Axelbank’s first question was to Clark. He broadly asked the district attorney what was her assessment of crime in the borough, what role the DA’s office plays in combating it, and ensuring justice is served. Clark said crime was a priority for all Bronxites. “As district attorney, it’s my responsibility to bring about public safety, working with communities, working with the police, working with anyone who lives and works in The Bronx.”

 

Clark referenced the creation of new units within her office to deal with crime strategies, violent criminal enterprises, assisting victims of crime, and the creation of the Community Justice Bureau to bring about fairness and alternatives to incarceration. “It’s a balance between public safety and fairness,” she said.

 

Asked if she felt her office was making inroads in terms of tackling crime in the borough, Clark said, “It’s a difficult challenge, but as a resident of The Bronx my whole life, we have been through this before. What’s important is that you think about the people, and in order to resolve the issues of crime, you have to listen to those who live here.” She cited her roots in, and knowledge of, the borough as a whole and said she listened to residents in order to help her address and curb criminal activity.

 

For her part, Cohen said there were things that could be done to help address violent crime in the borough that were not being done currently. “The Bronx continues to be left behind when it comes to innovative solutions to prevent violence,” she said. She spoke of the prevalence of young people carrying guns. She said 81 percent had been shot at, 88 percent had had a friend or family member who had been shot, and she said traditionally Clark’s response has been to incarcerate them for two years, which she said only worsens the reasons why a young person picks up a gun in the first place.

 

“It removes them from their family,” she said. “It renders them unemployable. It increases their trauma and it doesn’t prevent them from picking up a gun because they’re afraid for their lives.” She said in Brooklyn things have been done differently since 2006 and that wraparound services have been successfully provided, making young people less likely [to reoffend]. She said the same program was not implemented in The Bronx until 2022 and said as of February 2023, only 12 people had graduated from the program.

 

In response, Clark said Cohen was misinformed. She said having worked as a judge in the county for 13 years, and as an appellate judge for three, she knows The Bronx has been combatting crime and gun violence for a long time because she was a part of the movement. She said that was why she started the Community Justice Bureau, and has worked with The Osborne Association and The Fortune Society to create a gun divergent program for young people which she said was successful. “They are now part of the solution, rather than the problem of gun violence,” she said.

 

The Osborne Association works in partnership with communities to create opportunities for people affected by the criminal justice system to further develop their strengths and lead lives of responsibility and contribution. The Fortune Society runs a renovated building in Morrisania which houses 154 seniors, ages 62+, and offers affordable housing to the community. Fifty-seven of the units are supportive housing for seniors experiencing homelessness with justice histories who can receive support services from the service center, the Mandaela Community, located on the ground floor of the building.

 

On the question of experience and how Cohen could prove to voters she could do a better job if elected, she alleged The Office of the District Attorney was in crisis, with “incredibly high rates of turnover of prosecutors,” which she said were far higher than in other boroughs. She said the office declined to prosecute more murders, attempted murders and sexual assaults than the other four boroughs combined, and that three out of four cases of sexual assaults were dismissed over the last five years.

 

She said she was a successful prosecutor as chief of the prescription drug unit at the City’s Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP), prosecuting doctors who she said flooded the city’s streets with narcotics, and stole tens of millions of dollars from Medicaid. She said she was a problem solver when federal and State government couldn’t get along, and public health needed to be called in and new solutions were needed. “That experience is what is going to let me turn around what’s happening in the DA’s office right now,” she said.

 

 In response, Clark said she had the hardest-working team of all the city’s district attorney’s offices and that attrition was a citywide issue. “We work hard each and every day,” she said. “I don’t know where she’s getting the numbers about declining to prosecute. You want a DA that understands the people and the conditions in the community. I am not going to prosecute cases where I don’t have the evidence,” she said, adding that she looked at each case individually to determine beyond a reasonable doubt whether or not it was viable. “Conviction is not a measure of success. It’s about getting justice,” she said. She added that she was doing that for victims of crime, for Bronx communities and for those who commit crimes as well.

 

Axelbank then moved on to Clark’s support of the “roll-back” of discovery requirements, the formal process of exchanging information between two legal parties before trial about the witnesses and evidence they’ll present. Axelbank asked what had been the difficulty in meeting such discovery requirements. Clark said she had supported discovery reform, and said she understood its importance as she had seen people pleading guilty without having access to all the evidence available. “I would never want to go back to the way it was,” she said. She said what made discovery difficult was that her office was now required to produce more evidence than was ever required before within 20 days or 35 days in certain given circumstances. 

 

She said like Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, what she was trying to do was to get “reasonable revisions” to the requirements, “not roll-backs,” in order to make things more balanced and to give the defense a timeline in which to respond to inquiries also [not just the prosecution].    

 

In response, Cohen said there were very little repercussions for prosecutors when they didn’t meet the 20-day and 35-day timeframes. “In reality, cases aren’t being dismissed unless… 90 days for a misdemeanor or 6 months for felonies aren’t being met,” she said, adding that discovery was crucial. She highlighted the tragic case of Kalief Browder who spent two years on Rikers Island for allegedly stealing a backpack when she said there was almost no evidence proving his guilt. She added that Clark had been a judge overseeing the case at the time. [Browder tragically later took his own life upon release from prison.]

 

Cohen added that the proposed changes [“reasonable revisions / rollbacks”] by district attorneys to discovery reform laws were more about the six-month deadline for felonies, and less about the 20-day and 35-day thresholds.

 

Without abdicating her own responsibility, Clark acknowledged and spoke about what she said had been the systemic failures of the justice system as a whole, including of the defense, in the Kalief Browder case. She added that she had been one of nine justices involved in the case, and added that what was important was that she did something about it, to ensure the same thing would not happen to someone else. “I came in and made sure I reformed my bail policy,” Clark said.

 

She added that she also brought in discovery reform long before the State legislature mandated it by law, so that there wouldn’t be instances of people pleading guilty unnecessarily. “It has made my lawyers better,” she said, adding that they are better prepared because of it. She said she was also working together with defense attorneys to ensure fairness for all those involved. She also cited the youth diversion programs she created to address crime prevention.

 

As the matter was a contentious one, Axelbank allowed extra time for each candidate to debate the point. In response, Cohen said she would be better equipped to train assistant district attorneys on how best to handle discovery, citing her prior experience of doing so at the SNP where she had a team of twelve people.

 

Clark said the two situations were not comparable as she managed an office of around 1,000 people and cited the diverse types of cases they handled, including murders and other serious crimes. She also said that it was not merely a question of better handling of the process of discovery. She said due to the sheer volume of work involved, additional resources were needed and that she had successfully fought for those resources from both the mayor and the governor, together with defense teams, to ameliorate the process for all concerned.

 

In terms of the results of alternatives to incarceration in The Bronx versus in other boroughs, the candidates disputed the progress made in The Bronx. Another topic discussed were the recent passage of the Clean Slate Act. Both candidates supported giving victims second chances.

 

Polls are open on Primary Election Day, Tuesday, June 27, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Click here to find your Election Day poll site. Return your absentee ballot by mail (postmark required) or drop it off at a poll site by Tuesday, June 27.