Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig
In 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and again in 2022, Jeff Reisig was elected District Attorney of Yolo County with the strong support of diverse community organizations, victims groups, criminal justice reformers and innovators, law enforcement groups and bipartisan civic leaders from across the region.
Reisig was born in a small farming community in California, where he and his siblings were raised by their mother, a public school teacher, and their father, a local businessman.
After attending public schools, his interest in agriculture led him to the University of California at Davis, where he earned his degree in agricultural and managerial economics.
He then attended law school at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, where he graduated at the top of his class with Great Distinction and Order of the Coif.
While a student in undergraduate and later in law school, Reisig volunteered as a legal intern for the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office, where he assisted attorneys in defending individuals charged with crimes. His experience there served to provide him valuable insight into the criminal justice system in the coming years.
After graduation, he went on to represent farmers and other businesses as a lawyer for a prestigious Central Valley law firm.
Ultimately, his desire to serve the public led him to return to Yolo County to start his career as a prosecutor with the District Attorney’s Office in 1997.
Reisig has spent most of his entire professional life in the trenches as a prosecutor. He has prosecuted thousands of criminal cases ranging from murder, hate crimes, rape and robbery, to white collar crimes, crimes against children and the elderly, and property crimes.
His colleagues voted him Yolo County Prosecutor of the Year for three consecutive years in 2003, 2004 and again in 2005.
Three-Time Prosecutor of the Year
As Yolo County District Attorney, he has focused intensively on fighting violent crime and keeping communities safe, while also developing and implementing innovative programs designed to smartly reform and bring enhanced transparency to the criminal justice system.
For example, in 2013 he developed and launched a ground-breaking restorative justice program called Neighborhood Court. Since its launch, Neighborhood Court, now called the Restorative Justice Partnership, has helped resolve over 2500 criminal cases, including misdemeanors and certain non-violent felonies, outside the traditional criminal justice system. Supported and staffed by hundreds of community volunteers over the years, an independent study found that Neighborhood Court had an 89% completion rate by participants and an incredibly low recidivism rate of 4% after one year. Additional data established a victim satisfaction rate of over 90%. Neighborhood Court has since been extensively studied and referenced as a national example of effective criminal justice reform and was also featured on the cover of the American Bar Association magazine.
District Attorney Reisig also helped develop Yolo County’s first Mental Health Court in a collaborative effort to provide an alternative to traditional prosecution and jail for those who commit non-violent crimes and are diagnosed with a severe mental illness. Under the close supervision of trained mental health professionals, a judge and DA and defense staff, mentally ill offenders are given the opportunity to address their illness and their conduct without jail. Yolo’s program is frequently cited as a model of success, helping countless individuals reclaim their lives.
DA Reisig with Measures For Justice Leadership Team in 2020
In 2021, he partnered with the non-partisan data and reform organization, Measures For Justice, to become the first district attorney’s office in the nation to launch a criminal justice data transparency portal, called Commons, where all criminal case data from the office is validated and published by a neutral third party and available for public inspection, media review and research. The successful project was widely lauded as a ground-breaking move to promote transparency, improve public trust and provide trustworthy data for actionable conversations on issues such as racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
Also in 2021, Reisig partnered with the Stanford Computational Policy Lab to develop and implement a “race-blind” charging program in his criminal case management system, which redacts race information from the police reports reviewed by prosecutors charging cases. As a result of this innovation, Yolo DA became the first prosecutor’s office in America to incorporate such a blind-justice tool into the DNA of its daily operations.
District Attorney Reisig is the recipient of numerous awards.
The Concilio of Yolo County has honored him for his leadership in developing reformative programs that embraced inclusivity and diversity principles.
District Attorney Jeff Reisig with Carlos Matos receiving the Concilio Award
The University of California at Davis also honored him with the Highly Distinguished Calvin E. Handy Leadership Award for embodying the “true spirit of community” and being a “champion for victims rights both at UC Davis and in the greater Yolo County area where many UC Davis community members reside.”
California’s largest victim advocacy association, Crime Victims United of California, also honored him as a key advocate in the fight for victims’ rights and honored his efforts in helping to secure California’s passage of Marsy’s Law, which amended the California Constitution to protect victims’ rights.
Reisig is a member of the California District Attorneys Association, and is currently serving as the statewide President, after being elected by district attorneys from all across California in 2021.
He is also a member of the National District Attorneys Association and a graduate of the prestigious “Executive Program” for District Attorneys across the United States.
Reisig and his family live in Yolo County. ###
