To the Editor:
On Tuesday, I am voting for Andrea Harrington for Berkshire County District Attorney and I hope you will too. I see first hand, every day, the impact that the DA has on people in our community. I believe Andrea has the knowledge, skill, and perseverance to change the system to better serve our whole community. Serving our whole community means real justice for sexual assault and domestic violence survivors, people of color, low income residents, and the many people who have not been served equally by the current system. She will work with the community to address bias in the court in all its forms and make Berkshire County the leader is should be in criminal justice reform.
I think that if you run as an incumbent, you must run on the record of the office. People of color in Berkshire County are charged much higher bail than white people. Our DA should support sexual assault and domestic violence victims. Berkshire County has the lowest rate of prosecution of these crimes in the state and the highest rate in the state. A third of homicides in our county are domestic violence cases. We can do better.
Ms. Harrington has a plan for identifying bias and implementing systems to fix it. She has a plan for better addressing the opioid crisis that doesn’t require incarcerating another generation of addicts. She will aggressively prosecute DV and SA cases. I believe we will be better off with her in office.
I believe of all the votes I will take on Tuesday, this one is the most important. Please vote for change in the District Attorney’s office.
Alisa Costa
163 Imperial Ave.
Pittsfield
