• Mar 22, 2018

What’s Inside the Prosecutorial ‘Black Box’?

Johanna Wald, The Crime Report
March 22, 2018

In this article the author reports on research conducted by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute into what Fordham University Professor John Pfaff calls the “prosecutorial black box.” Pfaff has written:

If you are going to reduce the prison population, prosecutors are going to be the ones who have to lead the way.”

In this research reported here involved in depth interviews with current and former prosecutors who “had tried to enact reforms from the inside.” The findings are instructive and the article is rich in detail but the author concludes:

These interviews represent just a first step.

Johanna Wald

Johanna Wald

We need more data—both quantitative and qualitative—to more fully understand how changes to prosecutorial culture and incentives can accelerate the movement to create a more equitable and humane justice system.

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