On February 10, 2015, Stephanie Morales was the first woman to be elected Commonwealth’s Attorney in Portsmouth, VA. Upon becoming her city’s chief law enforcement officer, she created sustainable programming aimed at reforming the criminal justice system that has been embraced by the community. She was re-elected this past November and has now served for over three years while taking on violent crime and police misconduct and committing her office to a community prosecution model focused on ensuring the community is safe and just.
Just three months into Stephanie’s first term an officer in her city killed an unarmed African American teen. Stephanie stepped in on day one to ensure there was a thorough investigation conducted independently from the police department. At its conclusion, she sought and secured an indictment and led the prosecution herself through a year of pre-trial motions and finally at jury trial, leading to a rare voluntary manslaughter conviction of the officer, and resulting in police accountability in her city and peace for the victim’s family.
A month after taking office, Stephanie formed her “Ctrl+Alt+Del Program” under which she has held dialogue and taught effective re-entry strategies in seminars held in the community and inside state prisons and has helped reduce recidivism by working with incarcerated citizens and citizens who have re-entered into the community to restore their voting rights and help them become productive community members. It is uncommon for prosecutors to work with the incarcerated population who will soon re-enter into our communities but Stephanie firmly believes that if the prosecutor’s office supports those working to stay on the right track there is no reason others in the community will not do the same, leading to more effective re-entry and to the overall success of all citizens in our communities.
Since taking office, Stephanie has mentored over 150 students under her program called the “Future Leaders Initiative” which was established in March of 2015. Under this program young people from elementary school all the way through law school are afforded the opportunity to shadow, intern or fellow in the office after which they earn the title of “Junior Commonwealth’s Attorney.” This program was formed to ensure a positive relationship is formed with the city’s youth from an early stage in hopes that they will consider careers in its criminal justice system. Stephanie is a firm believer that the system functions best when people of it and who respect and love its people are at its helm and her efforts are for the purpose of creating a better criminal justice system by developing its future leaders early. To further extend youth engagement and to keep students on the right track, Stephanie and her team formed the “Social Media by the Statutes” program where her team enters the public schools to keep students on the right track by engaging students with scenarios that teach them how their behaviors online and through technology can affect them legally.
Stephanie advocates daily for those who can’t fight for themselves. She works constantly to address our mental health crisis in the criminal justice system and also to disrupt implicit bias in prosecution. She works daily to ensure the community is engaged with her office and constantly informed on what is happening in the justice system. Stephanie is a fierce advocate for justice and a wife and mother of four children who is proud to work for the community where she was born and raised as a true public servant.