The new Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady announced that he intends to operate with a policy of restorative justice.
His public information release reads as follows:
Flynn D. Broady Jr., an Army combat veteran and prosecutor, has taken office as District Attorney of the Cobb Judicial Circuit with a vow to hold violent criminals accountable while restoring nonviolent offenders to productive lives. DA Broady was elected to the position in November 2020. Prior to his election, DA Broady was a prosecutor in the Cobb Solicitor General’s Office and served as the prosecutor for Cobb State Court’s DUI Court, the court’s only accountability court. He also was previously employed and served as coordinator of the Cobb Superior Court’s Veterans Treatment and Accountability Court.
As a veteran, DA Broady understands and is committed to the need for law and order. “People who are dangerous will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. However, as a proponent of the benefit of accountability courts, he believes those nonviolent offenders, especially those with substance-abuse problems and mental-health issues, need to have rehabilitative options alternatives other than incarceration.
“There are people caught up in our criminal justice system who can be, and who want to be, rehabilitated,” Broady said. “In a lot of cases, locking a nonviolent individual away and saddling them with a criminal history is more punishing to the community at large — by consuming taxpayer dollars, destabilizing families, and in other ways. When we can, we need to do better.” He believes wider community engagement, including expanded access to accountability courts and more visible victim advocacy, are essential to that effort.
DA Broady plans to concentrate on restorative justice and community engagement projects such as regular record restriction (expungement) events, a citizen’s DA Academy, school literacy programs, and community mental health crisis training.
As one of his first restorative justice initiatives, DA Broady has organized a ‘New Year, New Start’ event for some former graduates of Cobb’s Veterans Court the week of the Martin Luther King holiday. Due to Covid, attendance will be restricted and media who wish to attend should email Inv. Kim Isaza, Public Information Officer, in advance.
DA Broady is a native of Birmingham. He spent more than two decades in the Army as an instructor, a recruiter and a combat infantryman serving in Operation Iraqi Freedoms, in Anbar Province. He earned his law degree at Seton Hall University, where he also led ROTC. Flynn and his wife reside in Marietta. Flynn’s daughter is a graduate of Armstrong State University and resides in Savannah.
