The Prosecutors Need to Prosecute Act requires large district attorney offices receiving federal Byrne grant funding to publicly report detailed data on their case outcomes, plea agreements, and recidivism rates for specific violent and firearm-related offenses.
Nicole Malliotakis
Representative
NY-11
The **Prosecutors Need to Prosecute Act** requires district attorneys in larger jurisdictions who receive federal Byrne grant funding to submit annual reports on their prosecution and plea agreement data for serious offenses. This legislation mandates that the Attorney General establish uniform reporting standards and publish this data publicly to increase transparency regarding prosecutorial decisions.
New Reporting Mandate Requires Large-City Prosecutors to Publicize Case Data and Bail Requests
The Prosecutors Need to Prosecute Act introduces a major transparency requirement for district attorneys in cities and counties with populations of 380,000 or more. If these offices accept federal Byrne grant funds—a common source of money for local law enforcement and justice programs—they must now submit a detailed annual report to the Attorney General. This isn't just a summary; it requires granular data on how many cases they turned away, the specifics of plea deals, and whether they actually asked for bail in serious cases. By mandating these disclosures, the bill aims to pull back the curtain on how local prosecutors use their discretion in the criminal justice system.
The Data Deep Dive
Under Section 2, prosecutors in these larger jurisdictions must track 'covered offenses,' which include everything from murder and rape to car theft and illegal firearm possession. For these crimes, the office has to report exactly how many cases were referred to them by police versus how many they declined to prosecute. If a prosecutor’s office decides to move forward with a plea agreement, they have to break down the original charge versus the final conviction charge. For a small business owner who has dealt with repeat shoplifting or a resident concerned about local crime, this data provides a direct look at whether the charges being dropped or reduced are part of a larger trend in their city.
Monitoring Repeat Offenders and Bail
The bill also places a heavy focus on the 'who' and the 'how' of the legal process. Prosecutors will have to report how many defendants charged with serious crimes were already on probation, out on parole, or had other open cases at the time of their arrest. Additionally, the legislation requires reporting on bail: specifically, how many defendants were released on their own recognizance versus how many times the prosecutor actually requested bail. This creates a public paper trail for the decisions made in the early hours after an arrest, giving the public a way to see if the prosecutor's office is consistently asking for bail in cases involving violent or firearm-related offenses.
From Paperwork to Public Record
To make sure this isn't just more red tape that disappears into a basement, the Attorney General is tasked with creating uniform standards for this reporting. Once the data is collected, it must be sent to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and published on a publicly accessible website. While this adds a significant administrative load to large DA offices—meaning more time spent on spreadsheets and less on litigation—it ensures that the data is standardized across different states. For the average citizen, this means you can eventually go online and compare how your local prosecutor’s office handles firearm charges or plea deals compared to a city of similar size across the country.