The Judiciary and the Minority Community

Another finding was a persistent perception among minorities that the justice system gives scant attention or resources to investigating crimes against minorities and those defendants who are minorities receive harsh treatment compared to White defendants in similar circumstances. National statistics help to explain this persistent concern. In the United States, almost one in three African American males, 30.2 percent, are under the control of the criminal justice system. In California the rate is 33.2 percent. The comparable rate for Latinos and Whites nationally is 12.3 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively. In California the rate for Latinos is 9.4 percent and 5.4 percent for Whites.

The Judicial Council reports indicates that nationwide statistics support the claim that despite the growing numbers of minority law students graduating from top-ranked law schools, the country's largest private law firms are recruiting minimal numbers of minority attorneys and retaining even fewer minority attorneys a

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the legal system. When combined with gender and race, economic status and class can have a profound effect on a defendant's courtroom experience and can affect the outcome of a case. At the same time, white female and minority female attorneys in addition to minority male attorneys report that members of their own group are more disadvantaged than other groups in the courtroom. They almost universally report instances in which judges have made disparaging or racially biased remarks in their presence. If judges do this to officers of the court, it seems almost certain that this bias carries over to defendants who are women or minorities. According to a report issued by the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System, perceptions of unequal and biased treatment in all aspects of the justice system have been formed as a result of the personal experiences of African Americans. The lack of diversity with respect to the numbers of minority judges, prosecutors, court administrators, and chosen jurors only serves to reinforce these perceptions. According to this report, the small number of minority women serving as judges exacerbates the problem. There were 431 judges in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2002, but only 19 were non-whit
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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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