Meet Steve Jackson
With over 20 years in the legal world and currently serving as Chief Criminal Deputy in the Prosecutors Office of Grays Harbor, Steve offers a unique and human-first perspective that is often overlooked in our courtrooms.
My Why
Former Elected Prosecutor, Katherine Svoboda hired me just before she became Superior Court Judge.
Since arriving at the Prosecutors Office here in Grays Harbor County, I have been in Superior Court, prosecuting all types of felonies. As we have had staffing changes through those years, I have subsumed many former colleagues’ caseloads and gained more and more supervisory responsibilities in the office. A lot of good people have come in and out of the Prosecutors Office during that time and it has been challenging. Some of that is due to unnecessary negative courtroom experiences in Department 3.
Since coming into the office, I have had a growing concern that the judicial officer in Department 3, was behaving in ways which I felt were not judicial. I have appeared before dozens of judges in several jurisdictions. I know when I am before a balanced, neutral and impartial magistrate, or not. My concerns for the lack of judicial demeanor in that particular courtroom caused sufficient angst in order for me to file to replace him. I know I can do better.
We battle in this life with ego. We are told that the ego, if left unchecked, can compromise our life, and our life’s decisions. There is no room for ego on the bench. If not under one’s control, it needs to be consciously left outside the courtroom.
Department 3 needs to be restored to a safe place for all the criminal participants. It should not be a place of surprise, but rather one of consistent alignment with law and justice.
What I have learned since being in the Harbor is that a lot of the population are born here. Some of them commit crime here and most often they do not leave Grays Harbor.
What can the legal system do to give our brother and sister citizens a chance at a life free from crime?
This is an amazing, beautiful place and I don’t intend on leaving.
What is the just judicial response to the crimes committed here in the Harbor by our brothers, sisters, neighbors, and community members? To me, this is a complex question that involves so many factors.
Incarceration is but one tool that the Court can use. It is useful in many cases, acting as a deterrent towards recidivism. But, the Court also wields the ability to utilize the limited available resources in order to address the root issues of the offender. It depends on so much; the input from the court participants, the resources, and the individuals involved.
The judge is the one to discern with impartiality and integrity how that manifests. I believe, based on my varied and lengthy criminal justice career that I am better suited for such an undertaking. I ask that you give me that chance!
My Family
MY LOVE, ERICKA
MY DAUGHTER, JADA &
MY PARTNER'S DAUGHTER, SAMANTHA
MY DAUGHTER, SERENA
MY SON, ELIJAH
My Story
I was born and grew up in Holliston, Massachusetts - back then a small colonial farming community of 12,000 people. I had a picturesque New England childhood, playing outside, doing sports, and delivering papers. It was a different time and I acknowledge that current and recent generations contend with many more challenges than I did. I worked at the local diner for a couple years, Walters Dairy, which was owned by four Italian brothers and their mother. It was a classic place where police would come in for complimentary coffee and local politics were always on the menu. I also worked at McDonalds for a few years.
BACKPACKING The travel bug hit me early and I backpacked through Europe at 19, and the Caribbean at 20. College was a cross country journey for me, taking classes wherever I was living and eventually graduating from Sonoma State University. A highlight of my education was a six-month study abroad program in India and Nepal. I met the Dalia Lama, trekked the Himalayas, and lived in Kathmandu. That experience truly opened my eyes to the fact that there is so much to see and learn from people from all walks of life.
Along the way, I was a ski bum in Colorado and worked in some of the finest hotels in the world. During my time there, my Dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I moved back to my home state and took care of him with my family until he died nine months later. It was a gift to be with him until the end, and I gained a level of maturity that I had lacked before.
LIVING WITH TIBETAN FAMILY IN DHARMSALA 
HIMALAYASMy Dad was waiting for the day he would retire at 63 to golf and move to a lakeside home. Like so many, he didn’t like his job but endured through it in order to take care of his family. He died at 63 before ever having the chance to retire, or to live the version of himself that he had dreamed of for so long. I did not want to live a life of a means to end mentality, one where joy was an idea for “someday,” and one that you would be lucky to realize. I vowed to find a vocation that I enjoyed, fully and truly.
My next step was graduate school, and I applied to a Masters of Social Work program in the Bay Area. Despite good grades, I was not accepted due to a lack of work experience in the social welfare field. This was the impetus for going to law school. I was accepted to the University of San Francisco School of Law where I excelled, perhaps most notably being a member of the law review and receiving a number of scholastic scholarships. I gravitated toward criminal law and after graduation I took my first law job in the small Northern Californian town of Ukiah. I was married at the time and had three beautiful children.
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL OF LAW GRADUATION Early Career
I was a Deputy Public Defender in Mendocino County, California. For the first couple years, I was assigned to defend the parents in dependency actions. That was such a challenging assignment right out of law school. I needed to understand several aspects of the law; criminal, family, guardianship, conservatorship and Indian Law. Looking back, this was a great introduction into the various systems which provide services to the parents and guardians. I learned about drug and alcohol treatment, the mental health establishment, how public benefits work and how CPS works. It formed a great foundation for me, as I would carry that knowledge into the practice of criminal law. I had a first hand understanding of what resources were available to defendants and victims. I still draw on many of the basic concepts of trauma, addiction, mental illness and how they interplay with criminality.
I then began to represent Defendants in both misdemeanor and felony cases and as time went on, the cases became more serious. My boss at the Public Defenders Office “promoted me” to represent Defendants in Sexually Violent Predator civil cases. Those clients have usually committed several sex offenses and have been deemed so dangerous that the State seeks to have them civilly committed, potentially indefinitely, because of their violent history. It’s a similar process to Washington State, where those individuals were housed on McNeil Island.
PROSECUTOR JOE BRUSICAt the time, I had three small children and determined that I needed a paradigm shift. I could no longer defend those offenders. I knew I needed to prosecute those who offend and harm others. I took a job across the street at the District Attorneys Office. Since then, I have been prosecuting all crimes, but with a specialty in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
In 2011, our family moved to Yakima and I supervised the Special Assault Unit off and on until leaving there in 2020. Yakima was very challenging due to the volume and severity of crime there. I worked for my good friend, the Elected Prosecutor, Joe Brusic.
Present
In 2020, I moved with my partner and her daughter to Oakville to work for the Prosecutors Office in Grays Harbor. We live on a hay farm with our border collie, Buddy, and three chickens. My children, now adults, are making their way in this crazy world on their own path. They are an artist, and an entrepreneur and a digital nomad. I am so proud of them and am grateful when they are able to come and visit us and enjoy the garden and this beautiful harbor.
I have a passion and interest in giving back to the Earth and achieving sustainable harmony using permaculture principles. I have taken and continue to take classes in permaculture, co-creating a fledgling food forest on the property. The concept creates sustainable ways of living that integrates human activity with our natural surroundings. The practice of permaculture integrates the deeper understanding of natural patterns, using and valuing diversity, and always being able to creatively respond to change.