Giving Compass' Take:

• The Marshall Project examines the record of Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and finds that, despite his progressive reputation, he has punished the poor and minorities disproportionally more than other New York boroughs.

• What does this say about the hopes for prison reform in other parts of the country if this particular elected official cannot deliver on his own promises?

• Here, the Heartland Alliance makes some recommendations to improve our criminal justice system.

To hear the media tell it, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is soft on white-collar crime. First came the news that an attorney for Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. had arranged a fundraiser for Vance after he refused to prosecute them for fraud. Then there was Vance’s decision not to file sexual-assault charges against Harvey Weinstein, even though police had caught the Hollywood mogul on tape confessing to the crime. Last month, spurred by a story in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the state attorney general to investigate Vance’s handling of the case. The incidents have cost the DA: During his uncontested election for a third term in November, 10 percent of voters were so fed up with him that they went to the trouble of writing in someone whose name wasn’t Cy Vance.

But all the attention on Vance’s treatment of the rich and powerful has obscured a more surprising aspect of his record: The DA, who styles himself a progressive reformer, is actually far more punitive toward poor and minority defendants than his counterparts in other boroughs. According to a report issued last year by a special commission on Rikers Island, Vance’s office was responsible for almost 38 percent of the city’s jail population in 2016, even though it handled just 29 percent of all criminal cases in New York. “No other borough comes close,” the report concluded. Brooklyn — despite having a million more residents than Manhattan — accounted for only 22 percent of those behind bars.

Read the full article about Manhattan DA Cy Vance's record of incarcerating poor and minorities disproportionally by Tom Robbins at The Marshall Project