When Florida prosecutors rely on data, criminal justice can be more transparent and equitable | Opinion

Rebecca Richardson, Besiki Kutateladze and Melba V. Pearson

When people think about modern exemplars of the criminal-justice system, Florida is probably the last place that comes to mind. After all, this is a state where the death penalty holds strong, stand-your-ground laws were born, and “Florida Man” narratives provide limitless fodder for nationwide amusement. Along those same lines, prosecutors in Florida have a reputation for being especially nontransparent, tough and unjust.

We are relatively new transplants to Florida, and we used to hold the same views. Now, settled in Miami as prosecution researchers at Florida International University, we see something different.

Prosecutors in Florida are paving the way for a more race-equitable, transparent and data-driven criminal-justice system.

Let’s start with racial equity. In our recent work, we conducted a systematic analysis of racial disparities in prosecution in Jacksonville and Tampa. Specifically, we looked into the prosecutor’s decision to file cases, alter charges, offer diversion, dismiss charges and ensure incarceration through the use of guilty pleas.

After simple percentages showed minimal differences among Black, Hispanic and white defendants, we considered the influence of myriad case- and defendant-specific characteristics on racial disparities. As it turns out, even for defendants with similar charges and prior records, for example, racial differences were nearly nonexistent. This was consistent across the two Florida jurisdictions.

Similar studies in other parts of the country have identified significant racial disparities in plea offers and sentencing, including our own work in Chicago and New York City. In contrast, while Florida justice is punitive, it appears to be equally punitive toward all racial and ethnic groups.

Just this month, states attorney Melissa Nelson and Andrew Warren launched public-facing data dashboards in Jacksonville and Tampa, respectively. They are the first in Florida to do so, and among the first in the nation as well. The dashboards are part of the Prosecutorial Performance Indicators (PPIs) project, which uses data to gauge progress toward greater effectiveness, efficiency and fairness in prosecution. They inform communities, researchers and policymakers of what is happening inside Pandora’s box.

The 2020 election has also created new opportunities for transparency and data-informed policy in Florida. Two large prosecutor’s offices, in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, will be led by reform-minded prosecutors. Both elected prosecutors, Monique Worrell and Harold Pryor, have expressed interest in joining the data initiative.

We are not so naïve to think that the prosecutorial field is going to accept data and analytics with open arms — we have been doing this work long enough to know that we must manage expectations.

However, prosecutors are slowly overcoming their dataphobia and, in places such as Jacksonville and Tampa, there is a growing appetite for numbers. In fact, the Duval County State Attorney’s Office has hired a Ph.D.-level researcher as a full-time staff member to help build a data culture across the office.

Data can help prosecutors’ offices start to understand their true impact. Making the best possible decisions on each case does not guarantee the best outcomes overall. So, prosecutors need to do both — assess each case, make the best possible decision, then examine the cumulative effect of those decisions. For example, consider the medical field: While, to a doctor, every patient is unique, good doctors also observe trends and research to come up with individualized treatment plans.

There is still much work to be done to fix what is, by all accounts, a broken criminal-justice system.

Florida still has a long way to go, from treating substance use as a public-health challenge to rethinking the bail system to reducing one of the highest incarceration rates in the country. Prosecutors can and should lead the effort to make Florida’s criminal-justice system the most transparent in the nation. Thankfully, promising signs are emerging that Florida has more to export than oranges and sunburns. Florida prosecutors are leading the effort to make criminal justice more transparent and data-informed.

Dr. Rebecca Richardson, Dr. Besiki Kutateladze and Melba V. Pearson Esq. are co-managers of the Prosecutorial Performance Indicators project for Florida International University.

Richardson
Richardson
Kutateladze
Kutateladze
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