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Friday, August 28, 2009
Ind. Courts - Summit on Racial Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System
The Summit on Racial Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System, held yesterday in Indianapolis, is the subject of a report today by the AP's Charles Wilson, in the Chicago Tribune. Some quotes:
About 200 judges, social workers and other experts from Indiana and other states gathered in Indianapolis to discuss how to handle the state's racial disparities in the arrest and prosecution of juveniles. The meeting was an outgrowth of a state commission's report in October about youth services in the state.For background, see this ILB entry from August 14th, and this ISBA webpage, including a resource guide.Russ Skiba, director of the Equity Project at Indiana University, said preliminary figures based on 2008 data show that black youth were on average about three times as likely to be arrested than other races. He also found that blacks were more likely to be detained for minor offenses such as disorderly conduct or violating probation than whites, and were much more likely to be sent to detention centers than white youth arrested for similar offenses. His data showed that blacks overall were about twice as likely as other races to be detained and that blacks were more than six times as likely to be detained for drug offenses -- even though they were arrested for such crimes less often than whites.
His study, expected to be released later this year, was based on data from the nine Indiana counties that have a computerized juvenile justice system database.
Other experts said far too many youngsters -- whatever their race -- are getting caught in the criminal court system.
Zero tolerance policies often enforced by school police can put youth on a direct path to the courts, detention centers and dropping out of school, they say.
"The zero tolerance strategies -- they just really don't work," said Noble Wray, chief of the Madison Police Department in Wisconsin.
Several experts said one solution is to give police officers more discretion when dealing with minor juvenile offenses and to provide alternatives to detention such as rehabilitative workshops or community service.
"Formal involvement in the judicial system is not going to be the answer for changing the behavior of these kids," said Thomas Cleary, the senior deputy district attorney for Portland, Ore.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 28, 2009 09:41 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts