{"id":1933,"date":"2023-05-26T16:49:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T20:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/?page_id=1933"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:09:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:09:19","slug":"progressive-prosecutors-winning-the-hearts-and-minds-of-line-prosecutors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/in-print\/volume-60-number-4-fall-2023\/progressive-prosecutors-winning-the-hearts-and-minds-of-line-prosecutors\/","title":{"rendered":"Progressive Prosecutors: Winning the Hearts and Minds of Line Prosecutors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span id=\"page1227R_mcid23\" class=\"markedContent\"><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">The progressive prosecutor movement offers many critical proposals to reform <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">our criminal justice system. However, it has not been able to fully accomplish its <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">goals in many jurisdictions because the newly elected prosecutors have faced <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">pushback, not just from hardline opponents to their reforms, but from the deputy <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">prosecutors in their own offices. For there to be real change in prosecutors\u2019<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1227R_mcid42\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">offi<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">ces,<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1227R_mcid27\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">progressive prosecutors must win the hearts and minds of their own staff. <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Progressive prosecution is a cultural change that requires working with, not <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">against, the rank and file of prosecution offices. To accomplish this, it is not <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">enough that new directives are issued. Prosecutors must engage all their<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1227R_mcid43\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">stake<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">holders,<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1227R_mcid30\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">especially the line prosecutors who will be expected to implement the <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">new directives. This requires educating the line prosecutors about the reasons <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">reforms are needed, listening to their concerns, being open to modifying new<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1227R_mcid44\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">pol<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">icies<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1227R_mcid33\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">depending on the operations and laws of the jurisdiction, and finding<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1227R_mcid45\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">com<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">mon<\/span><\/span><span id=\"page1227R_mcid32\" class=\"markedContent\"> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">ground with groups that have not yet joined the progressive prosecutors\u2019 <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">movement. To meet this challenge, prosecutors would be well advised to learn <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">how the business world successfully navigates onboarding new leadership teams.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/05\/60-4_progressive-proseuctors-Levenson.pdf\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The progressive prosecutor movement offers many critical proposals to reform our criminal justice system. However, it has not been able to fully accomplish its goals in many jurisdictions because the newly elected prosecutors have faced pushback, not just from hardline opponents to their reforms, but from the deputy prosecutors in their own offices. For there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9515,"featured_media":0,"parent":1913,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"abstract.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1933","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9515"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1933"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1935,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1933\/revisions\/1935"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/american-criminal-law-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}