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Eliminate Racial Bias in Criminal Justice System
We'll be writing up something soon. Be sure to check out Dispatches on this issue as well as other resources in the sidebar. You can also use the issue menu to the right to navigate to related issues.
From the Dispatch
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States and the Census: Expanding Outreach, Maximizing Federal Funding and Assuring Equal Representation
Mar 29, 2010
This Dispatch will outline strategies that include crafting outreach and education initiatives that integrate city and state government agencies with grassroots organizations and local media to ensure 'Hard-to-Count' residents are included in the Census; enacting state legislation that mandates prisoners are counted in their home districts rather than in that of their prisons, and proactively considering principles for redistricting legislative districts that move beyond uniquely partisan concerns to addressing the needs of district residents. This Dispatch will also aim to provide some of these best practices and highlight resources, all with a view toward preparing states to engage effectively with the 2010 and — looking forward — 2020 Census. -
African-American Incarceration in State Prisons for Drug Crimes Drops 22% in Six Years
Apr 16, 2009
A report byThe Sentencing Project released this week shows that the number of African-Americans in state prisons for drug crimes dropped 21.6% from 1999-2005, a reduction of more than 31,000 individuals. -
Racial Impact Statements: Addressing Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice Systems
Jan 15, 2009
The most recent edition of the American Bar Association's magazine, Criminal Justice, highlights a new tool -- racial impact statements -- that states are using to address the racial disparity in their criminal justice systems. The problem of disparate treatment was highlighted in two 2007 reports detailing the critical failure of states to administer justice without regard to race or ethnicity.