Racial Disparity in New York’s Juvenile Justice System NYC Task Force on Racial Disparity in the Juvenile Justice System

What is Racial Disparity? Racial disparity occurs whenever the percentage of youth in the juvenile justice system exceeds the percentage of youth in the general population Racial disparity is often spoken of using the term: DISPROPORTIONATE MINORITY CONTACT (DMC)

Rate of Placement In NYC: Black children are 32 times more likely to be placed in OCFS facilities than white children. Hispanic children are 16 times more likely to be placed in OCFS facilities than white children.

Racial Disparity in NYC

Racial Disparity in New York State

JJDPA Requirements The federal Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) provides federal compliance guidelines that states must follow in order to receive federal funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) One of the four core provisions of the act mandates states to report on and develop strategies to address Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) in the juvenile justice system States that fail to comply can jeopardize up to 20% of their federal funding

New York’s Dilemma New York City has one of the highest levels of racial disparity in its juvenile justice system. The state agency responsible for addressing DMC has started initiatives in several upstate counties, but has yet to develop a plan to address racial disparities in New York City. 70% of youth in the state juvenile justice system are from New York City NYC operates 2 secure juvenile detention centers at tremendous cost ($216,000 a year per child).

NYC Youth Population

NYC Juvenile Arrests 2005 Youth of color account for 92.5% of all juvenile arrests in NYC

Youth of color account for 95.6% of all admissions to juvenile detention in New York City NYC Detention Admissions

Youth of color account for 97.6% of all NYC admissions to state placement facilities OCFS Admissions from NYC

NYC Task Force In 2007, member organizations of the Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY) began meeting to assess racial disparities in the juvenile justice system In February of 2008, they launched the Task Force to bring attention to racial disparity in the juvenile justice system

The Ultimate Goal A juvenile justice system that is accountable to the community through the routing sharing of data with community stakeholders, resulting in collaborative efforts for system reform

What does this look like? Case Study: Peoria, Illinois Santa Cruz, California Portland, Oregon

Data Sharing The public must have regular access to agency reports of all juvenile justice decisions, disaggregated by: Race Ethnicity Gender Geography Offense

Task Force Goals To educate the public about racial disparities in the juvenile justice system To engage system stakeholders in efforts for reform To increase institutional transparency around racial disparities