Editor’s note: The race to be Denver’s next District Attorney has the potential to be crowded. The Denver Gazette is writing a series of question-and-answer profiles on district attorney candidates who are running for the four-year-term. Answers have been edited for length.

Veteran prosecutor Leora Joseph jumped into the field earlier this summer with an aim of restoring the City and County of Denver as “a safer place to live and visit.” She quoted a recent U.S. News and World Report survey, which listed Denver as the 15th most dangerous city in the country.

As supervisor of the state’s Civil and Forensic Mental Health system, Joseph oversees 1,800 employees and manages a budget of over $250 million. She has lived in Denver for 11 of her 25-year prosecutorial career. Before moving to Colorado, Joseph was a prosecutor in Boston as chief of Suffolk County’s Child Protection Unit.

It was in Boston that Joseph changed the mandatory reporting law for priests to hold them accountable after the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation into priests who they knew had been implicated in child sex abuse. Before that, priests were exempt from mandatory reporting.

Joseph’s work in Colorado includes four years as chief deputy district attorney with the 18th Judicial District with an emphasis leading the Special Victims Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Units. She has three grown children. Her husband, Dr. Michael Wechsler, is the director of the National Jewish Cohen Family Asthma Institute.

She has great respect for outgoing Denver DA Beth McCann, the first woman to lead the city as its chief law enforcement officer, but she’s concerned “that we are in a public safety crisis.” She wants to restore order “in a compassionate way.”

Joseph spoke with The Denver Gazette at the Denver Press Club on Thursday, Aug 24.

How do you think the rest of the country sees Denver?

Leora Joseph: Denver is an incredible city, but I think it is on the precipice of a public safety crisis. We have to come up with some bold solutions. We have to help the chronically unhoused. The mayor has a very strong approach, which I appreciate calling for this emergency. We need solutions that recognize some of the underlying substance use disorders and mental health issues that affect these individuals. I have those skills that can come in and make positive changes for the city.

Do you see getting the reins on substance abuse as part of the solution?

Absolutely. We have to recognize that people who suffer from substance abuse disorder need treatment. The question is how do we help them? What are our obligations as a humane society to help them?

What’s your stance on guns?

We have a gun problem and we need to do more. We have existing laws that we’re not enforcing enough. And I’ll give you an example. There is a statute that makes it a crime if you’re a prior offender who possesses a gun. Prior felons charged with the possession of a firearm don’t get to have probation. We need some serious consequences for people like that. We need to take people who use guns illegally very seriously. We need to talk about ERPO (Extreme Risk Protection Orders) and better ways to make sure we are taking it seriously.

How do you feel about the increase in youth violence in Denver?

outh violence is directly related to the epidemic of gun violence. I was at Gilliam the other day. (Gilliam is Denver’s 64-bed youth services center). No one is there because of shoplifting. They’ve done serious things. It’s a residential detention center. I’m a mother and when I walked in, there were 14 and 15-year-old kids, asking me to look over their book reports. It’s heartbreaking to see so many children who are locked up. One of the things we have to be asking ourselves is what are all of those points of contact these 14 and 15-year-old had before the day they went and shot somebody?

What are the ways that we work together as prosecutors alongside the police, mental health centers, the schools, the faith community, and Denver residents to end youth violence?

Whom do you blame for the increase in youth violence we’re seeing along the Front Range?

I don’t think we can blame any one person. What we all know is that people who have been hurt by others can hurt more people in return. We must hold people accountable. There are many crimes and behaviors that we have to take seriously and we have to say as a society, ‘We are not going to accept this.’

With these cases getting so much more violent and some of them being committed by younger and younger kids, what’s your opinion on how to charge a juvenile?

Any approach must focus on one person at a time. There is never a solution when we talk about public safety and dignity and justice that paints everybody with a broad brush.

People are already focusing on the individual. ... It’s important that we do that one person at a time. What do we know about this person? What does their support system look like? What’s our long-term goal from the perspective of public safety and human dignity?

