Every day, prosecutors’ actions impact the millions of people who come in contact with the criminal justice system. Yet prosecutors provide the public with almost no information about the decisions they make: including whether or not to charge a person who has been arrested, whether to seek bail and in what amounts, or how plea offers are determined.
But that’s changing in some communities around the country. In 2018, advocacy groups and the media continued recent efforts to draw attention to the power of prosecutors and their role in growing and sustaining mass incarceration. That attention, in part, translated into change in jurisdictions across the nation, where voters organized to elect local lead prosecutors who campaigned on reform platforms. A punitive, regressive approach to prosecution continued to prevail in the federal system—and seems likely to endure, as William Barr emerged as President Trump’s nominee to replace ousted U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Over the course of 2018, some local lead prosecutors—both those newly in office and those who have been in office for a few years—worked to put campaign promises of reform into action. Cook County (Chicago) State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, City of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance have all directed their prosecutors to recommend pretrial release on many lower-level charges; Circuit Attorney Gardner declined cases from law enforcement officers if the office had concerns about the credibility of their testimony; and State’s Attorney Foxx released data from hundreds of thousands of cases handled by her office. Though these reforms demonstrate progress in some jurisdictions, influential state prosecutors’ associations across the country worked to block criminal justice reform legislation that otherwise had bipartisan support.