Thoughts on This Election Day

By: JARED FISHMAN

With the most consequential election in American history looming, I tried to prepare a message to send the day after the election.

I felt paralyzed. There were too many unknowns about what lay ahead. I foresaw multiple possible scenarios, many of which scared me deeply. How could I, in advance, prepare for so many divergent outcomes? I wondered, could I write a message I would send regardless of what happens in the Presidential election?

This election has underscored that America’s systems — electoral, justice, healthcare, education, and many others — are deeply unwell. Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, it is easy to find examples of how our government fails us every day. The polarization of politics, the absence of shared truths, and the lack of faith in our institutions and leaders makes finding solutions incredibly difficult.

And yet, for our country to thrive, we desperately need our institutions to work. For everyone. Over the last four years, Justice Innovation Lab has focused on fixing America’s justice systems. The good news is that our approach provides an alternative that works.

Every year in the United States, over 10 million people enter our jails and courthouses. Some will be accused of serious crimes, but the vast majority of people will become enmeshed in the system because of incidents rooted in mental health, addiction, poverty, and trauma. A nontrivial number of people will be wrongfully accused. Across the nation, a majority of the most serious crimes, such as murder and sexual assaults, will never be solved.

Our current system is deeply inadequate for today’s challenges; the harm it produces daily is unconscionable. I routinely learn of injustices caused by processes or procedures that are entirely fixable, when we care to try. These harms are not necessarily the function of malice, but are often a byproduct of high volume and a lack of sufficient attention and care.

Though our justice system problems are national in scope and impact, the choices driving solutions are fundamentally local. People often refer to the “justice system” in the singular, but in reality, over 15,000 courts and 18,000 law enforcement agencies operate independently across the U.S. The institutions entrusted with our day-to-day public safety and justice responsibilities are almost entirely local. In virtually every city and county I have visited, they are understaffed, lack necessary technology, and are drowning in a backlog of cases that would be better served with alternative approaches.

Since 2020, JIL has worked alongside criminal justice decision makers and community groups to reimagine how to build safer and more effective justice systems. I have traveled across the country, working in communities both big and small, urban and rural, Republican and Democrat. Each jurisdiction faces unique challenges, but one thing is constant: they want their government to do better.

In Charleston, SC, Solicitor Scarlett Wilson decided to use existing data to make more fair and effective policy. Working with JIL, Solicitor Wilson identified system-wide failings that were leading to undesired, expensive, and unnecessarily punitive outcomes. She piloted a new intake process to identify cases that were factually or legally inadequate and speedily remove them from the system. These cases were not only harmful to the accused and their families, but also diverted resources from higher priority work.

Solicitor Wilson did something that, as far as we know, was a first for an elected prosecutor: she set up a randomized control trial (RCT) to evaluate the results. If the policy worked as expected, she wanted it to be a model for the rest of the country. But, Solicitor Wilson also had the humility to recognize that there could be unintended consequences, and if so, she wanted to be able to change course.

Last week, the RCT concluded and the preliminary results are overwhelming. Decisions impacting individual liberty are being resolved over 3 months faster, and hundreds of people are no longer stuck in the system, saving the state money that can be used to more thoughtfully address root causes of crime. South Carolina’s leading newspaper called our process “a common sense we-can’t-believe-this-isn’t-already-being-done program.” Projects are underway to expand this work nationally.

1300 miles away in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi worked with JIL to tackle a different challenge: the county’s heavy reliance on “pretextual” traffic stops, where the police use low-level infractions, such as a broken taillight, to search for evidence of serious crimes. This approach is ineffective — police find such evidence less than 2% of the time — and is unequally enforced. It is also incredibly dangerous for police and civilians alike. Since 2017, at least 800 people in the U.S. have been killed in interactions that began with a traffic stop.

Ramsey County shifted public safety resources away from this practice, reducing pretextual stops by 86% percent without negatively impacting public safety, while simultaneously improving community trust. Approximately 5,300 people were spared an unnecessary interaction with police. Next week, I’ll be back in Saint Paul to discuss how this successful project can be a model for the whole state and beyond.

What if all of our elected officials made policy this way?

This election matters and I encourage everyone to make their voices heard, not just in the presidential election, but also in local elections — for the prosecutors, sheriffs, judges, and mayors who will have the greatest implications for public safety and justice wherever you live.

Our country is at a crossroads, and our citizens are desperate to take a path towards real solutions. We need leaders like Scarlett Wilson and John Choi who recognize that there are serious problems that we can solve today, and that we owe it to our communities to at least try. We need leaders who will approach our uncertain future with imagination, humility, and empathy, informed by evidence and science. This is my message regardless of who becomes president.

Thank you for your continued support that allows us to invest in the people and the places that are reimagining how to build a safer and more just legal system.