Giving Compass' Take:

· Progressive prosecutor reform is on display in a small district attorney race in Durham, NC. The Marshall Project shows that this is a microcosm for the shift in criminal justice attitudes across the country

· Will we see real results in the way prison reform is carried out at the local level, given the changing political climate, or are the recent DA campaigns too small a sample size?

· Beyond the voting booth, here's how data can help create a stronger and fairer criminal justice system.

In North Carolina, campaigns for district attorney have long followed a traditional narrative: lots of talk about being tough on crime, accompanied by the occasional gun raffle fundraiser.

Satana Deberry’s campaign this year in Durham, a left-leaning enclave of about 260,000 people, is not typical. Deberry is running against the system, one of a few dozen candidates around the country who say they want to shake things up from inside the corner office. “The only indisputable outcome of our criminal justice system is that black and brown people are incarcerated,” Deberry said in a recent interview. “We aren’t safer as a community.”

Across the country, a new breed of prosecutors has been elected in Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and other places, promising to end death penalty prosecutions, drastically cut back on cash bail and pull back on low-level charges. Many have had outside help, including from political action committees associated with billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

That assistance hasn’t trickled down to Durham, where this month’s Democratic primary is likely to determine the next DA. But in a sign that the ethos and goals of the prosecutor reform movement has begun to influence less visible races, the Durham campaign has become a competition between candidates to tout their progressive bona fides.

Deberry has echoed the pledges of other reform-minded candidates, as well as saying that if she’s elected, her entire staff, including her, would undergo routine training to combat unconscious race or sex bias. Racial bias may seem an odd focus in Durham, where the police chief, senior trial judge and chief public defender are African-American, as is incumbent District Attorney Roger Echols.

Read the full article about prosecutor reform by Joseph Neff at The Marshall Project.