New white-paper on “Advancing the Use of Data in Prosecution: What We Measure Matters”

 Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) this week released this new white paper focused on data collection by prosecutor offices.  Three FJP contributors to the white paper also authored this new commentary at The Crime Report headlined “Every Prosecutor’s Office Should Be Investing in Data.”  The start of the commentary provides context and a preview of the full white paper:

Local prosecutors hold enormous power over the outcomes of criminal cases.  Their decisions -– whether to file a case, what charges to bring, what dispositions to offer, and what sentences to seek -– impact the lives of individuals and their communities every day.

Yet, for decades, little has been known about the inner workings of prosecutor’s offices, as elected prosecutors’ historical resistance to data and transparency has shielded them from accountability both internally and externally. But as more and more communities demand new approaches to prevent crime and promote justice -– and as misinformation about justice reform abounds -– it’s long past time to unlock the black box of prosecution. 

A new generation of prosecutors is helping us do just that by investing resources in cultivating data and releasing it to the public, improving both the effectiveness and equity of their offices and thereby promoting public safety.  Now, more need to follow suit. 

Seeking justice in a criminal case is a complex and difficult job, and that job is often made more difficult by a lack of data available to the elected prosecutors who oversee this work.  Imagine running a prosecutor’s office that processes thousands of cases each year, but you have no system to track how individual prosecutors are handling pretrial release recommendations, where office resources are being focused, how and where cases are languishing in the system, the ultimate disposition recommended and imposed in cases, or the racial disparities that may be perpetuated by your own office.  How would you know whether your staff is adhering to the policies you put in place?  How do you measure your office’s success?

Building a data infrastructure that allows an office to quickly and accurately answer these questions is not an easy undertaking.  But it’s more important than ever that policymakers, advocates, and the public have a common set of facts they can work from and a common understanding of how prosecutors are making these critical decisions.  And that requires improved data capacity in the more than 2,000 prosecutor’s offices nationwide. 

That’s why Fair and Just Prosecution recently released  “Advancing the Use of Data in Prosecution,” a first-of-its-kind report that lifts up the inspiring data work happening in prosecutor’s offices across the country and offers guidance for others seeking to improve their systems.