AFTER 50 YEARS...
It’s Time to Hold the Justice System Accountable
Today, nearly 98% of federal convictions are obtained through guilty pleas rather than trials. Across case records and documented outcomes, the same patterns repeat:
- Prosecutors are shielded from civil liability, even for alleged constitutional misconduct.
- Federal trial sentences average roughly three times plea sentences.
JRF is building the research, public record, and policy foundation for the proposed Prosecutorial Accountability and Public Trust Act — PAPTA — a carefully limited framework that protects good-faith public service and the integrity of lawful convictions.
A nonpartisan education and research initiative of the Justice Restoration Foundation.
WHY ACCOUNTABILITY MATTERS
When Experience Shows a System No Longer Works, Law Changes.
America has changed systems before when experience proved they were not working. Legal doctrines are not immutable. JRF believes Congress should examine whether that doctrine should continue to prevent civil accountability when a prosecutor intentionally suppresses material evidence, fabricates evidence, retaliates, acts under a disqualifying conflict of interest, or knowingly uses false evidence.
Accountability protects defendants, ethical prosecutors, lawful convictions, and public trust.
RESEARCH & EVIDENCE
The Cost Doesn't End With the Case.
JRF's Economic Impact Study is examining the real-world costs of federal prosecutorial overreach — including lost payroll, closed businesses, foregone tax revenue, destroyed enterprise value, professional-practice disruption, legal costs, family instability, and long-term community effects.
BUSINESSES • JOBS • TAXPAYERS • FAMILIES • COMMUNITIES
EXPLORE THE ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDYWHAT THE STUDY MEASURES
Economic Loss
Lost payroll, closed businesses, foregone tax revenue, and destroyed enterprise value.
Professional & Family Impact
Professional-practice disruption, legal costs, and family instability.
Long-Term Effects
Economic consequences that can continue across families and communities after a federal case ends.
Research Standard
Inclusion in the study does not imply prosecutorial misconduct. Findings remain preliminary until verified and reviewed.
OUR RESTORATION PROGRAMS
Accountability Upstream. Restoration Downstream.
From policy reform to second chances, JRF works to address the injustices of today and create opportunity for tomorrow.
PAPTA Prosecutorial Accountability
Building a carefully limited framework to address intentional prosecutorial misconduct through independent review, meaningful accountability, and safeguards that protect good-faith public service and lawful convictions.
Federal
Expungement
Advancing a federal pathway that would allow eligible people who have completed their sentences to clear qualifying records and move forward without a conviction following them for life.
Rule 15
Examining reforms to give federal criminal defendants meaningful access to witness testimony before trial—bringing greater balance to a system where discovery tools are heavily weighted toward the government.
Restore the Promise
Pursuing greater accountability when the government brings a case and loses, including reforms that would make recovery of reasonable defense costs a meaningful remedy rather than an exceptional one.
GET INVOLVED
A Stronger Framework Requires More Than One Perspective.
JRF is bringing together attorneys, researchers, economists, former public officials, business leaders, directly affected families, and other professionals to test the evidence and strengthen the proposed framework.