today and their respective organizations do attempt to call these important issues and we are in congress understand that the missions don't necessarily need or desire to make the distinction between the federal thousand and five the number was incarcerated at the state level for drug offenses went up approximately forty two and the number of african americans went down approximately twenty one  before me as a felony but there was an even greater number of individuals who came before me who came from homes in which there was no father then there was any over representation of any racial group the greatest common denominator among the people that i had  things that are happening right around you see last night we were at the white house where that was signed into law clinton how do you know that because i was invited to the white house when clinton was president where he called in the southern governors because there was a rash of r i'm sitting in front a former criminal defense lawyer of many  years what steve cohen has done in his state of tennessee as a legislator for a couple decades before you ever came to the laws are one obvious example of this and i commend chairman leadership and finally getting this issue properly addressed the cannabis laws in this country are similar and they have african americans and hispanics and  greatly disproportionate and my hometown of memphis and the city of virginia beach are two cities where you see a great increase in arrests of african americans for cannabis over non african americans in addition racial disparities  often the consequence of unconscious bias on the part of police prosecutors and others involved in the criminal justice system that makes them no less real just like institutional racism exists in our country it is racism whether it is tradition or not it is important we understand the extent of these racial disparities the causes and most important the solutions we also need to determine whether our perception of these disparities is greater than the actual problem disparities or perceptions that are found as a result of the study one of our witnesses today another panel is going to say there is no deliberate racial discrimination or disparity i would disagree with that decision or that but regardless if there is not deliberate if it exists it's still wrong and if there's perception it's wrong to the justice integrity act would establish a program to create an advisory group  end of the pilot program outlining the results of all ten districts and recommending best practices i'd like to emphasize two of the bill's most important elements first in visions and it includes a process that brings together all of the relevant stakeholders both sides of the bar all people of all second by establishing advisory groups throughout the country it recognizes different communities may face different problems and are different solutions just as justice brandeis talked about the beauty of laboratories of democracy in different states you get a representative sample of the nation i'm pleased to be joined of this legislation by chairman conyers and nearly thirty other co sponsors including several members of the subcommittee and the full judiciary committee companion legislation has been introduced in the senate  the american civil liberties union the brennan center for justice the sentencing project among others racial disparities have engendered a crisis of public trust and integrity of the criminal justice system and community perception of bias when the system is perceived to thereby perpetuating a mistrust of the system we must do what we can to end this cycle of mistrust the first step is to understand the full scope of the problem we're facing this hearing is critical to that endeavor i believe the justice integrity act would expand upon today's leading a task force in many of the same issues we're talking about today and i applaud attorney general holder of the president for the commitment to criminal justice i think the justice integrity act is a perfect complement to these efforts and i welcome the input of the administration and members of the committee as we move tennessee and was a criminal defense attorney all you have to do is go to my city of memphis tennessee it to a one of the criminal justice center and you can't help but see that there is a racial disparity whether intentional or unintentional they exist and this system has perpetuated it and it is just as much a failing in this country's efforts to get a more perfect union as in the problem we have today the health care system is a problem the criminal justice system is  president is known nationally for his research and expertise on juvenile justice and race and justice issues is currently a lecturer in the university of california berkeley school of law and a visiting scholar at the center for race and justice  programs in the criminal justice policy for thirty years and is the author of some of the most widely cited reports in publications including young black men in the criminal justice system and america is that on thank you chairman scott and ranking member gomer for having me here representing the nasa national district attorneys association we appreciate the opportunity to have some input here in congress we represent  goes on in these minority communities as ranking member gohmert talked about their chances of being victimized if you're a person of color in this country is dramatically worse than your chances if you're white there's something wrong with that statistic we need to be looking at that we need to be looking at those victims because it has a huge impact on our entire system as was indicated on the rockingham county attorney i prosecuted for roughly twenty five percent of the population of the state of new hampshire we have two major interstates which are both drug pipelines police to pull that vehicle over it is not any information about that person when my young prosecutors look at cases to decide whether we're going to file felony charges against them the color of the victim and the color of the defendant do not enter into that decision making frankly most of the time we