The key actor in our broken system
The major insight Pfaff proves is the central role of prosecutors in the rising rates of incarceration. They have vast powers. Who to prosecute, for what crimes, and for what sentences — and little supervision.
“If sentences aren’t getting (much) longer, and if they aren’t*hat long to start with, then what is causing prison growth? The obvious answer is rising admissions — in fact, this must be true, since the only changes that can drive up prison populations are changes in the number of people entering*prison or changes in the amount of time they spend there once they are admitted. And the person driving up admissions is the prosecutor. …
“This is a tremendous amount of power for one official*to have, and it is made all the more powerful by the fact that*prosecutors*generally wield it out of public view. Nearly 95% of the cases that prosecutors decide to prosecute end up with the defendant pleading guilty. For all the courtroom drama we see on Law & Order, nearly everyone in prison ended up there by signing a piece of*paper in a dingy conference room in a county office building, or in a dingier room in a local jail*.
Our thicket of overlapping laws, often with extremely high minimums, allows prosecutors to terrify defendants — most of whom have no effective legal aid — into pleading guilty to “lesser” charges.
“Taken together, these attributes and tools*make prosecutors the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system. …Prosecutors …have used this power to drive up prison populations even as crime has declined over the past twenty or so years. To date, however, no state or federal level proposal aimed at cutting prison populations has sought to explicitly regulate this power. Everyone else in the criminal justice system currently faces reforms, such as efforts to change interactions between civilians and police, or to amend sentencing laws and parole policies. But prosecutors have remained untouched.”
It is great gig. Only 15% of elections for district attorneys are contested, and the incumbent wins about 70% of those. And they usually win in court.*Public defenders are underfunded and overwhelmed. Our ideals call for everyone to have their day in court with their defense counsel. But we do not want to pay for either one of these.