Left-wing billionaires and nonprofits are bankrolling a think tank that trains prosecutors and their staff on the practice of "trauma-informed prosecution," an approach that argues that all criminals are "dealing with trauma" and thus aims to reduce charges or seek alternatives for incarceration based on their psychological profiles. The think tank is housed in the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the taxpayer-funded City University of New York (CUNY).
The Institute for Innovation in Prosecution (IIP) launched in 2015 as a partnership between the college and the Manhattan DA’s office, which provided $3 million in seed funding obtained through settlements with international banks.
It is led by Rachel Marshall, who served as a top aide to former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, whom voters recalled in 2022 after he ended cash bail and declined to prosecute a number of low-level crimes. Boudin is the son of Weather Underground terrorists and was raised by another pair of Weather Underground terrorists, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
Its inaugural advisory board included Kamala Harris, who at the time served as California attorney general, and its active members include a who's who of current and former George Soros-funded prosecutors, including Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, former Cook County, Ill., DA Kim Foxx, and former Los Angeles County DA George Gascón, who faced two recall efforts and lost his 2024 reelection bid to a tough-on-crime opponent.
As funding from the Manhattan DA’s office ran out, several left-wing billionaires and organizations began propping up the think tank.
Since 2020, the IIP has raked in $710,000 from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Tax filings show it received another $31,500 in 2021 from Arnold Ventures, which was founded by John Arnold, a former Enron executive who outpaced Soros in funding criminal justice reform efforts at nearly $50 million as of 2024, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The MacArthur Foundation—the country’s 12th-largest private charity—added another $30,000 in 2021 to bring prosecutors, policy experts, advocates, and "directly impacted people" together to address an "urgent problem regarding criminalization of quality-of-life issues." In June 2021, the IIP received unspecified "support" from Microsoft’s Justice Reform Initiative to launch the "Beyond Big Cities" program, which aims to ensure prosecutors outside of urban areas "are not lacking in their commitment to justice and equity," according to its website.
The contributions reflect a continued push to advance soft-on-crime policies, even after voters soured on them in deep-blue cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The IIP provides an array of trainings, webinars, research papers, and other resources for prosecutors on topics like bail reform, "reproductive healthcare," and "justice for immigrants," with speakers including other Soros-funded prosecutors like Mary Moriarty of Hennepin County, Minn., Fairfax County commonwealth's attorney Steve Descano, and Boudin.
Among its featured trainings is the "Trauma-Informed Prosecution Project," which aims to empower "prosecutors to employ their understanding of trauma to find the best outcomes for society, including individuals charged with crimes," according to its instructional script.
The script also directs prosecutors to assume that "all witnesses/victims/accused are dealing with trauma" and to "consider whether mental health or substance abuse issues played a role in the case you are investigating." It suggests consulting clinical staff like social workers to evaluate such records and to consider whether there’s "an alternative to charging the case as a crime" or avoiding incarceration entirely.
"Is the prospective prison sentence a proportional response to the person accused of a crime?" it reads. "If not, are there other ways to hold the individual accountable? Does the case qualify for a diversion program?"
Elsewhere, the training argues that "the criminal legal system has historically played a significant role in creating and exacerbating trauma and adverse experiences for communities of color," noting that "urban Black communities and Immigrant communities are at a higher risk" of experiencing trauma "due to racial and economic segregation."
An accompanying workbook provides hypothetical scenarios directing trainees to reflect on how "factors" like race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and immigration status "impact the bias of the prosecutor, individual accused of a crime, witness, or crime survivor."
Microsoft declined to comment. The MacArthur Foundation did not respond to a request for comment. An Arnold Ventures spokeswoman said the firm supports research that helps "solve more crimes, promote safety, and strengthen communities, while upholding constitutional and civil rights."
Because the IIP is housed within John Jay College and the larger CUNY program, its broader funding is somewhat murky. The school has, however, received extensive funding from left-wing sources. MacArthur, for instance, has poured nearly $4.1 million into the school since 2012. The institute has also partnered with the Vera Institute of Justice, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that has called to defund police departments and abolish immigration enforcement agencies, hosting events for prosecutors on racial justice, restorative justice, and "the disproportionate enforcement of gun laws in Black communities and other communities of color." The Vera Institute did not respond to a request for comment.
The IIP did not respond to a request for comment.
Progressives’ criminal justice reform policies have become increasingly controversial in recent years, with critics arguing that they ignore victims while treating lawbreakers favorably.
A violent career criminal in Colorado, for instance, gamed a 2024 state law that forced prosecutors to drop charges against defendants who were found unlikely to gain competency to stand trial in the near future, according to Weld County sheriff Steve Reams. The assailant, Debisa Ephraim, had knocked out two men—hitting their heads on the way down—and continued punching their faces after they lost consciousness. He was arrested again two weeks after his release for carrying a firearm on a university campus.
Reams said Ephraim appeared competent while detained following his first 2025 arrest, but manipulated mental health evaluators into determining his long-term inability to gain competency. Just a few months later, during his next detention, they determined that his competency was "restorable."
