"Are Prosecutors the Key to Justice Reform?: Given their autonomy — only if they want to be."

The title of this post is the headline of this lengthy Atlantic article which effectively highlights how little we know about the work of prosecutors and how critical they are to the operation and impact of criminal justice systems. I recommend the are piece in full, and here are snippets:

A consensus is building around the need to seriously rethink the role of the prosecutor in the administration of justice. Power dynamics are unbalanced, sentencing guidelines are outdated, and old-fashioned human biases persist.  And prosecutors — singularly independent agents in a justice system roiling in turmoil — have been facing growing criticism and public distrust for some time, and that disapproval is about to hit a tipping point.  It’s time to curtail the power long held by these officers of the court as they promote justice, ensure fairness, and enhance public safety....

John Jay College of Criminal Justice recently announced its new Institute for Innovation in Prosecution, headed by former prosecutor Meg Reiss.  A joint project from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the college, the New York City-based institute will “develop programs designed to support innovation in the role of prosecutors in the American justice system.”  Reiss, a jurist with two decades of experience, has great faith in what her former colleagues can accomplish.  She also owns up to the negative perceptions typically tied to the role.  “There’s a lot of mystery about what actually goes on in a prosecutor’s office, so people have never been able to really evaluate it and see exactly what it is they’re doing,” she said....

Reiss said part of the solution is giving prosecutors better tools with which to do their jobs — with “a lot more discretion and creativity.”  She said some crimes should fall into categories like “alternatives to prosecution” and “diversion programs.”  “Of course, you address violent crime appropriately, and no one’s saying that you shouldn’t,” Reiss said.  “But I think everything needs to be carefully evaluated and understood.  There isn’t a broad stroke that you use for every type of crime or every type of person.” She cites the intelligence-driven prosecution model out of the Manhattan district attorney’s office as a good place to start: “DA Cyrus Vance is holding a symposium, one of many they’ve done already, on a crime-strategies unit that he has set up in his office, teaching other officers around the country how to do the same.”

It might take that kind of colleague-to-colleague approach to change the prosecutorial culture in the United States. “The bottom line is people came to be prosecutors because they really wanted to ensure fairness and increase public safety,” Reiss said.  “They have a real moment at this time to step up and make a big change, to really lead in this effort, to be really innovative and forthright in their intentions, to reduce mass incarceration, to address racial disparity in the system, to look for alternatives to oppressive sanctions.  We missed so many things and now is the moment.”