������Ƶ

When Dan Satterberg started out in the King County prosecuting attorney’s office in 1985, not long after he graduated from the UW School of Law, incarceration was the main strategy for dealing with drugs and crime.

“In 1985, King County filed about 400 drug felonies a year,” he said. “Within five years, that figure had risen to 4,000. Anyone could see the war on drugs was not working.”

Today, Satterberg has achieved a national reputation for defining compassionate approaches in criminal justice with community partnerships at their core. Under his leadership, King County, the nation’s 13^th largest, has created an array of diversion programs that are improving public safety and well-being while reducing incarcerations, especially among youth.

Satterberg, first elected King County prosecutor in 2007, was a chief architect of , a national model that offers an alternative to jail for crimes stemming from mental health issues or addiction.

With LEAD, police can choose to connect an individual they’ve arrested with a case manager for a psychosocial assessment and to arrange housing or drug treatment. This collaborative approach engages law enforcement, healthcare providers, prosecutors and community groups.

Innovative responses such as LEAD are particularly critical as King County struggles with an opioid epidemic and a soaring homeless population.

“We’re not just prosecuting people but getting them the help they need,” Satterberg said. ��

A group of leaders within the community has partnered with the prosecutor’s office to build . The strategy behind this program is to use the power of the law to connect young people with caring mentors and leaders within their community. At monthly workshops, the credible messengers of the community have a chance to listen to youth after their first brush with the law and to help them envision a different future and a path toward achieving their dreams.

Families are getting help, too, when young people are charged with domestic violence. Family Intervention and Restorative Services (FIRS), provides services such as anger-management classes and counseling.

“By diverting youth away from the courtroom and providing ways to help both parents and children, we are seeing much better outcomes,” Satterberg said.

Satterberg stressed that a prosecutor’s main function is to send violent people to jail, but acknowledged there are other complicated social issues at work.

“Prosecutors are in a position to drive real change by sharing power and creating more community partnerships,” he said. ��

It’s a strategy that appears to be working.

“When I came up through the ranks,” Satterberg said, “the social justice lens did not exist. Frankly, it’s a change that’s made my job a lot more interesting.”

��

��