Manhattan DA Orders Prosecutors to Only Seek Jail Time for Worst Cases

Newly elected Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg has told prosecutors in his office in a memo that they should ask judges for jail or prison time only for the most serious offenses — including murder, sexual assault and economic crimes involving vast sums of money — unless the law requires them to do otherwise, reports the New York Times. Bragg instructed prosecutors to avoid seeking jail time for certain robberies and assaults, as well as gun possession in cases where no other crimes are involved, and directed that they no longer request prison sentences of more than 20 years absent “exceptional circumstances.”

The decision has created some confusion, as roughly 500 prosecutors must now decipher a complicated legal memo and figure out how to apply it to their active cases while also dealing with the frustrations of primarily working remotely. Conservative critics such as police organizations and former attorneys have argued that the new policies could undermine police efforts at reducing crime during an ongoing spike in violence and bring Bragg into conflict with Mayor Eric Adams’s law and order platform. Bragg has also said he would not prosecute some misdemeanors, including prostitution and fare evasion, that his predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., had already stopped charging as crimes and even added several misdemeanors to that list, including the stand-alone charge for resisting arrest. Supporters say that his policies are a necessary corrective in a borough where prosecutors have historically charged defendants harshly.