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Diversity
in the Justice System
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(AR)
The Arkansas Bar Association has established the Arkansas Bar
Commission on Diversity. The
Commission is working with a variety of other organizations and groups
in order to improve racial diversity and fairness within the legal
profession.
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(AZ)
The Arizona Supreme Court’s Commission on Minorities and the
Arizona Minority Judges’ Caucus work to promote judicial
opportunities for all interested lawyers.
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(KY)
The Minority Affairs Office will develop minority and diversity
training for judicial and nonjudicial court personnel. Local judges
and court clerks will be encouraged to increase the professional
opportunities made available to members of minority communities by
improving notification of employment opportunities at the local level.
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(WA) The Standing Committee
on Public Trust and Confidence ensures that the courts demographically
reflect the communities they serve.
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Diversity
in Legal Education
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(IN)
Through the Indiana Supreme Court-sponsored Indiana Conference
on Legal Education Opportunity (ICLEO), a more diverse legal
profession is being created. Established in 1997 and patterned after
the national CLEO program, ICLEO provides $5,000 annual stipends to
Indiana law school students who are educationally disadvantaged,
members of a minority or have low incomes. The program also sponsors a
6-week preparatory course during the summer before law school starts
to introduce the students to the rigors of law school.
Career counseling, employment opportunities, and bar
examination preparation are just a few of the services offered by
ICLEO. Three graduates
were selected to speak at their school’s graduation ceremonies. In
2000, the first ICLEO graduates passed the Indiana Bar Examination.
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(KY)
The Office of Minority Affairs will form strategic partnerships
with state colleges and universities to aggressively recruit
minorities to pursue legal careers in Kentucky.
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(OH)
In response to a recommendation of the Racial Fairness
Commission, the Ohio Supreme Court is establishing an Ohio Commission
for Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) for disadvantaged students
entering law school.
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Jury Diversity
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(MI)
The State Bar of Michigan’s Open Justice Commission's jury
representation project recognizes the importance of and urges broad
citizen participation in the legal system.
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(NM)
Over the last several years, recommendations have been made to
improve the jury system by the New Mexico Supreme Court Committee to
Study Racial and Ethnic Fairness and Equality in the Courts.
The committees’ recommendations address various concerns:
lack of jury “representativeness” in an increasingly diverse
society; enforced juror passivity during trials; and unacceptably low
levels of juror comprehension of the evidence and of the court’s
instructions. Recommendations
on the whole call for a more democratic juror experience, and one that
is more educational. Judges
and trial attorneys are asked to be open to doing old things in new
ways. The main thrust is
to be more receptive to the juror’s needs to learn better and to
actively participate to a greater degree in the fact-finding process.
The major recommendations include:
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Providing guidelines
for courts in the use of interpreters for non-English speaking jurors,
including the amendment of the jury summons to advise potential jurors
of the availability of interpreting assistance
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Investigating the
advisability of adding additional juror source lists to enhance the
representativeness of jury panels
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Better meeting the
needs of jurors with hearing and other physical impairments.
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(NY)
New York's 8th
Judicial District (comprising Buffalo and surrounding counties in
Western New York) Committee has developed a program to educate
minority communities about the importance of jury service
participation, with the goal to make the juries in that district more
representative of the general population.
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Training
for Racial, Gender, and Ethnic Issues
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(AZ)
The many councils, commissions and subcommittees of the
Judicial Branch have been enriched by the addition of public
members--non-lawyers and non-judges--and by the commitment to ethnic,
gender and geographic diversity on these bodies.
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(OH)
In response to a recommendation of the Racial Fairness
Commission, the Ohio Supreme Court is implementing a
diversity-training curriculum by the Ohio Judicial College.
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(UT)
In Utah, system-wide diversity training is now provided to all
judges and court staff.
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(MI)
The State Bar of Michigan’s Open Justice Commission is in the
process of implementing educational programs related to cultural
awareness, juvenile justice, and sexual orientation for judges and
lawyers. To the extent that it succeeds, it will expand the knowledge
and awareness of both lawyers and judges, encouraging an environment
of inclusion and fairness.
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Equal
Treatment of Court Participants
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(DC) The Subcommittee
on Improving the Treatment of Participants by Judicial Officers met
with representatives from the Office of the Corporation Counsel and
the Public Defender Service. The
goal of the forum was to gather input and develop a plan for improving
treatment that would be responsive to the group’s concerns.
Information and concerns raised at the forum as well as any
recommendations that might be an outgrowth of the forum are in the
process of being compiled in a report.