don't know the answer to either of those questions nor are we greatly concerned about it at that time we're trying to decide whether the police have put together a sufficiently documented that we can go ahead with that case i got a call a couple years ago of in the middle of the night a woman that  victim or the color of the defendant it was a decision that had to be made for the victim for justice in my community as it turns out i signed all the extradition papers applications to go to the governor he was caught in  west virginia thanks to the state police in west virginia who brought him back to new hampshire we tried was only long after he was back in new hampshire did anybody in my office have any idea of the race of the defendant because it's not noted in the paperwork in any way that would jump out at us it doesn't figure into what we do on a day to day basis as it turned out he was black the victim was white which is unusual because the victimization studies show that  more about these issues and let us have a real impact on what happens in the community or you can fund the john our justice act which is to hire and retain minority prosecutors all the prosecutors are coming lucky enough in the criminal justice system to hire minority prosecutors we have a very difficult time keeping them there because of the difference between what the private firms offer and what we offer t violations guided by little more than a code of ethics and an internal moral compass yet prosecutors are expected to exercise their discretion in a matter that is free from racial bias or make sure that african americans and other minorities come into contact with the criminal justice system in numbers that are far disproportionate to their representation in society will be treated fairly louisiana has additional attention on this issue additionally bipartisan reform has been proposed in congress to address disparities in federal prosecutions and we've been talking about justice in bonnie demanded made a commitment to stay in the public confident they have done so by assuming a leadership role in the investigation and ensuring that neither race nor are intentionally or unintentionally the criminal justice system the perception of racial bias supported by disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates and the loss of confidence in the system requires that they take an active role in reducing ra scott we're here today with us racial disparities i believe reasons one because our justice system needs to be fair and there and secondly because i think we can have public safety unless we have racial justice and we want to keep that in prison population concluded that eighty percent of the disparity incarceration african americans could be explained by greater involvement in crime the most recent study looking at two thousand and four prison population that declined to  one percent so nearly forty percent they find could not be explained by differential involvement in crime they attribute much of the difference the unexplained variation by policies relate to the war on drugs and other social policies second area has to do with disparities in criminal justice process saying when we look at the area of law enforcement it is certainly the case many agencies are taking the issue of racial profiling very seriously we would never say that all law enforcement officers or agencies have or do engage in racial profiling and yet it still remains the case to a troubling and then just this week twenty police officers in dallas texas were cited for having given tickets for quote unquote not speaking english to teano motorists in the city of dallas the other major disparity as we've discussed in in criminal justice processing is the impact of the war on drugs and we see this coming about through two overlapping trends first the vast expansion of the drug war we go from a point of having forty thousand people in prison or jail for a drug offense in one thousand nine hundred today that figure is five hundred thousand and as that expansion has taken place the vast majority of the resources going to prosecute the war on drugs have taken place in communities of color to the point where two thirds of the people incarcerated for drug  african american or latino far out of proportion to is agree that those groups or sell drugs third area of that relates to this parity has to do with the overlap between issues of race and class in the justice system and i think the key issue here is the quality of defense counsel there are many very fine public defenders in assigned counsel all around the country doing a very high quality job for their clients unfortunately there are far too many jurisdictions in which the quality of defense counsel indigent cases is far from adequate far from giving their client's a reasonable defense this has been well documented by the american bar association many other organizations and it doesn't provide a fair system of justice we also see differential outcomes in access to treatment programs alternatives to incarceration that may be influenced by access to resources a fourth area that contributes to the disparities has to do with the impact of what we have you otherwise is race neutral policies sensing policies in particular we've had much about the effects of federal crack cocaine policies we also see differential outcomes in the so called school zone drug law policies that penalize drug offenses near a school zone whether or not they take place during school hours or involves school children  because they penalize laws in urban areas more harsh offenses nerve in areas more harshly than suburban or rural areas african american latino those who commit a drug offense similar to one that may be committed by a white in a suburban or rural area are punished more severely a recent study in new jersey found that ninety six percent of the people sense under schools on drug war were black or latino some of these issues  due to address some of these issues for quick recommendations for consideration there first i think we should look at the example in some states that have begun to adopt racial impact statements for sentencing