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Commentary By Hannah E. Meyers

Why ‘Discovery Reform’ Is Boosting Crime

Public Safety Crime Control, New York, Policing

Widespread reporting paints a mostly rosy picture of receding nationwide violence and crime toward their pre-pandemic levels.

However, the effects of many policy reforms since 2020 not only mask rising crime rates, but degrade the criminal justice system’s ability to provide justice to victims. 

A perfect example of these shifting mechanisms is New York state’s 2020 “discovery reform” legislation, which forces prosecutors to reallocate their time around crippling burdens for evidence collection.

The state’s 62 district attorneys’ offices must now amass — for every case — material that often has little to do with guilt, equity, or justice.

And as newly released data confirm, this overwhelming compliance obligation is preventing prosecutors from doing their jobs.

Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post

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Hannah Meyers is director of the policing and public safety initiative at the Manhattan Institute. 

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