The Center publishes reports and policy briefs on a variety of criminal justice issues. Our reports generally focus on prosecutorial best practices and reforms that prosecutors should implement in their offices and offer deeper research and analysis of best practices in a given area. Our policy papers offer shorter analysis of a timely criminal justice topic.
Recent Reports
Our report, "Prosecutorial Misconduct in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office (PDF: 1.7 MB)," is a groundbreaking report that analyzes numerous Office prosecutions across a nearly 45-year period and summarizes the prosecutorial misconduct that occurred in these cases during the trial and post-conviction stages. Whenever possible, the Report identifies the individual trial and post-conviction prosecutors who were involved in these cases. Finally, it identifies certain common themes and factors that cut across the cases and contributed to the misconduct and offers reform recommendations for how to address and prevent prosecutorial misconduct going forward.
Our report, "Establishing Conviction Integrity Programs in Prosecutors' Offices," offers prosecutors a roadmap for establishing conviction integrity programs in their offices. This includes tips for larger and smaller offices for establishing a process for reviewing and vacating convictions, as well as "front-end" reforms that prosecutors should take in the investigation phase that can lessen the likelihood of obtaining a wrongful conviction.
Our report, "Disrupting the Cycle: Reimagining the Prosecutor's Role in Reentry," provides concrete recommendations for reforming prosecutorial practices in order to account for reentry concerns at all phases of the lifecycle of a prosecutor's case. The Report allows prosecutors to think more broadly about their role in protecting public safety and reducing recidivism by encouraging them to consider reentry (and barriers to reentry) at the investigation, charging, and disposition stages of their cases.
Recent Policy Briefs
Our policy brief, "Preventive Detention in New York: From Mainstream to Margin and Back," discusses Governor Cuomo's current proposed bail reforms, including preventive detention, and compares the current debate and policy concerns to the last time New York undertook a revision of its bail practices, in the 1960s. The brief highlights changes and developments in the bail reform sphere--such as the use of algorithms and predictive instruments--and how this might influence or change attitudes toward preventive detention today.
Recent Public Comments
The Center, with pro bono assistance from Paul D. Clement, Esq., and D. Zachary Hudson, Esq., of Bancroft, submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission urging the FCC to take action to lower the rates charged for interstate inmate calling services.