With a sharp rise in fentanyl overdoses in teenagers, Falls Church and Arlilngton’s Commonwealth Attorney Dehgani-Tafti stated at public forum on criminal justice reform last Friday that there is a need to focus on mental health care, specifically for younger individuals, so that they don’t get to “a place where they want to use.”
The Northern Virginia Democratic Business Council hosted the event that included all three commonwealth attorneys from the region to take on the tough issues they face.
“Drugs and mental health issues are very significant,” Dehgani-Tafti said. “Just last night, a 16 year old overdosed and died. The number of overdoses that we’re having in schools is astonishing and it’s all fentanyl.”
Additionally, Dehgani-Tafti said, “the country is currently on a precipice of a climate disaster, while “drowning in guns,” and facing real threats to democracy.
“We’ve come very close in other periods of history, to becoming authoritarian and less democratic,” Dehgani-Tafti said. “This feels bigger to me because it’s in my lifetime, and one election can change the trajectory of the country in astonishing ways.”
The forum, held at the Refraction office in McLean, featured commentary from Commonwealth’s Attorney for Loudon County Buta Biberaj, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County Parisa Dehgani-Tafti and Fairfax County’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. Other local politicians in attendance were Delegate Vivian Watts and Virginia State Senate candidate Saddam Salim.
Biberaj, the first Muslim, woman and immigrant elected to serve as the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Loudoun County, began by speaking on how growing up in the Bronx, New York with immigrant parents from Montenegro inspired her to look at individuals who have been charged with a crime and understand their experiences for why they committed that crime.
“When you see the person as a person, I think that’s when you start looking at solutions,” Biberaj said. “Looking at the person, seeing who they are [and] what brought them here is one of these things I take away from how I matured in life and how I would think that lends to my position.”
Dehgani-Tafti, an Iranian immigrant, shared Biberaj’s sentiments on living with immigrant parents and how it drove both her and her sister to “navigate” the education system and advocate for themselves. This “problem-solving perspective” also inspired Dehgani-Tafti to become a lawyer, where she worked with death penalty cases.
“Having clients who were on death row and were later exonerated made me realize that there’s absolutely no place in civil society for the death penalty,” Dehgani-Tafti said. “When I focused on getting my clients what they needed, they inevitably did better.”
She went on to explain how when she got her first DNA exoneration in D.C., she discovered that the FBI had lied in their claim that they had done microscopic error analysis, which eventually led to the FBI looking at all of their microscopic analysis cases and determining that 96 percent of cases had been lied about or exaggerated.
“That gives me the perspective of how wrong and off the rails the system can go,” Dehagni-Tafti said. “Then I started looking in my own community and wondering ‘Why are we doing the things that we’re doing?’”
A former military veteran, Descano said he personally knew friends who struggled with issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), helped him understand “very specific” problems veterans face that can be mishandled in the justice system. Under Descano, he said
Fairfax County introduced a veterans court docket, which is meant to help individuals with issues such as mental health or drug addiction get to the “root causes” of their occurrences.
“We want to try to keep these individuals’ records clean so they can go out into the community,” Descano said. “Putting people first means giving them the tools to do that and be that person.”
When asked by the moderator what Virginia’s “most pressing” public safety challenge is, Dehgani-Tafti gave two answers: the current mental health crisis and existential leadership crisis. On the topic of mental health, Dehgani-Tafti said various populations, whether they be prosecutors, children, teachers and police officers, are “traumatized and burned out,” with younger individuals leaning on using drugs to deal with their challenges.
On the topic of the existential political crisis, Dehgani-Tafti said the country is currently on a “precipice” of a climate disaster, “drowning in guns, incredibly mentally ill” and a troubled democracy. She compared the current political climate to what she saw in Iran during the 1978-79 revolution: a complete “disbelief” about the precipice on the front of democracy.
“We’ve come very close in other periods of history, to becoming authoritarian and less democratic,” Dehgani-Tafti said. “This feels bigger to me because it’s in my lifetime, and one election can change the trajectory of the country in astonishing ways.”
Biberaj and Descano followed Dehgani-Tafti’s statement by stating “silo work” and gun violence were what they thought was Virginia’s most pressing public safety issue. Biberaj said Loudon County has “great opportunities” but refuses to acknowledge mental health issues and homelessness. On gun violence specifically in Fairfax County, Descano said his office has created a “specialized” Red Flag Law team that allows law enforcement to take guns out of people’s hands who are a danger to themselves and others.
A member of the audience then asked if each Commonwealth’s Attorney were able to have any impact on local youth at a high school/university level. Dehgani-Tafti responded by stating she does outreach to Arlington County High Schools, as well as worked with the Arlington County Police Department and Arlington Public Schools to hire an organization called “Strategies for Youth” that has created a game focusing on whether youths know their rights and various criminal laws.
“They’ve determined it’s an effective intervention for drug use and for disciplinary problems, as well as for police interactions with kids,” Dehgani-Tafti said.
The discussion wrapped up with a final question from the moderator: “Is there any sort of takeaway or actionable items that we could think about in terms of supporting your work in the run up to the election?” After Descano answered that under his leadership, Fairfax County was labeled the “safest jurisdiction” out of the 75 in the country, Dehgani-Tafti followed by stating Arlington County is also “among of the safest” counties as well.
Dehgani-Tafti made two points: don’t prescribe numbers due to Arlington County counting an “assault without battery” charge that caused a “huge crime spike,” and to realize that the current time period is going to take “everybody working every single day.” Not just getting people elected, she added, but keeping the “narrative on track” and giving candidates support that the community “has our backs.”