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(IN)
The Supreme Court is seeking to make sure that people,
regardless of race or gender, feel that the justice system operates
fairly. In late 1999, the Supreme Court created by court rule, the
Race and Gender Fairness Commission that includes judicial, business, and community leaders.
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(NM)
Through a grant from the State Justice Institute, the
Administrative Office of the Courts has retained the services of an
expert to advise the Supreme Court on methods the courts could use to
gather information on the race and ethnicity of litigants in all
cases. The purpose of
such data gathering would be to produce routine reports on the
relationship between the outcomes of court cases and the race or
ethnicity of the litigants to ensure that members of minority groups
are not being treated differently from other litigants by court
processes. The Supreme
Court has authorized an experiment with data gathering forms in the
state’s two largest trial courts to determine the reaction of the
bar, litigants and the public to such data gathering efforts.
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(MI)
The State Bar of Michigan’s Open Justice Commission is
actively involved in 35 programs and projects related to the
elimination of bias and discrimination based on gender, race, ethnic
origin, religion, sexual orientation, and disability within the
judicial system and the legal profession. In its mission statement,
the Commission is specifically charged with responsibility to
“increase public confidence in the fairness of the legal profession
and the equal application of law for all citizens.”
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(OH)
The Racial Fairness Implementation Task Force is charged with developing an action plan for
implementation of the Ohio Commission on Racial Fairness.
Topics under consideration include the perceptions of judges
and attorneys, criminal sentencing, and interpreter services.
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(OR) The Access to Justice
Committee helps facilitate the Oregon Justice Department’s
commitment to addressing issues of diversity throughout the system.
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(RI)
The Permanent Committee on Women and Minorities has undertaken
a study to empirically determine the extent to which bias may exist
especially in areas of arrests, convictions, and sentencing.
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(NE)
The Supreme Court Gender Fairness Implementation Committee
continues to work toward gender equity in the Nebraska court system.
The membership of this committee includes representatives from the
judiciary, court administration, bar, law schools, and lay persons.
During 2000, the Education subcommittee produced videotape
addressing the impact of gender bias on the legal profession and
judicial system. The tape
has been viewed at the Nebraska Bar Association meetings, judges'
meetings, and county court employees' meetings. Other projects and
accomplishments of the Committee include: reviewing legislation;
monitoring appointments to the bench; adding a fast track process to
be used for all complaints against judges that allege violations of
workplace harassment; and additions to the Judges Bench Book regarding
protection orders.
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(NV)
The Female Offender Task Force recently established by the
Director of the Nevada Department of Prisons (NDOP).
This is an initiative to look at a continuum of services and
programs for the female offender within institutions, as well as pre-
and post-incarceration.
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(SC)
As one follow-up step to the Citizens’ Summits, a 2000
Model/Demonstration Grant from the ABA Coalition for Justice and
Committee on State Justice Initiatives has been awarded to develop
increased training for the elimination of bias in the system.
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(KY) The Office of
Minority Affairs and the judiciary will continue to systematically
examine all policies and procedures to ensure that they do not operate
to the detriment of any person on the basis of race, creed, religion,
color, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, or
national origin.
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(MS)
The Mississippi Court has established a Task Force on Gender
Fairness to study the issue in the court system and issue a report and
recommendations.
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(UT)
The court Web site is being utilized to disseminate information
such as the Report on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Legal System.
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(UT)
The Judiciary’s Committee on Fairness and Equal Access to
Justice is working with the Office of the Defender General in the area
of cognitive disabilities, to develop a resource of cognitive
interpreters, and to examine and revise existing court forms to make
them more accessible and understandable to all litigants.
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Diversity
Outreach
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(KY)
The Office of Minority Affairs is responsible for developing
diversity outreach programs in Kentucky. The primary goal of the
office is to create systematic change that will eliminate barriers,
real or perceived, that exist between the court system and the public
it serves. Public forums will help familiarize members of minority
communities with the court process. Other new, creative, and engaging
outreach initiatives will be designed to promote public trust and
understanding of the courts by encouraging citizen participation in
programs.
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(MN) East African
Festival:
In Hennepin County, District Court judges and staff
collaborated with PEACE (Parents of East Africans Common Efforts) to
host the June 10, 2000 East African Festival in Minneapolis.
More than 2,000 people attended the festival of ethnic music,
food, and art. The second annual festival was organized to promote
cultural awareness and break down barriers between immigrants and the
justice system.
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(MN)
Todd County District Court collaborated with county and local
officials to establish the Todd County Community Hispanic Liaison
Program. The program was initially established to provide interpreting
services in court to Todd County’s rising Latino population.
It has grown to include a mentoring program for Latino youth,
English and Spanish classes, a summer reading project, and other
programs to promote improved cultural awareness.
