This article was featured in the Journal Technologies Insider, a free quarterly publication from Journal Technologies. If you'd like to subscribe to the Insider, you can do so by clicking here.
Sahaj Patel is a Product Manager at Journal Technologies who has been working with California district attorneys and our professional services teams to prepare for the new race-blind charging mandate. We interviewed Sahaj to explore the impact this mandate will have.
Q: To start, tell us a bit about race-blind charging. Why is it significant and how will it change our legal system?
SP: Race-blind charging is a new mandate in the State of California intended to identify and reduce potential bias within the criminal prosecution process. Beginning January 1, 2025, prosecution offices must redact police reports to remove indicators of race, including demographic information such as name, skin complexion, and even neighborhoods that may imply a person’s race. After a charging decision, the original report and evidence are made available, and the attorneys proceed as usual.
Q: This sounds like a big change – is full compliance required on day one? What would this mean for our litigation clients?
SP: Yes, all prosecution offices are expected to comply with the new legislation by January 1, 2025. The law does not specifically mandate that software systems must comply, but we know this process is more efficient when integrated with our system. We are working with our eProsecutor clients to prepare them for this change and plan to provide the necessary capabilities and workflows to meet the mandate well before the deadline.
Q: How does technology play a role in achieving race-blind charging?
SP: A DA office is already a fast-paced environment, especially when it comes to screening and charging. Race-blind charging could pose challenges and slow things down, which is where technology can assist and streamline.
Q: What are we doing at Journal Technologies to address the requirements of race-blind charging in our offerings?
SP: eProsecutor is already equipped with the redaction tools and functionality to meet the mandate at a base level. Because we’ve intentionally designed the platform to be highly configurable, we can adjust to legislative changes like race-blind charging quickly. We are also working to integrate tools our customers are currently using into eProsecutor.
Q: Okay, how specifically will eProsecutor and eProsecutor Online be updated to support raceblind charging?
SP: Our product development team has reviewed the mandate and customer input we’ve solicited at length. We’ve identified requirements for a new module within eProsecutor to optimize the race-blind charging process and track the results. Expect this module to include new forms, navigation, and security protocols that control access to unredacted materials.
Q: What complexities or challenges have you and your team encountered while developing this new module, and how have you dealt with them?
SP: Well, there’s an inherent challenge in creating flexible software that will dovetail with the workflows of present and future customers without being a hassle to upgrade over time. To ensure we build the right things in the right ways, we gather customer input from offices of all sizes and build features according to real-world needs and/or mandate requirements. We then plan a rollout schedule to ensure all clients have time to properly test and validate the new module before taking it live.
Q: How will this new module impact users of eProsecutor, including those outside of California?
SP: Right now, race-blind charging has only been mandated in California, but the solution is being engineered to fit other states that might adopt similar policies in the future. Any customer will be free to implement the raceblind charging module based on their state or district’s requirements.
Q: Finally, does JTI have other plans to further enhance eSeries to support these types of improvements to fairness in justice?
SP: We’ll review what we’ve learned after rolling out the race-blind charging module, which will undoubtedly produce additional enhancement opportunities. We’re grateful for our strong partnerships across all eSeries offerings - the conversations we have with customers are a big reason these solutions are effective. As new legislation is introduced, I expect those partnerships and the lessons learned from race-blind charging will benefit other features, enhancements, and future rollouts.