John Pfaff was quoted in a Rare article about mass incarceration and criminal justice reform.
Prosecutors have enormous official discretion. “They can choose how harshly to go after someone, how lenient to go after someone,” explains John Pfaff, a Fordham University professor of criminal law. “They have tremendous power in that respect.”
Pfaff’s research has found that prosecutors choosing to prosecute misdemeanor offenses as felonies is a major contributing factor to the United States’ record-setting imprisonment rate. Prosecutors “remain the only actor [in the justice system]who is subject to almost no regulation at all,” he says. “In states without sentencing guidelines, there are no rules about what sort of sentences they can impose. They can choose who gets charged, and who doesn’t, with no review. They can choose what charges to file.”