Elevating Racial Justice

Addressing Racial Disparities

Eliminating our current system’s disparities requires a comprehensive approach to pretrial improvement.

A Recognition of Systemic Racism

A single institution does not cause systemic racism; rather, it involves the reinforcing effects of multiple systems, practices, and cultural norms — past and present — continually reproducing old forms of racism and producing new ones. The cumulative impact of systemic racism is that people of color have been disproportionately caught in the net of the criminal legal system. System stakeholders should partner with communities to take affirmative steps to eliminate disparities wherever they arise.

An Understanding of Implicit Bias

Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes and stereotypes toward people and social groups that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions. This form of bias runs through our legal system, even when decision-makers do not want it to. Jurisdictions should address implicit bias through deliberate awareness-building strategies and by holding systems accountable for the impact, whether intended or not, that bias has caused.

A Close Examination of Data

Objective data shines a light on whether and how people of varying races, ethnicities, genders, and economic positions are treated, and helps uncover policies and practices that contribute to disparities. Sharing this data with all stakeholders contributes to transparency and helps identify the policies and practices that can be improved. Jurisdictions should identify and collect local data, and evaluate whether pretrial justice goals and values are met fairly and equally across all people.

Meaningful Community Engagement

Eliminating disparities and achieving racial equity is dependent on a genuine and meaningful relationship between system stakeholders and those impacted by structural racism (including poverty, inequity, and disproportionate incarceration). Community members bring critical expertise and perspective to the policymaking table, particularly when it comes to the dialogue and strategies required to achieve fairness and effectiveness. System and community stakeholders must work together to identify ways to make needed changes, to keep people out of the system whenever possible, and to otherwise eliminate disparities within the system.

Broad Stakeholder Collaboration

For pretrial justice goals to be achieved, law enforcement, prosecution, defense, courts, and others who impact or are impacted by the system must work together effectively. Local collaboratives should be broadly composed and include the voices of the people most affected by the system: people charged with a crime, victims, families, and community organizations.