A graduate of the SIU School of Law announced his bid for Jackson County States Attorney in 1996 Tuesday.

Jim Persels, a local attorney from Makanda, said he will run for the office on the Republican ticket. Democrat Mike Wepsiec currently fills the position.

Persels, 51, said he considered running after officials from the Republican Central Committee approached him and said he was a viable candidate for the position. After consulting with his wife and two children about a month ago, Persels said he decided to throw his hat in the ring.

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Persels said his 25 years of management experience, mostly in health care, would be an asset to the state’s attorney office. The Office of the States Attorney has a budget in excess of $500,000 and prosecutes all crimes in the Jackson County jurisdiction.

Persels, who graduated with honors from the SIU School of Law in 1993, said if he is elected the office would reach out more to the public.

One vision I have for the office is to expand beyond the scope of prosecution, he said.

This expansion, Persels said, would involve preventative work such as talks with parents and children about gang activity and drugs. He said the office could be used as a bully pulpit for this purpose.

Persels said he would not allow this to take any focus away from prosecuting criminals, however.

As much as you try to prevent crime, there’s some people who don’t want to follow the laws of a civilized society, he said. You’ve got to punish bad guys.

He added that each prosecution must be done on an individual basis.

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On the flip side of that coin, criminal justice has become a bit of an assembly line, he said. There has to be individual justice. You have to look at each case individually.

Persels said this means the office must examine the circumstances of every crime it prosecutes.

Persels graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1966 and was a Naval Officer in the Vietnam War. He also earned a graduate degree in management from Tulane University. Since then he has done management work, mostly in the medical field, before graduating from the SIU Law School.