some controversial changes to the district attorney’s office that were seen by critics as soft on crime, such as ending cash bail and not allowing prosecutors to charge juveniles as adults or seek sentence enhancements. He also recently addressed his case Lyle and Erik Menendezsaying he would look for resentment for the brothers who received life sentences for the shotgun deaths of their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. Hochman, who could influence the Menendez case, said he could not comment on the resentencing recommendation until he had time to review the documents confidential information related to siblings.

Gascón defended his work, saying in his concession statement: “I am deeply proud of what we have accomplished over the past four years and grateful to the communities that have been and will always be at the heart of criminal justice reform.”

In 2014, Gascón, then San Francisco’s district attorney, co-authored a ballot measure passed by California voters that reclassified certain low-level drug and property offenses as misdemeanors instead of felonies. The measure was approved as California struggled for years with a 2009 federal court order to reduce the state’s overcrowded prison population.

But property crime has spiked in LA County, highlighted by viral videos of smash-and-grab Retail theft, as well as a worsening drug epidemic and rising homelessness fueled a sense of lawlessness and frustration that voters took to the polls last week.

Prosecutors across the state are now armed with the passage this month of Proposition 36a ballot measure that gives them the ability to charge felony theft and drug possession after a third offense.

Hochman declined to say whether his office plans to review current misdemeanor cases to make them felonies, but said the ultimate goal is deterrence. His goal is to return to a year like 2014, which he said was considered the region’s safest year in 50 years.

“I don’t foresee you having thousands of people in prison now,” he said. “The aim is ultimately to deter them from committing the crimes. Then I’ll know I’m actually doing something that’s effective in the criminal justice system, not filling prisons to the breaking point. This is a flaw in the system.”

Just over two weeks before he is sworn in and takes over a department of more than 700 prosecutors, Hochman spent a recent morning this week in Hermosa Beach, a town south of Los Angeles, observing the “homeless yard” .

The program, which began in the coastal city of Redondo Beach, offers people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to avoid prosecution for nonviolent misdemeanor charges or municipal code violations in exchange for accepting judge-mandated services that can ultimately lead to when placing in housing.

“I thought it was a really innovative way to try to address low-level homeless crime … and give homeless people the help they need to make sure they don’t actually have to ever return to court,” Hochman. said.