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Name: Jamie Mosser
Party: Democratic
Why did you choose law as a profession?
It all started with my mother commenting about how I should just be a lawyer given the sheer amount of arguing I did with her as a teen. With that being said, I was interested in a profession where you could go to court and fight for people’s rights. I fell in love with being a prosecutor after a prosecutor came to career day in 8th grade. I loved that you could advocate for justice for victims. From that moment on, I only wanted to be a prosecutor.
What in your legal experience best qualifies you to be Kane County State’s Attorney?
I was a prosecutor in New Orleans for 2 years and a prosecutor in Kane County for 10 years. I was also a private attorney and obtained experience working with individuals as a defense attorney, family law attorney and legal aid attorney. Most importantly, I have been the Kane County State’s Attorney for the last four years and have proven through my innovative ideas that I have improved our criminal justice system by creating programs that help get low level/non-violent people out of our system while directing prosecutions of dangerous offenders to ensure they are sent to prison.
Why are you the better candidate for Kane County State’s Attorney?
My opponent lacks any current and relevant experience. In our forums, he does not talk about how he would better the system or what ideas he brings to Kane County. In comparison, my first tenure has shown that I will bring a balance of fair prosecution by holding people accountable through programming. We have expanded all of our deferred prosecution programs, created Illinois’ first pre-arrest diversion program and expanded to have our 4th specialty court program - DUI Rehabilitative Court. In addition to that, I created a Child Exploitation Unit that investigates and prosecutes child pornographers. I continue to have ideas on how to make our system work better for the protection of victims and our community.
What do you think are the three biggest challenges the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office will face during the next term and what solutions would you propose?
-The first is the budget crisis that we are in. Kane County has done nothing to increase their revenue over the last decade. As such, the employees have been horribly underpaid. Speaking of my office, we were losing valuable employees to other counties because people could not afford to work here. I pushed the County Board to not only increase staffing based on crime trends and needs but also for pay parity. This needs to be applied to every employee in Kane County. I have provided the County Board with four different solutions to raise revenue including having a public safety sales tax.
-The second is the prevalence and rise of domestic violence cases. Most of the inmates in our jail can state that they have either seen or been a victim of DV. Statistically, boys are more likely to be abusers and girls are more likely to be victims when they grow up in a DV household. I am working with our judiciary now to create courtrooms that will focus on DV cases so that we can get the offenders to treatment quicker while making it safer for the victims. We will be able to help the entire family also and break the cycle of violence through these specialized courtrooms.
-The third is the rise in crime due to untreated mental health and/or substance use disorders. The majority of the crimes are committed because of this and/or a lack of resources. Since COVID, we have seen these numbers increase while the access to resources and treatment have decreased. I am going to further expand my pre-arrest diversion program throughout Kane County and also create one that is geared towards youth and their families. The more that we are able to link people with treatment and resources, the less criminal behavior we will see.
What is the most important goal you want to accomplish if elected?
When re-elected, I will create a Human Trafficking Task Force that is designed to investigate and prosecute human traffickers. Currently, we lack the experience to effectively investigate these cases which often result in the victims being arrested. I recently received a grant from the State of Illinois for $1 million dollars. I will use this to begin the task force while continuing to apply for grants to maintain this task force.
Do you believe you can serve your constituents in a bipartisan manner? Why or why not?
Yes and I have proven that by being a vocal opponent of the SAFE-T Act which was passed by democrats. As a result of that, I was allowed to help draft three trailer bills that helped to greatly fix the problematic areas of the law. Additionally, I have worked with all of the members of the County Board and the elected officials in a bipartisan manner which has earned their respect and endorsement of my re-election.
The Pretrial Fairness Act has been in effect for a little over a year. How do you think it has affected criminal justice in Kane County?
It is important to note that the PFA works based on the trailer bill that was drafted by myself and others in law enforcement along with the advocates of the law. Yes, it has worked better than most of us believed. The best part is that dangerous offenders can no longer pay their way out of jail. Non-violent offenders are not sitting in jail because they cannot pay a nominal amount to get out. There are still significant fixes that need to occur. With that being said, I am committed to continuing to work with the legislators without statistics and case facts to make this law better.