I’ll tell you this: When you give a 15-year-old a 25-year sentence, they get out at age 40. They’re coming to live here. We have to hold people accountable but we also have to think about what are the obligations and the consequences when we give prison time to hold people accountable?

If you charge a youth as a juvenile, what message is that sending to his friends? Are you telling them that the young ones get off easier?

Every single decision has ramifications. I’ve made hard decisions where I say there’s just not enough evidence here to take the case to court and I have found novel ways to charge cases when other prosecutors said there was not enough evidence. You need an experienced prosecutor who has handled these cases to make these really hard decisions because it becomes a matter of what’s going to go to court and what’s going to be redirected and diverted. That is the role of a district attorney.

How many hours in a day is this job going to take?

This is a 24/7 job and I’m up for it. When I supervised the SVU Unit I’d get calls at 2 a.m. in the morning from sergeants about all kinds of cases they were involved in, like rapes and child deaths. I will take those calls every day of the week so that we can continue to work for justice.

What about your relationship with the Denver Police Department? You ran the Auraria Campus Police, but Denver is a big city with big city problems.

I oversaw the police department on the Auraria Campus, the largest and most diverse campus in the state. The department had a difficult role during a difficult time for students and police. This was during George Floyd era. But you’re right. I’ve always worked with the police. But I’ve also prosecuted police officers for domestic violence and sexual assault. I’m a big believer in the opportunity for police officers to have conversations as they’re working on cases and holding people accountable regardless of their position. One of the changes I want to see is prosecutors assigned to precincts to advise on search warrants and to be there as police officers are going out on cases. How do you work with police to be involved in the very beginning in order to support victims?

Speaking of police, district attorneys have a reputation of not charging police when an officer has been alleged to commit a crime. How would you respond to that criticism?

I think we are seeing a shift. As I mentioned, I have prosecuted police officers. District attorneys’ offices are taking those police cases more seriously. We just saw it in the George Floyd case. There are several Colorado cases.

But was this valid criticism before the shift you’re talking about?

I worry about painting groups of people with a broad brush. It doesn’t help to say, ‘No one’s every done this.’ It’s not helpful. There is a shift, but we need to continue to work to hold police officers liable.

As a person who works with behavioral issues, do you see homelessness as a crime you would prosecute?

What people are up in arms about are the people who are living in the streets. In that population, 80% of those are suffering from severe mental illness and also substance abuse disorder. People who commit crimes, whether they are housed or unhoused, need to be held accountable. Do I think people who are experiencing homelessness belong in jail because of their living situation? Absolutely not. I also don’t believe we can do nothing. There are other choices that are not being enforced or utilized to the fullest extent. You need active co-responder programs. You need police intervention to make sure people are given those choices.

Isn’t that expensive?

There are counties right now that are spending that money on jail.

People are going to say you’re coddling them. Just throw them in jail.

Throwing someone in jail for standing in the middle of the intersection is not a long-term solution. They will be let go the next day and nothing has been done to address the root of the problem.

Are you running for Denver District Attorney as a path to higher office?

This is the only job I want. Being district attorney is not a stepping stone. It is an important job for justice and that is my goal.

Do you think Denverites will vote for a female again?

Someone asked me if I was running for office as a woman. I didn’t know how to respond because I am a woman but people clearly have an image of an elected official as male.

I’ve had someone talk to me about pictures they saw on Facebook that I was wearing open-toed shoes. I am running because I am the best candidate and Denver deserves the chance to vote for an experienced District Attorney.

What is your blue-sky view of what the City and County of Denver looks like with you in charge of law and order?

Right now, people don’t feel safe. There is a perception of fear. There is an uncomfortableness.

What I want to see is families say, “I love going downtown. It’s safe!” And they’re letting their 14-year-olds go by themselves. That’s what I want to see. And that people are getting the help they deserve.