“A Vision for the Modern Prosecutor”

The title of this post is the title of this intriguing new five-page document produced by the Executive Session of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College. Here is the piece’s introduction and some key elements:

In the wake of unprecedented and overdue attention on the criminal legal system and its role in our Nation’s legacy of racial injustice, as elected prosecutors and members of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution’s Executive Session on the Role of the Prosecutor, we believe that it is possible to describe and call for an emerging vision for the role of a modern prosecutor.  In doing so, we find it necessary to contrast this vision with a description of the traditional ways that prosecutors have carried out their responsibilities.  In this paper we describe this contrast between traditional practice and a vision of the future by comparing their conceptions of justice, modes of operation, culture, accountability, and metrics. In making these contrasts, we celebrate the power and potential of the current wave of prosecutorial reform that we are witnessing around the country. We have high hopes that this movement will support the broader re-examination of our society’s response to crime and aspiration for justice.

Conceptions of Justice

Traditionally: Prosecutors have defined their role principally as part of a larger criminal justice system that operates with a primary focus on case processing….

We believe the future of prosecution requires that: Prosecutors explicitly set aside this notion of the criminal justice system as a case processing apparatus…. 

 

Modes of Operation

Traditionally: Prosecutors have been largely reactive….

We believe the future of prosecution requires that: Prosecutors no longer regard themselves as recipients of other actors’ cases or as limited by existing system options with respect to dispositions of those cases….

 

Culture

Traditionally: Prosecutors have been acculturated to consider themselves to be the “us,” and the “good guys,” in an “us vs. them” and “good vs. bad” world….

We believe the future of prosecution requires that: Prosecutors recognize the complexity of the people with whom they engage and of the matters to which they attend….

 

Accountability and Metrics

Traditionally: Prosecutors have relied on internal, narrow, and often ill-defined standards for judging their performance….

We believe the future of prosecution requires that: Prosecutors develop broad, explicit and transparent standards and expectations for their actions and outcomes….

Prosecutors must make violence and violence prevention a top priority.