In the United States, there are two systems of justice—one for white people, and one for everyone else. When compared to African- and Hispanic-Americans committing the same crimes, white Americans are less likely to be stopped by the police or arrested in either the adult or juvenile detention systems.

Study after study confirms that bias permeates nearly every level of criminal justice—from arrests to convictions to sentencing—and that includes one group who holds a disproportionate amount of power when it comes to determining the specifics of criminal proceedings. Prosecutors have an absolutely huge amount of discretion in criminal cases, including power to determine whether to charge a defendant with a crime, the length of prison terms, and the specifics of plea deals. That last one is especially crucial considering that the vast majority of defendants—more than 90%—never go to trial, meaning that it’s often up to a single prosecutor to decide how justice plays out.

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The United States is the only country in the world where prosecutors are elected, and the reasons for their racial uniformity are myriad and complicated. Socioeconomic barriers to entering the profession, the lack of diversity in top law schools, voter bias, and the fact that incumbent prosecutors rarely turn over (85% run unopposed) all factor in. The lack of diversity doesn’t just impact individual defendants, as researchers from the Stanford Criminal Justice Center noted in a study of California’s prosecutor offices. Those holding prosecutor positions often use those jobs as springboards to other elected offices, judicial appointments, or higher positions in the legal field. In other words, if prosecutor offices don’t have people of color, there’s a higher likelihood that positions with even more political or judiciary power won’t either.

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