The Brennan Center submitted testimony to the second public hearing of the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections, to be held March 11, 2015. Established by Congressional mandate in January 2014, the task force will hear witness testimony to develop policy solutions to increase public safety, reduce recidivism, and control the growth of spending on corrections.
In the following testimony, the Brennan Center provides recommendations to institutionalize new priorities and success measures.
Specifically, the Brennan Center recommend that the Task Force urge the Justice Department to do the following:
- Articulate new priorities for federal prosecution: reducing violent and serious crime, reducing incarceration, and reducing recidivism; reducing pretrial detention;
- Provide additional funding for Offices that successfully reduce the numbers of defendants sent to prison;
- Evaluate the performance of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices based on “success measures” that track progress toward these priorities;
- Modify evaluations of individual prosecutors to include similar success measures; and
- Encourage U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to implement complementary changes in their individual offices.