Law Conference To Address Overrepresentation of Blacks In Criminal Justice System

“Still Chained? The Overrepresentation of African-Americans in the Criminal Justice System” is the title of a one-day conference to be hosted by the University of Colorado at Boulder Law School on Feb. 19 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The conference will address the cause and scope of the problem as well as potential solutions, said Dayna Bowen Matthew, law professor and associate dean of the CU Law School. The event is open to the public.

“African-Americans make up 13 percent of the general U.S. population, yet they constitute 28 percent of all arrests, 40 percent of all inmates held in prisons and jails, and 42 percent of the population on death row,” said Barry Krisberg, president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, during his testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime last October. “In contrast, whites make up 67 percent of the total U.S. population and 70 percent of all arrests, yet only 40 percent of all inmates held in state prisons or local jails and 56 percent of the population on death row.”

Conference speakers will include:

-- Professor Kevin Reitz from the University of Minnesota Law School will talk about “Racial Disparities in Incarceration: Failures of Law, Policy and Politics.”
-- Jennifer Eberhardt, an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford University, will speak on “The Criminal, the Ape and the Static Being: Three Views of Blacks in the Modern Era.”
-- Professor Paul Butler of the George Washington University Law School will speak on “A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice.”
 
A panel of legal professionals will discuss their views on the overrepresentation problem including Chief U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel; Division Chief of Research, Training and Technology Tracie Keesee of the Denver Police Department; Training Director Ann Roan of the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender; Denver’s Chief Deputy District Attorney Lamar Sims; and trial attorney Lisa Wayne.
 
The conference will conclude with a panel speaking on “Solutions, A New Way Forward?”

Conference registration is available through the CU Law School’s website at http://lawweb.colorado.edu/events/details.jsp?id=2465. Continuing legal education credits are available.

-CU-