Prosecutors, court communities, and policy change: The impact of internal DOJ reforms on federal prosecutorial practices*

The current study examines how key internal U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) policy changes have been translated into front-line prosecutorial practices. Extending courts-as-communities scholarship and research on implementation practices, we use Sentencing Commission data from 2004 to 2019 model outcomes for several measures discretion in federal drug trafficking cases, including the mandatory minimum charges prosecutor-endorsed departures, test impact case processing outcomes. We contrast with that are more impervious discretionary manipulation, such as criminal history, those represent judicial blended discretion, departures final sentence lengths. find a significant effect reforms tools used across DOJ periods, variation districts function contextual conditions, consistent court communities literature. also powerful driver practices during our most recent period is confirmation individual Trump-appointed Attorneys at district level, suggesting an important theoretical place midlevel actors translation implementation.