Spørgsmål og svar:Sort, Latinx-folk er overrepræsenteret i fængslet, undersøgelse siger

En ny rapport fra Criminal Justice Policy Program (CJPP) ved Harvard Law School viser, at sorte og latinske mennesker er overrepræsenteret i Massachusetts' strafferetssystem, og at de får længere straffe end deres hvide kolleger, når de bliver dømt. Analysen, "Raceforskelle i Massachusetts Criminal System, " var resultatet af en anmodning fra 2016 fra Ralph Gants '76, J.D. '80, øverste dommer i statens højesteret, for Jurastudiet til at se nærmere på problemet. Forfatterne inkluderer CJPP's administrerende direktør Brook Hopkins, J.D. '07, og kammerater Elizabeth Tsai Bishop, Chijindu Obiofuma, og Felix Owusu. The Gazette interviewede Hopkins og Owusu, en ph.d. kandidat i offentlig politik ved Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, om ulighederne og behovet for politiske reformer.

Spørgsmål og svar:Brook Hopkins og Felix Owusu

GAZETTE:Hvad udløste anmodningen fra den øverste dommer i statens højesteret om undersøgelsen?

HOPKINS:I efteråret 2016, Chief Justice Ralph Gants holdt en tale kaldet "The State of the Judiciary" og fremhævede forskning, der viste, at Massachusetts havde nogle ret skarpe raceforskelle i sin fængselsbefolkning. Chief Justice Gants spurgte daværende dekan Martha Minow, om Harvard ville lave en undersøgelse for at kaste lys over, hvor disse uligheder kom fra. Dean Minow spurgte min organisation, det strafferetlige politikprogram, hvis vi ville stå i spidsen for den undersøgelse. Vi arbejdede med en koalition af folk på tværs af skolen for at dykke meget ned i administrative strafferetlige data i Massachusetts. Denne rapport er kulminationen på det.

OWUSU:Jeg sluttede mig til indsatsen i begyndelsen af ​​2018, og der havde allerede været arbejdet med at indsamle data fra forskellige kilder. I løbet af de seneste tre år har ud over at analysere data, en stor indsats gik i at sammenlægge datasæt fra forskellige bureauer, det være sig retsdomstolen eller Department of Criminal Justice Information Services eller Department of Corrections. Vi skulle sørge for, at datasættene fra forskellige bureauer alle kunne være i kommunikation med hinanden. Dette projekt var et samarbejde, fordi vi havde brug for indsigt fra folk, der arbejder i det strafferetlige system, for at inkorporere en række forskellige perspektiver i rapporten.

GAZETTE:Lad os tale om rapportens resultater. Du blev bedt om at undersøge årsagerne bag den store forskel i fængselshyppigheden blandt hvide, Afroamerikanere, og latinamerikanere. Hvad fandt du?

OWUSU:Der er en generel forståelse af, at der findes raceforskelle i det strafferetlige system. Vores mål var at se på de forskellige punkter i processen, der førte til det resultat, for at finde ud af, hvor vi skal gribe ind for at ændre dette resultat. Det er det, denne rapport virkelig taler om. En af de ting, vi gjorde, var at tage oplysninger fra bureauer, hvor disse databaser ikke var i samtale med hinanden og ikke regelmæssigt blev forbundet eller fusioneret for at kunne se på tingene på tværs af folks kriminelle historie, deres anklager i den sag, de er i, og deres fængslingsdomme. Værdien af ​​denne rapport er at kunne tale om flere stadier af den strafferetlige proces, der førte til disse skarpe resultater. Derfor er denne form for analyse vigtig, selvom der allerede er en generel forståelse af, at der var et problem med hensyn til overrepræsentation.

Det er en 100-siders rapport, der analyserer data om over en halv million sager. Det er svært at fremhæve alle vigtige tendenser. Men jeg vil gerne fremhæve et par takeaways. Først, vi var i stand til at bekræfte, at farvede mennesker er overrepræsenteret på tværs af alle stadier af det kriminelle system i forhold til deres andel af befolkningen i staten. Selvom vores data primært fokuserer på, hvad der sker i retten, forskellene er allerede store, når folk dukker op i de data, vi analyserer. Sekund, vi fandt ud af, at sorte og latinske mennesker i gennemsnit modtager meget længere domme end deres hvide modparter. Vi fandt ud af, at et af de beslutningspunkter, der var særligt betydningsfulde for at skabe denne forskel, var i de indledende beslutninger om opkrævning. Den sidste ting, jeg vil sige, er, at raceforskelle var særligt ekstreme for tiltalte, der blev anklaget for narkotika og våben. Sorte og latinske tiltalte, der står over for narkotika- og våbenanklager, var mere tilbøjelige til at blive dømt, mere tilbøjelige til at blive fængslet, og modtage længere straffe end hvide mennesker, der stod over for lignende anklager. I betragtning af hvad vi ved fra historien og tidligere forskning, disse fund er måske ikke særlig overraskende for folk, men jeg synes, det var vigtigt at dokumentere det og vise, at det er en væsentlig komponent for at forstå raceforskelle i det strafferetlige system.

GAZETTE:Hvad var udfordringerne i processen med at indsamle data fra statslige organer?

