No, in my first year in office, my team charged more than 7,000 cases, including murders and felonies, while increasing the workforce and using technology to improve our ability to prosecute cases fairly. The rate of cases processed under my administration was actually slightly higher than my predecessor’s rate in the two years before I took office. Plea bargains are negotiated by the deputy district attorneys for many reasons and always require court approval. Only judges can release someone from jail, so I was not releasing anyone from jail.

In 1935, in the case of United States v. Berger, the U.S. Supreme Court pointed out that the prosecutor "is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice be done. . . . while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one."

NOTE: “Soft on crime” is a political label used by the right-wing to poison the conversation about criminal justice reform. Policy decisions should not be driven by the manipulation of our fears and emotions. We need a "justice-driven" system that is fair to everyone. United States v. Berger (1935) 298 U.S. 78.