Post by ck4829 on Feb 19, 2017 13:56:10 GMT
KY lawmaker pushing to eliminate racial disparity in juvenile justice system
The Fayette County Juvenile Detention Center has 36 kids locked up. "It's not uncommon to look at our 'pop' sheets and look at the kids who are in detention and it be 70, 80 percent African American," said Juvenile Justice Director Kristie Stutler.
That percentage would fall under an issue called disproportionate minority contact. It exists if the rate of representation of a particular minority group is specifically different than the rate of contact for white youth.
Kentucky has this problem, at multiple contact points in the juvenile justice system.
A senate bill aimed at studying the reasons disproportionate minority contact exists in the state was introduced Friday.
The number of African American youth in Kentucky is about 10 percent of the population, while white youth make up 80 percent. Stutler said those percentages should be similar inside the juvenile justice system. "For it to be different it means something different is going on that needs exploration," Stutler explained. In 2015, Stutler said 63 percent of African American youth were sentenced as adults. 31 percent of white youth had the same fate. "For African American youth, the more restrictive you go, the worse the disparity gets, and for white youth, it's the reverse."
"It's unjust. It's wrong and should be fixed," explained Senator Whitney Westerfield. "We see in Kentucky, in various places across Kentucky, where we treat black kids more harshly and more often in our juvenile justice system than white kids. And it simply shouldn't be that way."
Sen. Westerfield has sponsored Senate Bill 20 which he said would work to identify where the numbers are going off balance. "We just need to find where it is in the system and eradicate it because clearly that's not the way it should be," he said.
www.wkyt.com/content/news/WKYT-Investigates-KY-lawmaker-pushing-for--413634453.html
The Fayette County Juvenile Detention Center has 36 kids locked up. "It's not uncommon to look at our 'pop' sheets and look at the kids who are in detention and it be 70, 80 percent African American," said Juvenile Justice Director Kristie Stutler.
That percentage would fall under an issue called disproportionate minority contact. It exists if the rate of representation of a particular minority group is specifically different than the rate of contact for white youth.
Kentucky has this problem, at multiple contact points in the juvenile justice system.
A senate bill aimed at studying the reasons disproportionate minority contact exists in the state was introduced Friday.
The number of African American youth in Kentucky is about 10 percent of the population, while white youth make up 80 percent. Stutler said those percentages should be similar inside the juvenile justice system. "For it to be different it means something different is going on that needs exploration," Stutler explained. In 2015, Stutler said 63 percent of African American youth were sentenced as adults. 31 percent of white youth had the same fate. "For African American youth, the more restrictive you go, the worse the disparity gets, and for white youth, it's the reverse."
"It's unjust. It's wrong and should be fixed," explained Senator Whitney Westerfield. "We see in Kentucky, in various places across Kentucky, where we treat black kids more harshly and more often in our juvenile justice system than white kids. And it simply shouldn't be that way."
Sen. Westerfield has sponsored Senate Bill 20 which he said would work to identify where the numbers are going off balance. "We just need to find where it is in the system and eradicate it because clearly that's not the way it should be," he said.
www.wkyt.com/content/news/WKYT-Investigates-KY-lawmaker-pushing-for--413634453.html