|
|
ACLU and Juvenile Justice Advocates Release
Report Charging Massachusetts with Failure to
Address Racial Disparities in Juvenile Justice
System
June 2, 2003
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BOSTON --
Massachusetts has failed to address the
overrepresentation of youth of color in its juvenile
justice system as required by federal law, according
to a report released by the American Civil Liberties
Union at a news conference with juvenile justice
advocates today. "Massachusetts has for the last
several years turned a blind eye to this issue,"
said Robin Dahlberg, a senior staff attorney with the
ACLU and principal author of the report. "The
state is responsible for the fact that approximately
seven out of 10 children confined to state facilities
are youth of color." Of the $35 million the state
has received over the last five years for
youth-related programs, it has allocated less than
$600,000, or .01 percent to programs specifically
designed to minimize racial disparities. According to
the 26-page report, Disproportionate Minority
Confinement in Massachusetts: Failures in Assessing
and Addressing Overrepresentation of Minorities in the
Massachusetts' Juvenile Justice System, the federal
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
requires states like Massachusetts to identify the
extent to which minorities are overrepresented in
their juvenile justice systems, assess the underlying
causes and take steps to address those concerns. But
according to the ACLU report, the state has made no
meaningful effort to comply with this mandate. The
state has not collected the data necessary to
sufficiently analyze the scope and nature of minority
overrepresentation. It has developed but not
implemented plans designed to address the problem.
Without the appropriate data, the state has chosen to
blame the disparities on poverty, Dahlberg said. It
has refused to examine law enforcement activity or
decision-making at any of the various stages of the
juvenile justice system. According to national
research funded by the U.S. Department of Justice,
racial disparities can result from language barriers,
unintentionally biased decision-making and cultural
insensitivity. The ACLU report calls for the state to
take an active role in identifying and addressing
those factors within its control. Specifically, the
report asks that, within the next year: · The
Governor reconfigure the Juvenile Justice Advisory
Committee, the state entity charged with addressing
the issue, to include members who are willing to take
leadership roles in reducing racial disparities. ·
The Legislature condition funding for the courts,
prosecutors and local police departments on their
collection of the data necessary to monitor the
overrepresentation of youth of color. · The Juvenile
Justice Advisory Committee and the Executive Office of
Public Safety determine the root causes of racial
disparities by examining law enforcement activity and
decision-making in Boston's juvenile justice system
and later expanding these efforts to other cities
throughout the state. · The Juvenile Justice Advisory
Committee and the Executive Office of Public Safety
revise existing federal grant programs to ensure that
youth of color have equal access to appropriate
alternatives to detention. "The state's failure
to address racial disparities not only harms youth and
communities of color, but corrodes public confidence
in its juvenile justice system," said Hon. Leslie
Harris, a Boston Juvenile Court judge who supports the
report's findings and recommendations. Today's report
was compiled after the ACLU and other advocacy
organizations obtained documents for the period 1995
through 2002 from the federal Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Programs
Division of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Public
Safety, the state agency responsible for administering
federal and state-funded criminal justice grants.
"We realize that Governor Mitt Romney has
inherited this problem from previous administrations,
nevertheless this is a serious problem that demands
immediate attention," said Carol Rose, Executive
Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "We will
continue to monitor the state's response to this
problem and encourage officials to implement the
recommendations made in our report." Other
organizations that support the findings of the ACLU's
report include: the Institute on Race and Justice at
Northeastern University, the Juvenile Justice Center
at Suffolk University, Citizens for Juvenile Justice
and the Youth Advocacy Project and the Roxbury
Defenders Unit of the Committee for Public Counsel
Services. Local elected officials that participated in
the press conference include: Boston City Councilmen
Chuck Turner and Felix D. Arroyo, and State Senators
Jarrett T. Barrios and Dianne Wilkerson. A copy of the
ACLU's report is available on line
at: http://www.aclu.org/CriminalJustice/CriminalJusticelist.cfm?c=46:
|
