Thread by @shonhopwood, THREAD: In reviewing Professor @RachelBarkow’s fabulous book, Prisoners of Politics, I analyzed [...]

THREAD: In reviewing Professor @RachelBarkow’s fabulous book, Prisoners of Politics, I analyzed hundreds of letters that @TheJusticeDept and the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys have written to federal policymakers on proposed #CRreforms
https://bit.ly/2xSU2f8

What I discovered was shocking and yet utterly unsurprising at the same time. Federal prosecutors like to say they just enforce the law—no more no less. Don’t believe them. The DOJ and NAAUSA have major lobbying efforts with all federal policymakers.
https://bit.ly/2xSU2f8

Federal prosecutors’ lobbying efforts are quite predictable. They routinely oppose modest criminal justice reforms, even when those reforms would increase public safety and fairness. They oppose nearly any reduction in the federal prison population. https://bit.ly/2xSU2f8

All too often the DOJ and NAAUSA explicitly oppose any reforms that will make the job of federal prosecutors more difficult—as if that is the only goal upon which the federal criminal justice system should be based. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566013

As @RachelBarkow writes: Prosecutors "stand as poor stewards to see whether the overall working of the administration of criminal law furthers public safety and maximizes limited public resources because they have too much to lose if it changes." https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566013

Worse still, the DOJ will sometimes undermine and oppose policy reforms issued by the presidents that it serves. When a president declares a policy view that conflicts with that of the DOJ, the president’s views should prevail. Not vice versa.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566013

Perhaps worst of all, the DOJ and federal prosecutors’ views on criminal justice reform are against the great weight of expertise from economists, criminologists, and others who study the system from a macro perspective.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566013

As Professor @RachelBarkow explains, while prosecutors “often believe they are experts in public safety,” when “they decide policy questions, it tends to be from their own experience as prosecutors, uninformed by broader data or empirical analysis.” https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566013

Why does this matter? Few lobbying groups in D.C. have as much influence with policymakers as the DOJ and the NAAUSA. Yet their views are often based on flawed data and a not-so-secret attempt to maintain power at all costs.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566013

Many federal policymakers currently view the DOJ and NAAUSA as possessing the most salient expertise on all criminal justice matters. My hope is that this Review calls that view into serious doubt.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566013

I plan to send the Review to the White House, and every member of Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566013

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