U.S. Attorney's office

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia is the federal prosecutor's office responsible for both local criminal matters (unique among U.S. Attorneys' offices due to DC's non-state status) and federal crimes within the District. As used throughout the INSLAW files and the House Judiciary Committee's PROMIS investigation, "the U.S. Attorney's Office" refers to this DC office unless otherwise specified.

Role in PROMIS Development

In 1969, U.S. Attorney Thomas A. Flannery perceived an urgent need for improved case management tools to handle the volume of cases flowing through the DC office. He directed the Office of Crime Analysis of the District of Columbia to commission a computerized case tracking system, funded by a $60,000 LEAA grant (70-DF-047) administered through Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. The design team was co-directed by Joan E. Jacoby and Charles R. Work (then Deputy Chief of the office's Superior Court Division), with Bill Hamilton of Peat Marwick as project manager. The resulting system, the Prosecutor's Management Information System (PROMIS), was deployed January 1, 1971.¹

The DC office became the first PROMIS site and served as the demonstration platform for the system's national expansion. LEAA subsequently funded INSLAW to adapt PROMIS for adoption by other jurisdictions, and provided grants to municipalities converting to the system.¹

EOUSA Implementation Contract

The Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), which administers support for all 94 U.S. Attorneys' Offices, was the entity that signed the March 1982 implementation contract with INSLAW, Inc. for installation of PROMIS in 20 large U.S. Attorneys' offices and word-processor systems in 74 smaller ones. The execution of that contract, and EOUSA's subsequent conduct toward INSLAW, became the central dispute in the INSLAW affair.¹