CZI Justice & Opportunity Staff Collaborate with Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office

Over the next few weeks, a team from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Justice & Opportunity team will collaborate with prosecutors in the office of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to develop a deeper understanding of the technical and administrative challenges that prosecutors face in implementing new policies. This collaboration will also provide an opportunity to evaluate how current information technology and data systems are meeting prosecutors’ and communities’ needs.

During this collaboration, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative team will shadow attorneys, criminologists, operations leads, and administrative staff to gain a picture of the lifecycle of a criminal case from arrest through sentencing to assess the role of technology and information systems in this process.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner took office earlier this year with an ambitious agenda and has introduced significant reforms around sentencing and bail, as well as increasing reliance on alternatives to incarceration for many offenses.

Prosecutorial reform and the role that technology can play in facilitating change in the criminal justice system have been early areas of exploration for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. They support a range of organizations working on criminal justice, including Measures for Justice, which created an online portal to measure county-by-county criminal justice data around the United States, as well as Fair and Just Prosecution, which is building resources and support for reform-minded prosecutors to succeed.

About the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is the largest prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the nation. It serves the more than 1.5 million citizens of the City and County of Philadelphia, employing 600 lawyers, detectives and support staff. The District Attorney’s Office is responsible for prosecution of over 75,000 criminal cases annually.

About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s criminal justice reform program

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a philanthropy that is working to build a future for everyone. They use traditional grantmaking, advocacy, storytelling, impact investing, and engineering to help drive change at scale. Their criminal justice program is part of the philanthropy’s Justice & Opportunity Initiative.