I Was a Tough-on-Crime Prosecutor. This Is What I Got Wrong.

Mr. Baliunas was a prosecutor at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office from 1973 to 1978.

I came of age as a prosecutor at the onset of the most punitive period in modern American history. It was the 1970s in Chicago and President Richard Nixon spoke often of the urgency of getting drugs off our streets. Crime rates were high. Communities were under strain.

When prosecuting cases, my colleagues and I treated harsh prison sentences as........

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