Widespread reporting paints amostly rosy pictu💃re of and crime toward their pre-pandemic levels.
However, the effects of many policy reforms since 2020 not only mask rising crime rates, but💯 degrade the criminal jꦿustice system’s ability to provide justice to victims.
A perfect example of these shifting ꦺmechanisms is New York state’s 2020 “discovery reform” legislation, which forces prosecutors to reallocate their ♏time around crippling burdens for evidence collection.
The state’s 62 district attorneys’ offices must now amass — for𒁏 every case — material that often has little to do with guilt, equity, or justice.
And as newly confirm, ꦓthis overwhelming compliance obligation is preventing prosecutors from doing their jobs.
The findings are clear: More than a quarter of all cases that passed through Manhattan crimin𓄧al court during the first 11 month꧙s of 2023 were automatically dismissed because overburdened prosecutors ran out of time to pursue them.
Some 8,🧸000 cases in total were automatically dismissed in 2023, a huge increase from the mere 3% in 2019.
These cases are not trivial.
They 🍸include no𝔍t-yet-indicted felonies, as well as serious misdemeanors such as stranger assaults, most domestic violence crimes, and forcible touching on the subway.
Indeed, by swamping prosecutors with evidence collection for its own sake — rather than for achieving fa🌄ಞirer outcomes — reformers have undercut justice system-wide.
The prosecutorial tri💯age caused by discovery reform also made 2023 a record-high for downgrading Manhattan felo𝓡ny arrests to misdemeanors.
In 2019, prosecutors of felony arrests to misdemeanors; last year it was 54%. And for felony property crimes, the rate nearly doubled from 24% in 2019 to a record-high felonies downgrade♛d𓂃 to misdemeanors last year.
The astonishing frequency of case dismissals and downgrades tells only half the story.
Equally worrisome are the legions of swamped assistant district attorneys (ADA🌃s) who are simply declining to prosecute cases at record rates.
In Manhattan, for instance, ther🐭e was a in declined felony cases🐓 last year compared to 2019.
While this does not affect the most heinous criᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ♔ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚmes, like homicide, ADAs declined to prosecute twice as many thefts and 243% more burglaries in 2023 compared to before discovery reform.
Weapons declina💜tions rose 189%,ꦛ resisting arrest by 706%.
In other🅘 words, prosecutors have radically shifted how they allocate their time and this is impacting public safety.
Imagine a persistent shoplifter.
He raids stores, daily,🐽 to support 𓆏his drug addiction.
Cops arrest the culprit🐽, connecting him to 10 recent incidents using surveillance footage.
They charge him with one robb💖ery, four grand larcenies, and five petit larcenies.
But here’s the shift: In order to prosecute all of these cases, discovery laws now dictate that ADAs collect and share with defense counsel every bit of evidence, no matter how meanin𓃲gless, from every charge — from redundant surveillance videos to sta✃tements from witnesses who saw nothing.
So, time-constrained prosecutors choose only to charge the thief with tওhree grand larcenies and decline the rest.
Is this just? Of course not.
It also leads to more crime.
W꧙ith zero follow-up provided to the seven stores whose cases were declined, owners assume no arrests or prosecution reܫsulted from their complaints.
Now their employees have even less i🧜ncen💮tive to report future thefts.
Similarly, police officersﷺ’ demoralization ri💞ses by making arrests that ultimately go nowhere.
Further, the seven declined cases won’t be included in statewide Office of Court Administration records, which only tally🍨 prosecuted crim🎐es.
Thus, the data will portray fewer crimes thꩵan have actually occurred, resulting in a skewed story of p𓆏ublic safety.
Worse, criminals are incentivized to continue stealing — with justice served more arbitrarily based on ಞwhich ADAs have bandwidth.
For൲ many repeat offenders, the ultimate endpoint is still incarceratꦅion.
But the process to get them there is now belabored and more hazardous. Little wonder fear becoming crime victims despite decreasing murders and shootings.
The 2023 data jarringly underscore the damage done wh🎐en prosecutors are forced to prioritize work that has no bearing on justice over work that does.
New Yoꦅrk should amend its discovery statute to only require the c🌺ollection of substantive evidence before moving a case forward.
And nationwide, we should embrace more nuanced policymaking, acknowledging that criminal justice mechanisms are complex, and we need our police and prosecutor⭕s’ time prioritized toward pursღuing real-life safety measures.
Hannah E. Meyers is a fellow and director of policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute.