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Commissions
Studying Diversity
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(MI)
A principal objective of the State
Bar of Michigan’s Open Justice Commission
is to implement the recommendations of the 1989 reports of the
Michigan Supreme Court Task Forces on Racial/Ethnic Issues in the
Courts and Gender Issues in the Courts.
The Task Forces concluded that the perception of bias adversely
affects justice and that the perception often is based in reality.
The Commission has the potential, on behalf of
under-represented groups, of expanding its reach to the larger issue
of lack of public confidence in the courts.
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(NE)
The Minority and Justice Task Force is a combined effort of the
Nebraska Supreme Court and the State Bar Association to analyze the
problems minorities encounter in the court system and legal
profession. The Minority
and Justice Task Force is composed of thirty-three members from
throughout Nebraska, including judges, attorneys, and members of many
of Nebraska's minority communities. The project will examine issues of
racial and ethnic fairness within four major areas including personnel
and employment practices with the courts; access to the courts; civil,
criminal and juvenile justice; and the legal profession.
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(AZ)
Citizens Summits were conducted throughout the state at which
more than 500 people appeared and offered their views.
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(PA)
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Committee on Racial and
Gender Bias in the Justice System began its work in earnest during
2000 and currently anticipates completion of its work during 2003.
Public hearings have been held or are scheduled throughout the
state and smaller focus group sessions are also planned.
Work groups from throughout the state are collecting data and a
major state-related university has agreed to provide statistical
assistance in interpretation of data collected.
Additional research in specific areas of concern is planned,
with consultants likely to undertake that research.
These activities are being coordinated with a variety of
interested groups throughout the state, including several academic
institutions.
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(UT)
The Judiciary’s Committee on Fairness and Equal Access to
Justice, in partnership with the Executive Branch, held a Summit on
Racial and Ethnic Diversity. The summit focused on barriers within the
system to cultural understanding.
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(UT) The Racial and
Ethnic Fairness Task Force, which included members of the non-lawyer
community as well as judges and lawyers, completed a three-year study
last fall and submitted its final report this year.
Fifteen hundred Utah residents shared their views and
experiences at 27 public hearings across the state.
The Task Force debated and unanimously recommended over 75
proposals for changes in law enforcement, courts, and corrections in
response to the hearings. The
full report is on the court Web site. An Implementation Committee and a staff position were created
to carry out the Task Force recommendations. In
December 2000, the Judiciary’s Committee on Fairness and Equal
Access to Justice, in partnership with the Executive Branch, held a
Summit on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. The summit focused on barriers
within the system to cultural understanding.
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Linguistic
Outreach
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(CA)
The court translated some of its ADA brochures and other
Welcome to Your Court brochures into Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, and
Tagalog in order to address the needs of Orange County’s extremely
diverse community (40% Hispanic, 10% Asian, and a significant Middle
Eastern community).
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(DE) Many forms have been
translated into Spanish to assist the ever-increasing Spanish-speaking
population.
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(IA)
A goal of the Supreme Court is to ensure high quality language
interpretation services in Iowa’s courts.
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(MA) The
Reinventing Justice Project has assisted in development of court
specific brochures that have been translated into the languages of the
community the courts serve.
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(NE)
Spanish interpreters who serve Nebraska courts were provided
training and testing during the year 2000.
The Nebraska Supreme Court belongs to a consortium for
interpreter certification directed by the National Center for State
Courts. This 24-state consortium conducts standardized interpreting
tests for court interpreters wishing to be certified. In September, a two-day workshop was offered in Grand Island
with the purpose of increasing professionalism of Spanish language
interpreters. In November
44 interpreters from across the state took an exam given by staff of
the Administrative Office of the Courts with the hope of becoming
certified under this program. The Court plans to develop similar
programs for other languages in the future.
As those services are available, interpreters will be notified
and invited to attend.
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(OR)
Efforts at improving access to justice for all citizens include
the recent hiring of permanent staff for training, coordinating, and
certifying language (including sign language) interpreters for the
courts. A considerable
increase in the efforts of the Oregon Judicial Department to increase
the number and quality of interpreters in several different languages
is seen through the improvement of court hearings and other court
proceedings. Certification
of court interpreters is a major effort to improve the quality of
interpreting services provided to litigants.
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(RI)
Outreach and sensitivity to linguistic minorities spawned a
Spanish language class for judges.
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(UT)
The Judiciary’s Committee on Fairness and Equal Access to
Justice is also discussing the development of a program for language
interpreters to assure minimum competency.
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(UT) Interactive
Voice Response (in English and Spanish) is available in all urban
districts.
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