HOPKINS:Det, der virkelig overraskede mig i løbet af dette arbejde, var, hvor svært det var at få dataene og få dem til et sted, hvor vi kunne analysere dem. For eksempel, vi var ikke i stand til at få data fra anklagemyndighederne eller få tilstrækkelige data fra politi og retshåndhævelse. Vi kunne heller ikke få endelig domfældelse for de fleste af personerne i vores datasæt eller få data om dommere eller anklagere. Vi har data om prøvetid, men vi kunne ikke bruge det, fordi det ikke var knyttet til et tilstrækkeligt antal retssager. Der var mange problemer med data, hvilket gjorde det ekstremt svært overhovedet at komme til slutstadiet af fund. Det krævede meget arbejde at nå dertil, og dette er information, som vi burde være i stand til at kende, som borgere i Massachusetts, som vi bare ikke kan vide, fordi der ikke er nogen data.

Udfordringerne var mange. Disse datasæt er beregnet til driftsstyring, ikke til forskning af den slags, som vi gør, and it takes a long time for the agencies to even collect the data that we were asking for. One challenge is how much time it took to even get the data. We were trying to track the whole process, and we were getting data from various agencies. It took quite a lot of work to link up the data from the various agencies—to be able to link up somebody's trial court record with their criminal history or with their probation record or their Department of Corrections record. Også, some of the agencies use different terms or fields to mean the same thing or have different definitions. We had to understand the idiosyncrasies of the various agencies, and once we had the data, we had to understand what the various fields meant. Some of that was self-evident, and some was not, which made it hard to figure out how to interpret what we were seeing. And then there was a lot missing, and we didn't know whether it was missing because it didn't happen or because it was not recorded. There are some things that are not tracked at all. For eksempel, there's no way to tell when a person is arraigned in District Court and whether they're subsequently indicted in Superior Court. There are two separate records, and there's no link between them. In District Court, it looks like the case was dismissed and a new case is filed in the Superior Court, but they're not linked at all. Keeping track of cases throughout the system was difficult in that sense as well.

OWUSU:Another challenge was to make sure that we were interpreting everything correctly and that it reflected the reality on the ground. It's one thing to look at a data set at your computer, but we had to make sure that the data set reflected people's experience. It took a lot of time and conversations with people who were familiar with these processes because when you're trying to understand all of the cases in an entire state over three years, you have to be able to translate that information from how it's written to be used day to day to an aggregate level.

GAZETTE:What contribution does the report make in the debate about racial disparities in the criminal justice system?

OWUSU:As a researcher who works with data, I think data is an important way of understanding the world and looking at the impact of policies on people's lives. In this specific case, this kind of data helps us understand the impact with regard to racial disparities such as what charges are being levied against who and where, and what sentences apply to the charges. It's also a key input in terms of how we can be able to hold our institutions accountable. By having information and data available we can improve public policy and make sure government works the way citizens want. I'd also like to highlight the state's participation. It's not often that an effort of this scale is undertaken to understand this kind of data. This is one step in a multistep process of understanding our criminal justice system through data and using this to do better.

HOPKINS:Another contribution is that the report reveals how institutional racism permeates the whole criminal justice system and ends up playing a big role in the racial disparities in incarceration rates in the state. It's not just disparate treatment by police, prosecutors, or judges once somebody is in the system. There is also a legislative piece. We have certain behaviors that are considered a risk to public safety that are treated differently based on stereotypes about who engages in those behaviors. We have an example in the report of OUIs [operating under the influence]. In the data we analyzed, people charged with OUIs are overwhelmingly white. There is a statutory diversion program in the Massachusetts Code that allows for a first-time OUI offender to take an alcohol-education course, have probation, and then have the charge wiped from the record if they comply. In our report, we compare that to possession of an unlicensed firearm, which is a crime that is charged against Black defendants more frequently and has a pretty high statutory minimum sentence that escalates as subsequent charges are brought. The decision to treat one behavior so differently from the other is a legislative one. It's not about systems, actors, and individual cases. I think the report in some ways challenges us to look beyond the treatment of individuals in the system and think more broadly about how we use the criminal system to address public safety and public health.

GAZETTE:What do you hope to achieve with this report?

HOPKINS:It's important to remember that this is a report requested by the courts. That indicates that there is some interest on behalf of the courts in addressing this problem. I hope this report sheds some light on the nuances of the issue and will provide some ammunition to the courts and to advocates in thinking about how to prioritize policy change. I would also add the report concludes that there is some work to be done on data collection and accessibility and transparency to have a better understanding of what's happening in Massachusetts.

OWUSU:We're looking at the criminal system of an entire state over a long period of time. To fully address these problems is going to require multiple policy changes to happen because a lot of the disparities we see in this system occur before people enter the court system. The report speaks to the need to consider policies outside of the courts entirely, such as how we structure our communities, economically, socialt, how we police our communities, and what kinds of activities to criminalize at all. This is of course being discussed nationwide. Thinking of how we can broaden the scope of things outside of the criminal justice response and include a public health framing or economic justice framing is very important.

Denne historie er udgivet med tilladelse fra Harvard Gazette, Harvard Universitets officielle avis. For yderligere universitetsnyheder, besøg Harvard.edu.