OREGON SUPREME COURT TASK FORCE, REPORT ON RACIAL/ETHNIC ISSUES IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM, MAY 1994
The Oregon Supreme Court Task Force was established by the Oregon Supreme Court on February 21, 1992. The task force was created to identify problems faced by racial and ethnic minorities in the judicial system and to propose a course of action to address the problems and concerns.
The Task Force gathered information from testimony at nine public hearings throughout the state. Additionally, 7,525 persons who use the court system were surveyed regarding issues of race and ethnicity in the Oregon court system. Surveys were sent to 5,438 judges, court personnel, and attorneys. The response rate was 40%. In addition to the extensive survey research, prior research, and written comments submitted to the task force were analyzed.
FINDINGS
Peremptory challenges, eliminating individuals from serving on juries, are used solely because of the race or ethnic background of prospective jurors.
In the criminal justice area, the evidence suggests that, as compared to similarly situated nonminorities:
minorities are more likely to be arrested,
minorities are more likely to be charged,
minorities are less likely to be released on bail,
minorities are more likely to be convicted,
minorities are less likely to be put on probation,
minorities are more likely to be incarcerated.
In the juvenile justice system:
minorities are more likely to be arrested,
minorities are more likely to be charged with delinquent acts,
minorities are more likely to be removed from their family's care and custody,
minorities are more likely to be remanded for trial as adults,
minorities are more likely to be found guilty of delinquent acts,
minorities are more likely to be incarcerated,
minorities lack experts sensitive to the cultural differences of minorities.
RECOMMENDATIONS
District attorneys should be required to collect and report to the Criminal Justice Council data on the variable of race in all charging decisions.
The legislature should direct the Criminal Justice Council to develop uniform charging standards to be used by all prosecutors in Oregon. The uniform standards should be sufficiently detailed to provide meaningful limits on prosecutorial discretion and to enable judicial review. The Criminal Justice Council should be directed to report biannually to the legislature on the implementation of the standards.
The Chief Justice should require trial judges, in rendering pretrial release decisions, to use uniform forms that include the race of defendants.
The legislature should direct the Criminal Justice Council to study and report the extent to which the race of a defendant affects the outcome of a pretrial release decision, either in the decision whether to release on personal recognizance or in the conditions of release.
Because of the immense help that its statistics have been to this task force, and because it is imperative that such statistics be available in the future, the Criminal Justice Council should continue to study and report on racial disparities in sentencing.
