Vertical prosecution and career criminal bureaus: How many and who?

In recent years LEAA has encouraged prosecutors to establish vertical prosecution units to handle the cases of defendants with serious conviction records. The vertical units, called Career Criminal Bureaus, result in enhanced trial posture and permit greater managerial control over plea bargaining. Because vertical handling is more costly in manpower than the horizontal handling commonly employed in large prosecutors' offices, the optimal organizational structure is likely to involve a mixture of both vertical and horizontal prosecution. A theoretical model for determining the optimal mix is developed in the first part of this article. In the second part, a simulation model is used to evaluate the various rules that are or could be used to select cases. Contrary to actual practice, the analysis suggests that relatively weak cases should be selected for vertical handling.