“‘Progressive’ Prosecutors and ‘Proper’ Punishments”

The title of this post is the title of this new book chapter authored by Benjamin Levin and available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:

After decades of relative inattention to prosecutorial elections, academics and activists recently have focused on “progressive prosecutors” as a promising avenue for criminal justice reform.  That said, the growing literature on progressive prosecutors reflects little clarity about what makes a prosecutor “progressive.”  Recent campaigns suggest disparate visions of how to operationalize “progressive prosecution.”  In this chapter, I describe four ideal types of progressive prosecutor: (1) the progressive who prosecutes, (2) the proceduralist prosecutor, (3) the prosecutorial progressive, and (4) the anti-carceral prosecutor.  Looking to sentencing policy as a case study, I examine how these different ideal types illustrate different visions of criminal justice reform.