A longtime California judge and prosecutor will serve as Alameda County’s new top prosecutor as officials pivoted away from the criminal-friendly legacy of Pamela Price, the former district attorney recalled by fed-up voters in November.

The county’s Board of Supervisors voted to make Ursula Jones Dickson, a sitting Alameda County Superior Court judge, the next district attorney during a meeting Tuesday night. She is expected to be sworn in Tuesday.

Ms. Dickson outlined a new vision for the office, one that will prioritize positive outcomes for victims, rather than the sweetheart plea deals for violent offenders Ms. Price was often criticized for during her short time as top prosecutor.  

“We need to be charging cases in a timely manner. We need to have communication with victims on every case. We need to respect Marsy’s Law. And to make sure that the prosecution is victim centered,” the incoming district attorney told KGO-TV following the Tuesday night vote.

Ms. Dickson, who was a deputy district attorney in Alameda County from 1999-2013 before taking the bench, said she will return to cracking down on serious criminals in her charging decisions.

She also didn’t rule out making use of diversion programs for those who qualify, although she acknowledged her predecessor may have leaned on that option too much.

“Prosecution doesn’t necessarily mean that we can’t divert people away from the criminal justice system,” Ms. Dickson told a press gaggle, according to the Berkeley Scanner. “That’s what we do in collaborative courts. That’s what I’ve done for 11 years, so that’s not unusual. Having said that, I do think that people are a little tired of nothing happening.

Ms. Dickson said Tuesday she has her top staff in place, but added that bringing the line prosecutors up to speed may prove to be a challenge.

She said roughly a third of the lawyers in the office are new to prosecuting cases and are relatively recent hires by Ms. Price.

The former district attorney, who took over in 2023 before being recalled in November, saw seasoned prosecutors resign over her gentler approach to violent crime. The most high-profile resignation came last summer when her second-in-command stepped down.

Ms. Dickson was one of the candidates supported by Save Alameda for Everyone, a community group that began sounding the alarm on Ms. Price just months into her brief tenure.

In March 2023, Ms. Price put out a memo that said prosecutors should seek probation in most cases and only pursue sentencing enhancements in extreme circumstances.

Ms. Price reduced charges for the suspected killers of Jasper Wu, a nearly 2-year-old boy who was hit by a stray bullet in 2021, so the defendants could seek parole.

She also refused to charge then-18-year-old Sergio Morales-Jacquez as an adult in 2023 despite him being convicted or linked to three killings. Morales-Jacquez was given a seven-year sentence in juvenile prison as a result.

The charging decisions came as Oakland, Alameda County’s largest city, experienced its worst crime wave in years in 2023.

The violence cooled last year, but high-profile incidents — such as a man arrested in a San Francisco stabbing who avoided serious jail time for an Alameda County robbery months earlier — cemented the public’s sour opinion on the former district attorney.

Residents voted by a 65% to 35% margin to recall Ms. Price.

Ms. Dickson beat out six other candidates to become the new district attorney, many of whom were current prosecutors in Alameda County, neighboring Contra Costa County or the California Department of Justice.

Once sworn in next week, she will serve until the next scheduled election in 2026.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.