The Lake County Prosecutor’s Office has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Indiana University Office of Research Administration to conduct a bias study for traffic and misdemeanor cases, officials said.
The Lake County Council will vote on the grant at its Tuesday meeting. The grant stems from Indiana University and its Office of Research Administration approaching the Lake County and Monroe County prosecutors to participate in a project by Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy group, prosecutor’s administrative deputy supervisor Robert Neumaier wrote in a letter to the council.
An Arnold Ventures report states mass incarceration in the U.S. has had “an unduly harsh response to crime that has imposed disparate and devastating burdens on communities of color, particularly Black people, who are over-policed, over-prosecuted and over-incarcerated in comparison to their white counterparts.”
Prosecutors have expansive power, the report continues, over decisions that lead to racial disparities in the justice system: whether and what charges are brought, what recommendations to make to judges, control of the plea-bargaining process, and whether or not to divert people out of the system, according to the report.
“By any measure, prosecutors may be the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system — yet there is so much we do not know about how they use their authority,” the report states.
The report states that to make “meaningful and effective” changes to prosecutorial practices, prosecutors should have knowledge about how it impacts peoples’ lives.
” (Arnold Ventures) seeks to realize a new vision for prosecution: one in which prosecutors’ offices are committed to racial equity, transparent, and data-driven; where prosecutors use punitive measures sparingly; and where prosecutors prioritize a holistic approach to community safety,” the report states.
Lake County will collect data on pretrial justice to study prosecutorial discretion at charging, bail, diversion, plea negotiations and sentencing for traffic and misdemeanor cases, Neumaier wrote.
“Indiana University will use the data provided by the two prosecutor’s offices to document racial and ethnic disparities across prosecutorial decision making and how that decision making relates to local diversion policy and practice,” Neumaier wrote. “The goal of the project is to provide public-facing data to our local community to improve prosecution transparency and accountability.”
Indiana University is offering both Lake and Monroe counties a $25,000 sub-award, Neumaier wrote, and the money will be paid over a 30-month period for the collection and extraction of relevant data. Lake County will receive $6,250 for the period of June to December, $12,500 for 2023 and $6,250 for 2024, Neumaier wrote.
But, Neumaier wrote, the money received will not fully compensate for the hiring of part-time employees to gather the data. The prosecutor’s office will cover remaining costs from its pretrial diversion fund, he wrote.
Councilman Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said he was pleased that the prosecutor’s office is participating in this project. Young Black people get stopped “automatically because it is assumed they are up to no good and/or this is a good traffic stop” to meet quotas, Brown said.
“It is unfair and unfortunate,” Brown said.
