Data Snapshot: What Criminal Justice Reform Looks Like for Philadelphia Trial Courts
As a national debate moves forward about how to confront the issue, we look at how policy changes by a reformist district attorney are shifting the day-to-day operations of Philadelphia court.
March 25, 2019 at 05:00 AM
2 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
Criminal justice reform is a big topic. It involves issues like mass incarceration (2.3 million people were incarcerated in U.S. in 2018) and systemic racism (African-Americans are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites) — concepts so weighty and deeply rooted in history it's sometimes difficult to get your head around.
But what does criminal justice reform look like at close range? From the point of view of the local courthouse, where attorneys, judges, clerks and paralegals come every day to argue, deliberate and make a living?
In Philadelphia, at least, one marker of a system undergoing reform is darkened courtrooms.
Between the beginning of 2018 and January 2019, Philadelphia's court leadership closed seven courtrooms at the Criminal Justice Center, reshuffling judges to handle civil cases instead. The changes come after Larry Krasner — a criminal defense attorney with no prior prosecutorial experience — took over as the city's district attorney in 2017.
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