Steve’s Vision

Steve’s vision for Fairfax is based on the knowledge that safety and justice go hand in hand. Not only has his smart, data-driven reforms made Fairfax’s justice system more fair and equal than ever before, Fairfax County is also the safest jurisdiction of its size in the entire country. Since taking office in 2020, Steve has implemented new diversion programs, created a data program aimed at rooting out racial and economic disparities, restructured the office to a victim-centric prosecution model. 

If you want to build on these successes, increase justice in our system, and keep our community safe, join Steve’s team.

Diversion From Jail

Steve has focused on addressing lower-level nonviolent offenses with programs instead of jail time because this approach helps our community members and increases community safety. Diversion programs address the issues that drive people to commit these types of offenses—jail doesn’t. As a result, diversion programs are much better than jail at lowering recidivism rates and keeping people who have made a minor mistake from committing repeated and increasingly serious crimes. This is particularly true of those who have substance abuse issues, mental health issues, or are first-time offenders. In addition to their programmatic benefits on recidivism rates, diversion programs decrease future criminal activity by keeping program graduates from getting the type of criminal record that interferes with getting a good job, a college education, or stable housing—all three of which are major drivers of crime. Steve’s leadership in making diversion a greater part of our justice system does right by our neighbors and makes our community more safe.

Using Data to Undo Disparities and Reach Better Outcomes

For our justice system to actually do justice, it must be free from bias and disparities. Finding and rooting out racial, economic, and neighborhood disparities requires action that the justice system rarely takes—tracking, analyzing and using data to find these disparities, devising strategies to fix them, and measuring the effectiveness of those strategies.  Steve has made Fairfax County a leader by taking these rare steps. He has created a best-in-class data program aimed at measuring disparities in the justice system and guiding prosecutors towards data-informed decisions. Steve has already used this data to improve his office’s bond decisions to maximize community safety: recommending pretrial detention for those who represent a danger to our community while recommending pretrial release for those who don’t, all while rooting out economic disparities caused by an unjust cash bail system that Steve has fully rejected. 

The data program currently captures pretrial decisions in the justice system and will eventually incorporate data on every decision point in the system, including charging decisions, plea offers, and sentencing outcomes. Steve realizes that you can’t improve what you don't measure. He’s committed to making data-driven reforms that improve justice and safety for Fairfax County.

Victim-centered Prosecution

Too often the justice system prioritizes serving itself instead of victims of crime. Steve changed that by building an office that centers the needs of victims. He completely changed the structure of the office so that cases aren’t passed around from prosecutor to prosecutor. Rather, a victim has one prosecutor in charge of their matter from start to finish, allowing them to build a trusting relationship. Steve created a special team to handle the most sensitive type of cases—sex crimes against children—so that child victims always get the most trauma-informed care possible. When the justice system stood in the way of providing that trauma-informed care, Steve approached the legislature and worked with Delegates and Senators to change the law so he could better serve crime victims.

More than anything, Steve sees victims as individuals with individual needs. He changed the office’s workflow so that prosecutors meet victims earlier in the process, so they know what is important to each victim while they formulate their case plan. Steve also recognizes that what most victims want is to not be victimized again, which has driven him to create options and solutions to best achieve that goal.