By Traci Griffith
Our district attorneys in Massachusetts are elected by the people, and they hold significant power in the judicial process. They decide who gets charged with a crime, what charges that person will face, and whether to offer a plea deal. Their recommendations carry a great deal of weight when a judge decides whether a defendant must stay in jail while awaiting trial or if they can be released to return to court on their own. And after a conviction, the DA’s recommendations help determine what sentence the defendant will face.
Unfortunately, this decision making is often tainted by systemic racism and implicit and explicit biases.
The biases built into the system run deep: From slavery and Jim Crow laws to the so-called “war on drugs” and “tough on crime” legislation, Black and Latino communities have been disproportionately funneled into the criminal legal system throughout U.S. history.
In recent years, prosecutors across the country have begun to adopt policies to address these implicit and explicit racial biases to reduce incarceration and work to treat everyone fairly. This is an important step, but prosecutors must do even more to fight racial injustice in the court and carceral systems.
This fall, we must elect district attorneys in Massachusetts who will commit to using their power responsibly, fairly, and justly in order to confront racial disparities and bias in our criminal legal system.
Despite efforts at reform, people of color are still disproportionately arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated in jails and prisons in Massachusetts.
In 2018, Massachusetts passed landmark legislation to reform the criminal legal system. This legislation included repeals of some mandatory minimum sentences and improved data collection for increased transparency.
While the state’s overall incarceration rate has dropped since 2018, racial disparities have widened, as incarceration rates for white residents dropped far more steeply than those for Black and Latino residents. According to a 2024 report conducted by Boston Indicators and MassINC, the overall rate of incarceration of white residents fell by 40%. Yet for Black residents, the rate only dropped by 21%. For Latinos, the drop was 32%.
Despite Massachusetts’ efforts to reform, as of 2022, Black residents were incarcerated at more than seven times the rate of white people, the report found. In other words, Black people continued to be incarcerated at the highest rate of all racial groups.
District attorneys hold power to address and remedy the persistent systemic racism and biases that continue to shape our criminal legal system.
One role of a district attorney is to decide who gets charged with a crime. A DA evaluates police reports and other evidence to determine whether to proceed with or downgrade a charge — or to drop a case entirely.
Racial disparities in charges remain significant. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of white people facing criminal charges dropped by 26%, while the rate for Black people fell 13%. The rate for Latinos decreased by only 1%, according to Boston Indicators and MassINC’s 2024 report.
Prosecutors also carry tremendous influence in the decision making around pretrial release and detention, two other areas with extraordinary racial disparities. After charges are filed and a defendant makes their first appearance in court, district attorneys submit recommendations for releasing someone without conditions, setting a cash bail or other conditions of release, or holding someone in jail. Despite the presumption of innocence, the court will often heavily weigh a prosecutor’s request and order a defendant to be jailed unless bail is paid.
Even though bail is supposed to be a mechanism of release—an incentive to return to court—it often functions as a mechanism of detention. Research shows that bail does not support return to court or community safety. Instead, a person who cannot afford bail must await trial in jail, risking their job, housing, and social support systems while exposed to punishing conditions. Studies of Massachusetts data conclude that Black and Latino people generally face much higher bail amounts and take longer on average to post bail relative to similarly situated white people.
Further, after a person is charged with certain serious or violent offenses, district attorneys can request that they be held without the possibility of release pending their trial. To do this, the prosecutor must prove that the defendant is dangerous by clear and convincing evidence and that no conditions of release will ensure their appearance in court and the safety of a named victim or the community. In recent years, the number of times prosecutors requested these hearings — known as “dangerousness hearings” — have remained consistent for white defendants in Massachusetts while they have almost doubled for Black and Latino defendants, according to a 2025 study by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management.
In other words, prosecutors are increasingly asking that Black and Latino defendants be held without bail because DAs are claiming they are more dangerous than their white counterparts.
What happens on the front end of the system has a profound impact on the outcome of a criminal case and people’s lives and families. When a person is released to return to court on their own, they can continue working, parenting their children, and receiving necessary medical treatment. Research shows that cash bail and pretention detention have significant long-term effects on economic stability and case outcomes: being jailed pretrial means people are more likely to be convicted and sentenced to more time incarcerated.
Here’s why your vote matters.
District attorneys must acknowledge they have the power to remedy or exacerbate racial disparities through their professional decision making. And voters must hold them accountable for those decisions. This fall, we must demand that district attorneys in Massachusetts start implementing policies that create a fairer criminal legal system for all.
The ACLU of Massachusetts — together with our network of partners — is dedicated to spreading the word about What a Difference a DA Makes. Join our Action Team to help out!
