Prosecutorial Reform

Prosec­utors wield tremend­ous power. They decide which charges to bring and whether to seek pretrial deten­tion or cash bail, and they often control the plea-bargain­ing process. Crucially, they also influ­ence senten­cing, determ­in­ing whether and how long defend­ants will remain in prison. With 94 prosec­utors at the federal level and more than 2,400 at the state, county, and city levels, these lawyers play a signi­fic­ant role in shap­ing the crim­inal justice system. In many cases, spurred by punit­ive policies that create incent­ives to put people behind bars, they have fed the epidemic of mass incar­cer­a­tion plaguing the United States.

The conduct of prosec­utors has received a great deal of scru­tiny in recent years, draw­ing atten­tion to instances of the collat­eral consequences of impris­on­ment. At the same time, prosec­utors across the coun­try have sought to imple­ment more equit­able and sens­ible approaches. Respond­ing to the demands of voters, these reform-minded offi­cials are taking the lead in cutting the nation’s prison popu­la­tion. In a 2018 report, the Bren­nan Center proposed a paradigm shift in how prosec­utors are eval­u­ated. Instead of reward­ing them for indict­ing more people, winning more convic­tions, and garner­ing longer sentences, we should reori­ent prosec­utors’ incent­ives toward a differ­ent set of goals: redu­cing crime, incar­cer­a­tion, and recidiv­ism in their districts.