Promoting Racial Equity in Prosecution
Prosecutors have enormous discretion to influence the outcome of a criminal case and, as a result, the course of someone’s life. The role that prosecutors have and continue to play in fueling mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on minorities is receiving closer scrutiny nationally.
For roughly a decade, beginning in 2005, district attorneys in Charlotte, Milwaukee, San Diego, Lincoln, Nebraska, and most recently Manhattan worked with us to take a step back and look at whether charging and plea decisions are influenced by race, leading black people, Latino people and other people from minority backgrounds to be punished more severely than white people for the same crimes. The method and lessons from these cities are captured in a detailed guide designed to help any district attorney’s office engage in the same type of self-reflection and reform.
Featured
Reshaping Prosecution
Across the country empowered communities have demanded a new approach to criminal justice by electing prosecutors committed to change. Standing on forward-looking platforms including promises of bail reform, diversion, and ending mass incarceration, a new generation of prosecutors in Chicago, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Orlando, Contra Costa, Denve ...
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Jamila Hodge
Unlocking the Black Box of Prosecution
A Prosecutor's Guide for Advancing Racial Equity
Black and Latino people are overrepresented in the U.S. criminal justice system. While racial disparity in case outcomes is often attributed to law enforcement practices or judicial decision making, the role of prosecutors is overlooked. In fact, prosecutors have wide discretionary power in case processing decisions—from initial screening, charging ...
Related Work
Event: We've Got the Power
A Virtual Event on the Power of District Attorneys in Criminal Justice
District attorneys wield enormous power in the criminal legal system. They have the power to decide the fate of people accused of crimes at every stage of a criminal case. They have tremendous sway over other actors throughout the criminal legal system, including policing practices and enforcement. We, the people, have the power to influence how th ...
Governors Should Embrace—Not Hinder—Reform-Minded Prosecutors
Decades of these policies failed our communities and our nation. From 1970 onward, decisions made to sharply increase the use of jail and prison throughout the country—and to impose harsher sentences for many criminal convictions—are now commonly referred to as the era of mass incarceration. Today, nearly 2.3 million people are behind bars. Mass in ...
Blog Post
Jamila Hodge
Dignity, Racial Justice, and Prosecution
Embracing human dignity; Correcting racial injustice; Reimagining prosecution
As the gatekeepers of the justice system, prosecutors wield a tremendous amount of power and are uniquely situated to stem the tide of mass incarceration and to ensure justice and fairness. While a wave of reform-minded district attorneys across the country are bringing increased awareness on both the need and potential for reform, true progress ca ...
Project
Jamila Hodge
The State of Justice Reform 2018
Unanimous Juries Bring 21st Century Justice to Louisiana
The risk to justice is real. Since 1989, at least 12 people in Louisiana have been exonerated who were convicted by a non-unanimous verdict—and there may be more. In June 2018, Senator JP Morrell led the state legislature sending this fundamental issue of justice to the people to approve a constitutional amendment. The Unanimous Jury Coalition—a c ...
Blog Post
William Snowden
What This Election Means for Criminal Justice Reform
It is not even 72 hours after the election, and the entire world is trying to assess the impact of an election result that will surely produce a dramatic restructuring across a broad array of issues and geographies—including justice reform, which we struggle and fight for along with you. As in any election and assumption of power, there will be a ...
Blog Post
Nicholas Turner
What We Lost
Grieving the Passing of District Attorney Ken Thompson
As we start to imagine moving forward in a Brooklyn and world without Ken Thompson in it, I think of the young people who were offered the chance to participate in Common Justice on his watch, and who may live long, free lives now, and of the crime survivors who had the opportunity to have their needs truly met because of his clarity of purpose in ...
Blog Post
Danielle Sered
Confronting Race and Justice in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Bias crime more likely in time of fear and suspicion
Sources: Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Hate Crime Statistics, 2014 (Washington, D.C.: FBI, 2015); M. Meuchel Wilson, Hate Crime Victimization, 2004-2012 – Statistical Tables (Washington, D.C., Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014 NCJ 244409); Corcoran, H., D. Lader and K. Smith Hate Crime, England and Wales,2014/15, (London: The Home Office of the ...
Blog Post
Jacob Kang-Brown
Series: Justice in Katrina's Wake
What will be different for New Orleans in the years to come?
“What is different?” That question rested on the lips of the many people—policymakers, journalists, and funders—who visited New Orleans to survey the city’s progress 10 years after Hurricane Katrina. Some described the physical rebuilding of the city—stronger, better, safer—or the spirit of the people: resilient. Others challenged these depictions, ...
Criminal background checks
A pretext for housing discrimination
“We’re very forgiving....a lot of things are explained by wrong place, wrong time.” That’s one of the many encouraging responses white tenants with criminal records heard from landlords, realtors, and other housing providers, according to a recent report by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC). Unfortunately, African America ...
Blog Post
Maxwell Ciardullo
Series: Gender and Justice in America
Who pays in an offender-funded justice system?
A new report from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Research Action Design lays bare the significant impact that mass male incarceration has on women who remain in the community—a critically important and often overlooked aspect of our current offender-funded justice system. Although women also suffer financial and emotional consequences w ...
Blog Post
Ruth Delaney