050: Suffolk Country District Attorney Rachael Rollins
Guest Rachael Rollins is the Suffolk County District Attorney, the chief law enforcement official for Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. She was elected by a landslide campaigning on a platform centered on criminal justice system reform. Taking office in January 2019 as Suffolk County’s 16th district attorney, Rollins is the first woman to be elected to that position in Suffolk County history, and the first woman of color ever to serve as a Massachusetts district attorney.
District Attorney Rollins has been consistently outspoken in her pledge to effect meaningful, substantive reform to the criminal legal system as she prefers to call it. For example, instead of using her limited resources to prosecute low-level misdemeanor charges -- which are often symptomatic not of criminal intent but of mental illness, substance use disorder, and poverty -- DA Rollins seeks to hold them accountable while providing access to services and treatment to address the underlying issues that likely led the individual to offend. This progressive approach is designed to reduce the likelihood that an individual will reoffend and improve the safety and wellbeing of impacted communities. She also led the charge in filing an injunction in federal court to end civil arrests in MA state courthouses to ensure that all community members have equal access to justice through the courts.
Prior to seeking elected office, District Attorney Rollins served as a field attorney with the National Labor Relations Board in Boston, safeguarding employees’ rights. Beginning in 2007, District Attorney Rollins served as an assistant United States attorney with the US Attorney’s office in Boston, handling cases that included fraud, employment discrimination, sexual violence, child abuse, gun trafficking, narcotics, and public integrity matters. In 2011, she was selected by Governor Deval Patrick’s administration as the first person of color to serve as the General Counsel of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and was soon named the first female general counsel of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. In 2013, she was recruited to become the Chief Legal Counsel of the Massachusetts Port Authority.
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