Overview
Racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system are often seen as the result of law enforcement practices and/or judicial decision making. The role of prosecutors, however, is regularly overlooked. Prosecutors have wide discretion when it comes to initial screening, charging, bail, and pretrial detention recommendations, as well as diversion, plea bargaining, and sentencing. To understand the impact of this discretionary power, Vera partnered with the District Attorney of New York (DANY) to study disparities in criminal case outcomes in Manhattan. The two-year, National Institute of Justice-funded study analyzed more than 200,000 cases, focusing on the role of prosecutors during several points of a criminal case—case acceptance for prosecution, dismissals, pretrial detention, plea bargaining, and sentencing recommendations—and whether prosecutorial discretion contributes to racially and ethnically disparate outcomes.