Conn. Releases Blueprint For Criminal Justice Improvements

Patrick J. Griffin

A new report following an 11-month project evaluating the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice lays out a strategic management plan focused on enhancing fairness and efficiency in the state's criminal justice system.

Connecticut Chief State's Attorney Patrick J. Griffin publicly shared the findings on Thursday through the release of the Moving Justice Forward report. The report includes 10 goals with objectives and action steps ranging from increasing recruitment strategies to improve diversity, equity and inclusion to improving data collection and public transparency.

The project and the resulting report was a collaboration between the division and the Center for Justice Innovation, which conducts research and aims to improve the criminal justice system. The project was funded through a $500,000 grant from the Herbert & Nell Singer Foundation.

"This well-researched and thoughtful strategic plan sets goals for innovating the work of the Division of Criminal Justice in a way that strengthens the infrastructure of each of Connecticut's 13 Judicial Districts so prosecutors can balance preserving the public's safety with ensuring equitable justice using practices that change individual and system outcomes for the better," Griffin said in a statement.

During the process, researchers interviewed various stakeholders including prosecutors and support staff across four jurisdictions, defense counsel, victim advocates, the Connecticut American Civil Liberties Union, NAACP and more.

The project also had an advisory panel composed of a member of the Center for Justice Innovation, attorneys, advocates across all aspects of the justice system, a former justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, among others.
Researchers conducted in-person observations at the four jurisdictions: Danbury, Hartford, New Britain and New London. During those observations, the researchers observed court practices including the specialized domestic violence and gun dockets and pre-trial conferences.

Griffin said during a press conference on Thursday that the division has already started taking steps related to goals in the report including increasing recruitment strategies to improve diversity, equity and inclusion and address the burden of the high workload for prosecutors.

The division's fellowship has doubled in size for the next year, with six fellows onboarding this fall, Griffin said. He also pointed to recently passed Public Act No. 23-55 which allows the Criminal Justice Commission, the body charged with appointing all the prosecutors employed in the division of criminal justice, to interview and appoint as an "apprentice prosecutor" any students from an accredited law school who are within five months from graduation.

Griffin added that since he became the division's leader in May 2022, the commission has hired an unprecedented 39 full time prosecutors, 18% of whom are diverse candidates. The commission has also hired 71 new employees, 31% of whom come from diverse backgrounds.

Goal seven is to improve data collection, something the division is working on through the creation and fulfillment of a research and planning position in 2021 and will continue to work on, Griffin said. The division is also working to increase internal training through the Office of Ethics and Professional Standards, which Griffin established when he came on board.

Griffin said that the division has already started implementing the blueprint through the creation of the Connecticut Prosecution Standards, a compilation of best prosecutorial practices across the nation but tailored to the state.

The standards are meant to provide guidance to prosecutors and ensure consistency without sacrificing the flexibility that is crucial to the job. They also do not put new burdens on prosecutors, instead memorializing the commitment the division has and the commitment prosecutors before them had to the law, Griffin said.

"It's a document I wish I had 28 years ago when I started as a prosecutor, but it also is a public document," Griffin said. "We're making it public because if we stand up every day and represent the people in the State of Connecticut, the people of the state of Connecticut should understand a little bit about what goes into the various decision making or the decision making process at the various stages of a criminal case."

Griffin acknowledged that the division has more work to do and has to internalize the data in order to truly move forward.

"While everyone else is debating which way to go, we know that data and research really help cut through the noise and really make more practical, pragmatic solutions," Theron P. Pride Jr., the Center for Justice Innovation's managing director of national initiatives and research, said on Thursday. "To see Connecticut come together like this, to take on this effort and build out this blueprint, I've no doubt that you all will be successful in your effort to continue to improve what you do here."

--Editing by Alex Hubbard.

For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.