legislation as we now routinely do fiscal impact statements for social policy states of iowa and connecticut last year adopted a legislation that policy makers should have available information about the racial impact of area justice integrity act and let me just note here there is nothing about the act was a process that would not permit and would require and encourage a full consideration of involvement in criminal activity that  disparity i think the rest of legislation is to look at on warranted disparities that are not caused by involvement in criminal behavior those are the issues that we need thirty areas just to reconsider our drug broad array of sensing options available to judges if we level the playing field i think we get better outcomes for all thank you thank you and thank all of our witnesses were no questions from the  legislation creating a study of the criminal justice system but didn't indicate whether you necessarily supported it it sounds like in your testimony that you would support the study as suggested so long it is comprehensive and not just focused on one aspect or another the criminal justice system is that right well i don't think there's a real simple answer that in some way the bill as i understand is a little hard to prison but i haven't heard anybody talking about studies that indicate could there be a disproportionate number of african americans arrested possibly partly because there are a disproportionate number of african americans that have committed the crime i job my first job at a law school was as a prosecutor and in a small town in which i love very dearly i was shocked when working for a day who didn't care when i would go out to get black on black they just have more violence why do you want to do that and the response i gave was because i have the protection of the law like likely a fundamental problem underlying that what is causing more minorities to be and point to i don't think anybody i've never heard of anybody not wanting to protect people who suffered from  violence or crime resources for us to emerge victorious and so the people of color ever elected to serve in today where according to research from the justice department one of every three black males born today can expect to go to prison lifetime one of every six hispanic males can expect to go to prison if lifetime if current trends continue it just seems to me regardless of how whatever differences we may have and how we view the causes of that problem that is a disgraceful situation now where some people may blame this on family function and some people think it's a racist criminal justice system seems to me we have an obligation to make sure that that in fact does not become the future for children born today all of it isn't intentional after  and i hope that we don't forget that and yesterday we had the opportunity to honor senator brook from massachusetts the first african american senator since reconstruction there was a republican and someone that i worked with on  national committee i am i don't know somewhat troubled by some of the testimony here today when i was attorney general california we had the responsibility of handling all criminal appeals from the time that the conviction came in as long as it was a felony and i can just tell you if i had any evidence whatsoever of racial bias among any of my prosecutors they would have been fired immediately if not prosecuted if we found that an office were operating in that way we would have taken over the office because i had the authority to do that if we found that it was infected  african american student at the high school saying to me why is it you folks don't show up until after someone's been killed because young man in her high school had been killed and she wasn't looking at me as a white guy step back and look at it from a racial analysis going to say my god they are overwhelmingly going after american kids and young adults but they're going after  testimony mentioned that african americans fourteen percent of current drug users but they constitute thirty four percent of people arrested and fifty three percent of people sentenced to prison for such drug offenses there are other studies that are similar that i referred to in my testimony mr ames you talked about victimization of blacks being the victim of more crimes african americans etc how about victimless crimes why is it that african americans and hispanics are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated for victimless crime why is that well i think it partially depends on what your definition of victim is if you talk and can do other crimes well that's part of it and why don't we decriminalize it they will take the money away from they can't do these other crimes that will protect everybody you know that's a that's a judgment you'll have to make i mean my obligation is to enforce the law that you write to protect the community as best i can if you if you decide to decriminalize it then that's a decision you make and carry out you make a decision on which crimes you prioritize in prosecuting you can't prosecute everything well that's state and local prosecutors are blind in matters of race color gender nationality sexual orientation they prosecute offenders and of the rule of law that's a pretty black and white statement how do you know that every prosecutor including those maybe in selma that system in the system in this country that are racist probably unfortunately pointed out in your statement you agree that the crack cocaine sentencing laws are wrong and they should be but you also say it is important to note that individuals young people killed in chicago we witnessed over the last forty eight hours the tragedy of a gang rape as well in this nation of a fifteen year old and it is long overdue for us to intervene on a system that is broken and has been consistent across america so i look forward to working with you on this legislation as we move toward the full committee and believe that it is more than timely it is in response to a crisis that we have to answer now and i thank you for your leadership and i look forward to working together and i yield back