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b'Diana Becton took an unusual route to become prosecutor. She had served 22 years as a judge in Contra Costa County before the Board of Supervisors in 2017 appointed her interim DA, then she was elected DA in 2018. She became the first African American woman to serve as DA in the county.\\n\\nThe previous DA in Contra Costa County was charged with felonies and was forced to resign.\\n\\n\\u201cThe reasons people thought that I would be good for that position had to do not only with my administrative experience, but also people thought that I would bring criminal justice reform to Contra Costa County,\\u201d she explained.\\n\\nShe said, \\u201cIt was a really a difficult position for me.\\u201d\\n\\nBut she noted, \\u201cThe laws in our criminal justice system really shifted a lot so that judges really didn\\u2019t have that much discretion in what happens in the court room.\\u201d While a lot of people see judges as the most powerful person in the courtroom, \\u201cwhat I came to see is that it\\u2019s really the prosecutor in that courtroom who had all of the discretion and the power.\\n\\nListen as she discussed her efforts to reform the system.'