PROSECUTORS HAVE ENORMOUS POWER
With more than 2,300 prosecutors’ offices across the country, prosecutors affect the lives and outcomes of millions of individuals each year. Prosecutors wield far-reaching discretionary powers, such as determining which charges to pursue, whether to recommend bail, which witnesses to interview, and what sentences to recommend. Prosecutors also control the plea-bargaining process, by which an estimated 95% of cases are resolved.
PROSECUTORS ARE THE MOST POWERFUL ACTORS IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Prosecutors play a role in bail decisions, whether children should be charged as adults, whether people should be offered diversion programs to prevent criminal convictions and whether to charge specific enhancement crimes that add decades of prison time to charges. They also decide whether to prosecute police who violate the law. The consequences of those decisions can mean the difference between the success or failure of someone touched by the system and the overall safety of the community.
97%
of cases never go to trial
1 IN 15
of the world’s prisoners are in the U.S
1 IN 15
black men is behind bars
PROSECUTORS’ SUCCESS HAS OFTEN BEEN MEASURED BY THEIR ABILITY TO INCREASE THE NUMBER, LENGTH, AND SEVERITY OF CONVICTIONS
For decades, prosecutors have won elections by championing tough-on-crime policies that empowered them to use their discretion to levy harsh punishments that have disproportionately affected low-income communities of color, especially Black and Brown communities.