USA TODAY International Edition
DOJ delays threaten reforms to justice
Move on Garland, replace U. S. attorneys
Among the many highlights of President Joe Biden’s inaugural address was his promise that “we can deliver racial justice.” The Biden administration wasted no time putting executive action behind those words, issuing several orders on advancing racial equity. Still, “personnel is policy,” as the saying goes. And just as important as the new direction charted by these policies is who carries out the work.
But changes in the latter might be delayed — something this administration, and people in need of justice, can’t afford.
A memo released last month by Department of Justice administrative chief Lee Lofthus gave many Trump appointees the green light to stay, stating that a good number of “United States Attorneys and United States Marshals have been asked by the incoming administration to continue to serve for the time being.”
The Department of Justice shoulders much of the burden of ending mass incarceration and reforming policing, starting with not simply a policy reset but also new, more progressive U. S. attorneys.
Even more alarming is the apparent delay in considering Biden’s nominee for attorney general. Congress had seemed poised last week to set a hearing date for Judge Merrick Garland. But his nomination has been stalled even as others have moved forward.
A politicized department
We should bear in mind that 93 U. S. attorneys lead 94 districts throughout the country and in American territories. Local federal prosecutors’ offices handle all manner of cases, from civil rights and police abuses to hate crimes and drug prosecutions.
Equally important, the Department of Justice, through its Community Oriented Policing Services office, supports state and local leaders in pursuing racial justice and policing reforms grounded in research. Its Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is responsible for guiding national juvenile justice issues that impact our nation’s young people.
Under the Trump administration, the Justice Department ( and by extension, federal prosecutors) became deeply politicized. Some prosecutors were expected to faithfully execute Trump’s agenda — cracking down on immigrants and pursuing tougher drug penalties. Some followed Trump’s lead on his personal crusades against the Biden family and attempted to undermine the investigation of Russia election interference. Those who did not bend to Trump’s will were often dismissed or pushed out.
Moving slowly to replace his appointees would be wrong for two reasons.
First, current attorneys are tainted by the failures of the Trump administration. In Massachusetts, for example, at the height of the coronavirus, the U. S. attorney’s office fought the release of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at risk of the virus. This thinking was echoed by federal prosecutors across the country although more than 200 people confined in federal prisons have died of the disease. In Pennsylvania, the U. S. attorney worked to prevent a lifesaving, evidence- based safe drug consumption space from opening.
Second, every day these attorneys remain in office, they continue to make decisions impacting the lives of countless Americans, including how COVID- 19 is handled behind bars, when and how police accountability will be managed, and how rebuilding trust with community will move forward.
Rethinking policing the USA
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have spoken of the need for criminal justice reform and their desire to rethink policing.
Implementing these policies means moving away from the traditional prosecutor mindset.
Biden needs attorneys and DOJ leaders who embrace reform. It means looking at the burgeoning reformminded state and local prosecutor movement for examples of leaders who are committed to systemic change. It means looking at defense lawyers and public defenders who know the federal justice system from the other side and know what it takes to reform it.
Already, local progressive prosecutors in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City have shown what can be done. They have created conviction integrity units to exonerate wrongfully convicted people, launched processes to review and reduce harsh sentences, and stopped prosecuting many offenses tied to poverty and racial disparities such as drug possession.
On Jan. 20, Biden said, “A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.”
That cry must be heard — and acted upon — in the halls of the Department of Justice and in its attorneys’ offices around the nation.
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