Progressive Prosecution: Race and Reform in Criminal Justice

The job of the prosecutor is not to perpetuate a failed system of mass incarceration. It is to spearhead race-conscious reform in the criminal justice system: to build the “instead” and lead toward racial justice and equity. To begin the hard work of reform, all district attorneys need to move away from the easy reactive role of responding to crimes with their well-worn but ineffective set of tools. They must instead develop a set of race-alert approaches to transform the criminal justice system. A few progressive prosecutors have already taken on the task, but more than 2,000 prosecutors are setting policies across the country and they each share an obligation to develop and strengthen ties with those communities most affected by the justice system as they work to transform the experience of justice, especially its racial disparities. The book offers prosecutors and a general audience a curated collection of chapters written by some of the nation’s most influential criminal justice experts and practitioners focused on those components of prosecution policy and practice that deserve scrutiny and demand radical rethinking.

2022