Rethinking the Role of Prosecutor
Former prosecutors who come forth to help the accused give us a new look at what the role of prosecutor should be.
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Keeping Communities Safe has long since been a mantra of prosecutors, city officials, and law-enforcement running for office. It's an effective message, an ideal and definitely a goal. It sends clear messages about law and order, putting criminals behind bars and keeping them there.
But with evidence related to recidivism, rehabilitation, and the long-term sustainability of mass-incarceration we are left asking ourselves whether or not the policies that follow this slogan actually make us safer.
To begin with, prosecutors are by far the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system. The police arrest suspects, investigate, but it's the prosecutor who makes the final decision about whether an indictment will be sought, presented to a grand jury, and from there whether a plea will be offered or a full trial pursued.
And with evidence from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, showing that more than half of all wrongful convictions come about from official misconduct, the importance as to who we select to fill these roles has never been more important.
DA Eric Gonzales: Source NYPost.com
Previously, I wrote about several prosecutors who have taken new, more justice-minded approaches to their roles in society. Some have launched Conviction Integrity Units (CIUs), or have chosen as a matter of policy to not prosecute certain non-violent crimes that effectively discriminate against certain minorities. But there is another kind of action being overlooked, and it comes about when prosecutors become advocates for the accused.
Hillary Blout: Source BlackHer.com
Take for example, Hillary Blout, a former prosecutor for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, founder of the nonprofit For The People, an organization dedicated to unraveling some of the bureaucracy that leaves individuals lingering in prisons long after the stated goal of rehabilitation has taken effect.
Blout effectively lobbies for Prosecutor-Iinitiated Resentencing (PIR), an initiative that allows prosecutors to get people out of prison when a particular sentence is no longer in the interest of justice. And initiative she expounded upon in a recent article for The Washington Post:
As a former prosecutor, I was shocked to learn that there was no law in the country allowing prosecutors to review old cases for possible release. As one of the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system with a duty to uphold justice and safety, I felt prosecutors should have the ability to take action if a person’s incarceration no longer advanced either value – so I conceptualized and helped pass The first PIR law in the country.
According to Blout, this movement is being spread by like-minded individuals and prosecutors in states like Illinois, Oregon, and Washington. At present, New York, Minnesota, and Massachusetts are considering their own bills to bring about the same.
And my attorney, Jason Bowles, likewise a former (federal) prosecutor who is now devoted to helping the accused has expressed his interest in pushing for similar legislation in New Mexico.
Attorney Jason Bowles
These are attorneys who lend credibility to the profession of law. They do so by challenging the status quo, looking beyond the failed notions of crime bills with their endless sentences that have effectively carried us through the doorway of fear into the unsustainability of mass-incarceration.
What we need are leaders who can envision the endless potential and possibilities of bringing rehabilitated, functioning individuals from our prisons into our communities.
Previously, I wrote about the misguided ideology, expenditures, and departmental budgets that consistently fail to produce rehabilitated offenders in New Mexico and across the nation.
It's time to revisit these truths as we elect prosecutors, insisting they focus on a version of justice that dares to go beyond the prosecutorial stage of vengeance.
Justice implies fairness, a reckoning with accountability and consequences. But it must also venture to go beyond the black and white of the law, into what serves our interests as a nation. Justice needs to be more than a lofty ideal or concept to be debated by scholars.
Because in reality, it's a social contract between us and the instruments of government we create to form a more perfect union. A contract that requires more realistic expectations, constant vigilance, and the very best of us to step up into these roles.
Kennard “Isaiah” Love with Family Source: KQED.org
Former prosecutors like Hillary Blout, someone who has helped to bring beacons of change and possibility into our communities like Kennard “Isaiah” Love; or, Ellen Eggers, former-prosecutor in California who helped to free Arturo Jimenez from his wrongful conviction after serving 26 years for a murder he didn't commit; or, Jason Bowles, likewise a former-prosecutor, and after 17 years the first attorney to take the time to hear what I had to say, to listen, and to review the evidence and say what every wrongfully convicted person longs to hear, “I believe you.”
Our communities deserve better than the unimaginative rhetoric of political campaigns that promise to keep our communities safer, all the while creating a ticking time bomb of prisons too overwhelmed and underfunded to rehabilitate or produce the kinds of individuals we would hope to see in our communities.
It's time for us to be guided by the evidence, not the emotions or the pain that crime has brought into our lives. Let justice mean consequences, yes, but let it also mean a rehabilitated someone who brings value and possibly leadership into our communities.
For our hope to become a reality requires the best of us to step up into these roles. Individuals grounded in fairness, not wins, or political aspirations. Individuals open to transparency and oversight, willing to admit fault and accept responsibility for mistakes. People with a strong appreciation and humility for the responsibility that comes with wielding power.
Arturo Jimenez Source: Law.umich.edu
It's never enough for someone in this position to just ignore the facts or the legitimacy of claims by believing that their part ends with putting someone behind bars, because that’s only where it begins.
Too many prosecutors, former and current, too readily pass off the responsibility for their actions to appellate courts, overworked public defenders, nonprofits, or simply to the whims of luck. This is not responsive, responsible leadership; it's selective, blind ignorance and it's extremely dangerous.
The next politician to pander for our votes with Keeping Communities Safe needs to be informed that our expectations now include seeing reformed and rehabilitated individuals emerge at the end of what we know to be justice.
Prosecutors who say things like, “that's not my responsibility… that’s the DOC's problem, or the criminal’s choice…” to that, our response needs to be curt and simple, Thank You, but no thank you.
Because answers like these are not bringing us to the needed solutions we need for a better tomorrow. Answers like these bring us more broken families, more recidivism, and ultimately more crime.
This is not a sustainable. Criminal activity is an open indictment on the condition of our social experiment called democracy. And without legitimacy in our justice system, democracy doesn't exist.
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