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Home > Case Support > Incarcerated Parents Project > IPP Resources > What’s the Research Saying > LITERATURE > Addressing Bias
Addressing Bias

*Please note: This page is still in progress. More links will be posted soon.*

Resources for Addressing Bias in Court

Washington State Office of Public Defense Disproportionality Advocacy Program Resources

Washington State OPD’s Disproportionality Advocacy Program has created this resources page. The resources and tools compiled here are intended to provide attorneys with information that will strengthen their advocacy for their clients.

 

We Are People.  Resources for Humanizing Language by Osborne Association (NY)

This resource is housed at the Osborne Association website resources page, which includes many resources for humanizing language in the work to end mass incarceration.  “For individuals and organizations working to dismantle mass incarceration and [to] support the people it affects, there is clear value in respecting and believing in human dignity: to offer opportunities that honor all of our capacities to change.”

 

Addressing Bias in Delinquency and Child Welfare Systems by National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and National Juvenile Defender Center (2018)

This resource is bench card for judicial officers hearing dependency and child criminal court proceedings.  It contains practical tips and considerations for acknowledging, recognizing, and challenging bias as it appears in cases. 

 

Social Research

This article provides county-level estimates of the cumulative prevalence of four levels of Child Protective Services (CPS) contact using administrative data from the 20 most populous counties in the United States. Rates of CPS investigation are extremely high in almost every county. Racial and ethnic inequality in case outcomes is large in some counties.

In 2016 the Minority and Justice Commission was the recipient of a Department of Justice grant, “Price of Justice: Rethinking the Consequences of Fines and Fees.8” As part of the grant, it brought together a broad group of stakeholders to uncover the complexities of Washington’s system of legal financial obligations (LFOs). One of the greatest successes of the grant were the relationships developed amongst the stakeholders. Many of the stakeholders came to the table with differing viewpoints on LFO reform, and along the course of the grant, found ways to work together towards a common purpose: uncovering the system of LFOs in Washington State.

This report examines how sentencing guidelines’ reliance on criminal records impacts already lengthy sentences—those that are 10 years or longer—in a sample of four states: Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The practice of relying on criminal records to prolong sentences of this duration merits closer review given criminological evidence that criminal careers typically end within approximately 10 years and recidivism rates fall measurably after about a decade of imprisonment.

 

Media and Other Articles

This article reviews the Washington State Supreme Court Minority and Justice Commission’s study that found Black, Indigenous and Latino people in Washington have disproportionately higher court fines and fees making it harder for some to rebuild after prison.