Pretrial Detention and Mass Incarceration

Decision Points: Disproportionate Pretrial Detention of Blacks and Latinos Drives Mass Incarceration

IN LIEU OF PROSECUTION

Decline to prosecute low-level offenses. In July 2014,

Kings County (Brooklyn, NY) District

Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson decided

to stop prosecuting most people

arrested for low-level marijuana

offenses. Mr. Thompson said in a

memo that the new policy was established

to keep nonviolent individuals, especially young people of color,

out of the criminal justice system because open cases as well as convictions

can become barriers to employment, housing, and higher education.

The policy was established after years of steady increases in misdemeanor

marijuana arrests, including more than 8,000 such arrests in the

year ending June 30, 2014.

Community participation. In communities from Denver, Colorado to Milwaukee,

Wisconsin, assistant district attorneys are assigned to work in

specific neighborhoods, often co-locating in police stations, to develop

partnerships with neighborhood organizations and learn the problems

(whether a “drug house” or a poorly lit bus stop) that make places less

safe. They work with community members to develop prevention strategies

to reduce both crime and arrests and with victims to better understand

their fears and losses and to explain court processes. Together with service

providers, prosecutors also identify those whose behavior is a nuisance or

worse in the neighborhood, and help keep them out of the criminal justice

system if that can be done safely.

Pre-charge diversion. The Hennepin County (Minnesota) District Attorney’s

Office partners with a local nonprofit, Operation de Novo, Inc., to

provide an alternative to prosecution for people with no felony history and

a limited misdemeanor history who have been arrested for a felony-level

property crime where restitution is no more than $2500—people who

otherwise are likely to be detained pretrial and to receive a jail sentence.c

Operation de Novo case managers work with eligible arrestees to set requirements

and goals for the year, which include community service and

victim restitution. Those who successfully complete the program have a

way to “pay their debt” to society and their victim without the added burden

of a criminal conviction. In one recent year, the program handled 828

felony cases, collected and returned $440,200 in restitution to victims, and

oversaw 10,720 hours of client community service.d

Community courts. Many cities run courts located in local communities

that take a problem-solving approach to crime. Focusing primarily on misdemeanor,

quality-of-life offenses—such as simple drug possession, theft,