The Polk County Attorney’s Office, under new leadership for the first time in over three decades, is making things a little more just for people accused of minor offenses. Iowa’s other 98 top local prosecutors should be watching closely.
Kimberly Graham won a contested Democratic primary in 2022 on the strength of a clear commitment to rethink some longstanding practices with an eye toward reducing inequitable outcomes. "Only when you address racial and income disparities are you going to be able to increase safety and increase faith in the justice system," she told the Register editorial board .
Two of Graham’s efforts during her first 19 months in office have stood out:
The county attorney’s office is neither reinventing the wheel nor forging radical new paths with either initiative. During the campaign, Graham often went out of her way to credit jurisdictions elsewhere in Iowa and around the nation whose successful programs she wanted to emulate. That has continued; she told Axios Des Moines this year that she wants to copy an “Alternatives” policy in Story County that’s been credited with significantly reducing recidivism.
Graham’s office is simply taking steps to more often handle offenses with pragmatism and results in mind, relying less often on a prosecuting attorney’s conventional toolkit of incarceration, one-size-fits-all fines and revoked privileges.
Let low-income defendants pay small amounts and keep driving
Many defendants owe hundreds of dollars even after being sentenced to probation or time already served in low-profile criminal and traffic matters. The money to be collected helps support the judicial branch’s operation and funds various state and local programs. It’s a way for the criminal justice system to try to ensure accountability and impose some deterrence. But for lower-income defendants, even a couple hundred dollars of fees and fines can be a huge mountain — all the more so when state law allows for suspending defendants' driver’s licenses if they aren’t paying.
So Graham’s office has significantly lowered the thresholds for people to participate in repayment plans for court debt .
Without such tools, it's easy to see how the debt can create feedback loops. Driving is an inescapable requirement for many jobs. If a person keeps driving and is pulled over, the person could be cited for driving with a suspended license and face a new round of crushing fines. Those who instead obey the suspension might be less able to earn money to pay the fines and get their licenses back. The Register’s William Morris, writing about the new Polk County policy, noted that a conservative-leaning think tank found no benefit for public safety or collection rates with more conventional license-suspension rules.
Polk County now uses a person’s income to determine a necessary monthly payment, which can approach $1. Participation is high. It’s too soon to have definitive data from the state judicial branch or Polk County about whether more money is being collected. But allowing people who weren’t convicted of traffic offenses to keep driving is a better result regardless of the collections.
Low-level marijuana offenders shouldn't go to jail, get permanent records
Hundreds of new case numbers tied to Polk County appear every day on Iowa’s online court-records system. The vast majority fly below the public’s notice. Among insiders, many now agree that, when a person is accused for the first time of possessing a small amount of marijuana, the potential penalties are disproportionate and the use of public resources is wasteful.
Polk County’s diversion program, which allows defendants to complete several steps and have their records expunged, is a better and still-appropriate way to handle such cases. Participants still must undergo a substance abuse evaluation to address the behavior in question. But they face less-onerous financial penalties, and the involvement of courts, prosecutors and public defenders is greatly reduced. The program is also a first step toward acknowledging and responding to stark racial disparities in arrests, convictions and imprisonment in Iowa.
Kimberly Graham makes a strong start as county attorney
In remarks to journalists this year, Graham has indicated her office is making progress on improving data collection about criminal suspects, including their race and income, information that is requisite to developing other policies that can make a greater difference in reducing inequities. Graham's initiatives are welcome first steps. But more fundamental changes are desperately needed to transform a so-called justice system riddled with disparities that betray its outcomes as far from just.
She’s also cleared up misconceptions about her approach, telling former Register columnist Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck podcast that she had met with Republican legislators who represent Polk County and took questions that made clear they had been told that Graham was doing or considering things she actually wasn’t.
Indeed, if anybody worried that Polk County voters had installed a “woke DA” who would be unlocking jail cells indiscriminately and attacking law enforcement officers for doing their jobs, these first 19 months of Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham's tenure seem to have dispelled any such notion. A progressive approach doesn’t mean leaving scofflaws unchallenged. It’s about putting more effort into understanding when and whether jail and fines make public offenses less likely to recur.
Early evidence backs up the premise that Graham is less “tough on crime” than she is “smart on crime.” Polk County’s supervisors should look for opportunities to invest in innovation in the attorney’s office, and peers statewide should be on the phone about which initiatives they can steal or adapt.
Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board
This editorial is the opinion of the Des Moines Register's editorial board: Carol Hunter, executive editor; Lucas Grundmeier, opinion editor; and Richard Doak and Rox Laird, editorial board members.
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This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Polk County goes 'smart on crime' in ways other prosecutors should copy
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