For more than 47 years, I made my living as a divorce attorney and mediator. I was the one asking the questions, navigating the intricacies of the law, and trying to find a path through the wreckage of human relationships. I was a traditionalist who respected the decorum of the bench. I was the straight-laced suit-and-tie lawyer, although occasionally I found the courage to wear my Jerry Garcia or Save the Children tie. Traditionalist or not, I was the lawyer who understood that a stable community relies on a predictable legal system.
Today, my perspective has shifted from the courtroom to our town. Whether I am sitting at a Rotary Club of Los Gatos meeting or reflecting on my recent service as a commissioner on the Community Health and Senior Services Commission, the conversation inevitably turns to the same concern: How do we maintain the safety and character of Los Gatos when Santa Clara County is facing a staggering $470 million budget deficit?
Recently, I have been reflecting on my legal career through the lens of a new book, The Price of Mercy by Emily Galvin-Almanza. Her work forced me to confront a hard truth: our current “transactional” justice system is failing both the accused and the Los Gatos taxpayer. We currently spend approximately $180,000 per year to house a single inmate in state prison. As residents who value fiscal responsibility, we must ask: Are we getting $180,000 worth of safety? The answer is often no.
This issue is not a distant one. In a recent talk at Rotary Club of Los Gatos, our mayor noted that Los Gatos has an unhoused population of between 30 and 60 people. These are our neighbors, and they represent the “front lines” of where our legal and social systems intersect. Galvin-Almanza’s thesis is that “mercy” is a diagnostic tool. In Los Gatos, we don’t just put a band-aid on a problem. Instead, we look for the root cause. True mercy is looking past a case number to see the human being and the underlying issues, often mental health, trauma, or sudden economic loss, that lead to homelessness and legal entanglement.
I urge Los Gatans to petition our State Assembly to adopt three “common sense” changes that would directly benefit our county’s bottom line:
- Fund a Holistic Defense Model: A public defender should lead a multidisciplinary team of social workers and mental health specialists. Instead of a $180,000 prison cell, we choose a $15,000 community-based intervention that addresses the drivers of crime.
- Ensure Early Access to Counsel: Justice delayed is justice that costs more. Ensuring a defender is present during the first 24 hours prevents procedural errors that lead to years of expensive, taxpayer-funded litigation.
- End “Blind” Plea Bargaining: Currently, defendants are often pressured to plead guilty before seeing police reports or body-cam footage. “Speedy discovery” ensures cases are resolved on facts, not fear of a “trial penalty.”
In Los Gatos, we value results over political theater. We see the “revolving door” effects on North Santa Cruz Avenue and in our local storefronts. When the legal system grinds someone down without addressing the cause, we lose the chance for Victim Restitution. If we stabilize a defendant’s housing and employment, we create a path for them to pay back what they owe to their victims, many of whom are our own neighbors and shopkeepers.
Ultimately, this isn’t about being “soft” on crime; it’s about being smart with our tax dollars. By investing small sums of money on the front end for social intervention, we save millions in back-end incarceration. It is time for Santa Clara County to stop managing the revolving door and start closing it for good.
We can no longer afford the luxury of an inefficient justice system that drains our coffers while leaving the root causes of local instability unaddressed. I encourage my fellow residents to join me in urging our state legislators to support funding for Holistic Defense and Resource Parity. It is time we stop throwing good money after bad and start investing in the safety, fiscal sanity, and restitution that Los Gatos families and business owners deserve.
