Kym Worthy, the first African American, and the first female to hold the position of Wayne County Prosecutor is leading retain the position with Wednesday early returns showing Worthy in the lead over Burton-Harris with more than 65,000 votes.
The winner of the primary is assured a four-year term because no Republicans filed for the position. Still, Worthy’s quest for a fifth term has met a formidable challenger from another African American woman, Victoria Burton-Harris.
With the emergence of a national social justice movement, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office has received much greater attention. Burton-Harris, a defense attorney and managing partner of McCaskey Law, headquartered in downtown Detroit, says her campaign has been a response to the movement.
“We have a chance to do something different this year on August 4,” said Burton-Harris, in response to a question from the Michigan Chronicle earlier in the campaign cycle. “I am hopeful that with the national uprising and a call to end mass incarceration of Black people and criminal justice reform, we will make the right choice. If we continue to do what we’ve always done, we will continue to get what we’ve always gotten. We have never adequately addressed the root causes of crime; we have only sought to simply punish people without aiming to rehabilitate. This means that folks repeat their behavior because no one has intervened and invested in them, and given them resources to not just survive but thrive.”
Worthy has responded to the opposition by pointing to her record, which includes the development and implementation of programs that have sought to rehabilitate and reform—both individuals and the system.
“I have the experience to lead in these tough times,” said Worthy, in response to a question from the Michigan Chronicle prior to election day. “I created over 15 diversion programs when no one else was doing this because I believe that treatment, proactivity, alternatives to incarceration, and getting to the root causes of crime are essential parts of protecting the community. More than 18,000 youth and adults, mostly people of color, have been appropriately diverted from the criminal justice system. As a decades-long mental health advocate, I also focus on appropriate solutions for the mentally ill.”
In addition, Worthy shared information with the Chronicle about the Public Integrity Unit she created more than 15 years ago, which has specially trained prosecutors that exclusively handle police brutality, shootings, and misconduct 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Worthy’s record also includes fighting for 11 years for victims represented by more than 11,000 rape evidence kits abandoned by police; the creation of programs for senior citizens, immigrants, and the LBGTQ population—segments of our community that had previously been ignored by the criminal justice system in Michigan and Wayne County; and a program (“Talk It Out”), which turns to mediation as an alternative to charging.
Worthy, who was endorsed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Chronicle, has already shared her vision for the first half of her next term.
“The next two fiscal years are going to be very painful financially for everyone. Experienced leadership is needed. We will not only have to fight for every dollar and obtain even more specialty grants then we have now (approximately $12 million), but we also will confront America’s mass incarceration issue by continuing our large-scale programs for diversion, treatment, restorative justice, and alternatives to incarceration. We expect to divert at least 5,000 more youth and adults from the criminal justice system…We are also determined to get our Community Court program up and running. This program would allow trained community members to sentence neighborhood defendants to a punishment short of incarceration alternatively.”
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