OAKLAND — If the Alameda County District Legal professional will get her means, first time gun possession offenders will go to jail.
A brand new coverage enacted by DA Ursula Jones Dickson would require prosecutors to hunt “mandatory minimum” sentences of jail or jail for all gun expenses, from first-time arrestees charged with a misdemeanor to repeat felons caught with a gun. Prosecutors have been notified of the coverage change on Monday, an workplace spokesman stated.
“There must be more accountability,” Jones Dickson stated in a written assertion. “Our schools, students and teachers need to thrive in a safe gun-free environment. I believe that this will be an important step in that direction to make Oakland and Alameda County safer.”
Alameda County District Legal professional Ursula Jones Dickson speaks throughout a press convention on the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. Cedric Irving Jr., 27, has been charged within the deadly taking pictures of former soccer coach John Beam. (Jane Tyska/Bay Space Information Group)
The brand new coverage is a stark shift from Jones Dickson’s predecessor, Pamela Value, who in 2023 circulated a memo instructing her prosecutors to make use of probation phrases because the “presumptive offer” in all instances the place the defendant was legally eligible for them, and to hunt “low end” sentences when probation wasn’t on the desk. Value, recalled in 2024 and changed by county supervisors with Jones Dickson, used that coverage as a part of broader efforts to cut back incarceration and implement progressive justice reform.
Jones Dickson stated that shifting ahead, her workplace will week 90-day jail sentence for misdemeanor gun instances, 180-day sentences for felony possession expenses, and 16 months in jail for individuals with felony convictions who’re caught with weapons. She vowed to hunt “further mandatory jail time” for individuals caught with unregistered weapons, generally referred to as “ghost guns.”
Prosecutors have vital affect over a defendant’s sentence, with one apparent caveat: any consequence they search should first be accredited by a choose.
The Alameda County Public Defender’s Workplace didn’t instantly concern a response to the brand new coverage.
