US Justice Department accuses Missouri court of racial bias
The St. Louis County Family Court deprives juveniles of constitutional rights, maltreats black youths and is plagued with conflicts of interests, the US Department of Justice has announced in its new federal report.
The department has accused the court of harsh treatment of black youths, who are given a much harder time than whites, while given less opportunity to benefit from legal help in certain decision stages throughout their trial.
The report, published on Friday, says that considering factors other than race, black youths are two and a half times more likely than whites to be taken into detention prior to trial and three times more likely to be sent to the Division of Youth Services in case they violate parole.
The report noted that the family court denies juveniles from informal handling of their cases which keeps them from getting adequate legal representation.
Prolonged detention of juveniles without probable cause and allowing them to plead guilty unaware of the possible consequences was another gripe with the court mentioned in the 60-page report.
According to Vanita Gupta, a deputy assistant attorney general, the court’s structure does not allow anybody outside the circle of court’s own staff to advocate for the youths which may leave the accused with no legal representation.
"I think there are concerns about the operation of juvenile justice systems around the country, but the peer analysis highlighted for us that certainly along the racial disparities line, St. Louis County stood out," Gupta added.
The Justice Department began its probation into the court’s system in November 2013 after numerous reports pointed to unfair treatment of black children.
However, this is not the first time such issues are officially admitted by the department in their reports. Last year after the shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, the Justice Department slammed the city’s police department and its officers for numerous illegal practices such as targeting African Americans and ignoring people’s civil rights.
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