Prosecutors hold broad sway over jail, prison and plea deals, professor writes

Ronald Wright, a professor of criminal law at Wake Forest University and a former prosecutor, writes that the local chief prosecutor controls how criminal cases are filed, how guilty pleas are negotiated and where enforcement money is spent. Wright has studied criminal courts for more than three decades.

The titles vary by jurisdiction. Some offices use district attorney, others prosecuting attorney, state's attorney or county attorney. State legislatures write the statutes that define crimes, Wright writes, but local prosecutors decide which cases to pursue and work with police to address the crimes they judge most pressing in their county.

Wright notes prosecutors also shape sentencing through plea negotiations. Judges impose the sentence, but the prosecutor's recommendation carries weight in that choice. He writes that no official matters more when it comes to how courts and prisons use their resources.

For decades before the early 2010s, Wright says, party labels did little to distinguish candidates in these races. Republicans and Democrats both campaigned on prison as the central tool, pressing for charges that could yield the longest terms. Because most prosecutors presented the same basic options, incumbents usually ran unopposed or beat challengers.

Wright points to King County, Washington, where voters in 2022 chose a candidate who emphasized prevention and mental health services alongside prosecutions, over an opponent who promised to file more cases. In Norfolk, Virginia, a 2025 challenger called for heavier prison use after four years of the incumbent's efforts to reduce incarceration; voters returned the incumbent to office.

Prosecutor offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis have turned to treatment programs and community service diversion instead of prison for some offenses, Wright writes, reserving prison for serious violent crimes. He says these approaches reduce prison use without raising crime rates, and some offices, such as Pima County, Arizona, offer diversion to adults accused of less serious crimes.

Wright also notes that some offices, including in Arlington, Virginia, release routine data on office operations, and that dashboards in Jacksonville, Florida, and Boulder, Colorado, show their work. He writes that prosecutor races have become more competitive, with more incumbents facing challengers, and that voters increasingly choose candidates from the same party they prefer in national and state offices.

Wright is a professor of criminal law at Wake Forest University. This article first appeared in The Conversation.