Police decisions as gatekeepers shape every downstream phase of criminal justice

Evidence

Because police are usually the initial contact citizens have with the CJS and, as such, determine whether someone is formally drawn into the system (Roeder, Eisen, & Bowling, 2015), starting “upstream” in the process is critical to making change. After all, there is no prosecutorial discretion without the would-be suspects. There is no sentencing without the would-be defendants, and there is no mass incarceration without the would-be inmates. Through their activities, law enforcement can effectively constrain and determine the complexion of later phases of the system. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 419

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to upstream-downstream bias funnel discussions in criminal-justice reform literature and reformist Marxist accounts of state institutional gates.
• SEED: Small-c agency reform essay angle: how gatekeeper institutions concentrating early discretionary power are the highest-leverage points for systemic change.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 419