“The Case for a Presidential Task Force on 21st Century Prosecution"

The title of this post is the title of this notable new white paper produced by Fair and Just Prosecution.  Here is its executive summary:

THE NEED FOR A PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCE ON 21ST CENTURY PROSECUTION

The United States currently incarcerates its residents at the highest rate of any democratic country in the world.  This system of mass incarceration disproportionately impacts Black and brown Americans, disrupts communities, and bloats budgets, all while impeding the mission of public safety it purports to promote.  Prosecutors wield a vast amount of discretion and authority within the criminal legal system — and therefore share responsibility for those systemic failings — yet they also hold the power to bring about systemic transformation.  The Biden-Harris administration has a vital role to play in catalyzing innovation and helping prosecutors nationwide chart a path to greater justice and equity for their communities.  A new generation of local elected prosecutors are modeling that potential and are reimagining the role of prosecutors. We propose a Presidential Task Force on 21st Century Prosecution to build on — and help perpetuate — that movement.

PROPOSED FOCUS

Seventeen pillars would serve as the basis for a series of hearings and focus the Task Force’s work:

• Understanding the historical legacy of the prosecutor
• Promoting deflection, diversion, and shrinking the system
• Advancing racial and ethnic justice
• Addressing the poverty penalty and bail reform
• Promoting harm reduction, saving lives, and drug policy reform
• Misdemeanor justice
• Better serving crime survivors
• Understanding, preventing, and addressing violence
• Juvenile and young adult justice
• Preventing officer-involved shootings and enhancing police accountability
• Improving conditions of confinement
• Implementing post-conviction justice, fair sentencing, and sentencing review
• Accounting for collateral consequences and promoting expungement
• Addressing mass supervision and improving reentry
• Envisioning success, metrics, and culture change
• Ensuring ethics, accountability, and transparency
• Propelling change and investing in transformation....

GOALS AND OUTCOMES

We recommend that the Task Force produce:

• A final report that identifies successful prosecutorial reforms and innovation, lays out key challenges to implementing change, details promising practices, and offers specific and tangible goals paired with policy and program recommendations that could include improving the safety and well-being of our communities, dramatically reducing jail and prison populations, ending racial disparities, and enhancing transparency and accountability;
• A strategic roadmap to incentivize and fund change and innovation, including by encouraging and enabling specific federal laws, policies, resources, and grants to help support and propel systemic transformation; and
• A concrete implementation plan, including the creation of an implementation oversight group and ongoing technical assistance from key federal government bodies and leaders.