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Due Process Institute advocates for greater transparency and accountability in prosecutorial decision-making. This includes improving disclosure obligations, oversight mechanisms, and consequences for misconduct.
Learn about Due Process Institute’s policy work to implement greater prosecutorial accountability.
Discover how Due Process Institute advocates in the courts for prosecutorial accountability.
Interested in learning about how meaningful prosecutorial accountability can be achieved?
Due Process Institute and other advocacy organizations successfully oppossed H.R. 27, the Prosecutors Need to Prosecute Act. The goal of this legislation was to pressure prosecutors to prosecute more cases more harshly despite bipartisan concerns that the United States already incarcerates far too many people for far too long.
The bill mandated that prosecutor’s offices in jurisdictions with populations over 380,000 disclose, for enumerated offenses, information related to the number of cases referred by the police, declinations, bail requests, plea bargains, an individual’s criminal history, and convictions. It also made this reporting a requirement for funding under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (“Byrne”) and was based on a false premise that filing more criminal charges, detaining more people pre-trial, and making fewer plea offers will make our communities safer. Finally, this bill failed to require the collection of data that would provide a robust picture of prosecutorial practices and avenues for reform.