Human Rights Commission Recommendations on Criminal Justice Copyright 2014
City of Dubuque Action Items # 3.
ITEM TITLE: Human Rights Commission Recommendations on Criminal
Justice
SUMMARY: Human Rights Commission submitting its
recommendations on criminal justice.
SUGGESTED DISPOSITION: Suggested Disposition: Receive and File
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Type
Criminal Justice Recommendations from Human Rights Supporting Documentation
Commission
Recommendations on Criminal Justice
To: City Council
From: City of Dubuque Human Rights Commission
Date: December 15, 2015
This country is very different than it was 40 years ago. In 1972 there were 300,000
people in prisons and jails. Today there are 2.3 million. The United States now has the
highest incarceration rate in the world. There is now a response to the incarceration
problem at the Federal, State, and Local levels.
Federal
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, introduced by Senator Charles
Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), leaders on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, calls for shorter prison terms for drug felons and eliminates the so-called
"three strikes" rule mandating life sentences. It also seeks to end mass long-term
incarceration of prisoners that has led to severe prison overcrowding and skyrocketing
costs.
State of Iowa
On October 1 , 2015, Koch, the Iowa State Bar and others sponsored the Iowa Criminal
Justice Summit at the University of Northern Iowa. News writers reported that...The
chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court spoke late this morning, saying the goal of
equal justice may only be achieved "when justice is seen and felt by all. The difficulty of
the task is great, but the benefits of success far, far greater," Iowa Supreme Court
Chief Justice Mark Cady said. "The time is now. It is time to listen, it is time to
understand and it is time to act."
Nearly 10 percent of the adult black men in Iowa are either in prison or have been
sentenced to prison. Cady said it's time for a "new understanding" of racial bias in the
criminal justice system. "A voice for justice must be heard," Cady said, "not a voice to
debate or to argue, but a voice to inform, to challenge, to inspire." Cady touted some
changes already made, such as juvenile diversion courts that give judges another
option besides prison time for teenagers. Cady said all judges in Iowa, including the
justices on the Supreme Court, are undergoing training to "raise consciousness of the
City of Dubuque
The City of Dubuque Human Rights Commission (DHRC) has been concerned that
according to the Iowa ACLU that "Iowa has the largest racial disparity in the country of
arrests in marijuana possession, with blacks being more than eight times as likely to be
arrested than whites, even though whites use marijuana at about the same rate, a
national American Civil Liberties Union study has found." Furthermore the DHRC has
been dismayed that the City of Dubuque leads Iowa in these findings.
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Resolutions of the Human Rights Commissioners
The time for change is at hand. The change will take a multi-prong approach and will
need the involvement of all levels of government at the federal, state and local level. We
see the DHRC encouraging the change in the City of Dubuque. We suggest several
steps:
1 . Inclusive Dubuque and the Human Rights Commission should work with area
businesses to "ban the box' in employment practices in area businesses. "Band
the Box' urges employers to remove from their hiring applications the box that
applicants with a criminal record are required to check. Banning the "box'
provides for a fairer system and eliminates barriers for formerly incarcerated
people.
2. We encourage community organizations to study the incarceration problem and
take appropriate steps in education and social change so that citizens are
informed and that actions that are taking place at the federal and state level
become a part of practice in Dubuque. It is important that voices for African
Americans and Latinos lead the way. It is also important that the new immigrants
to Dubuque (over 50 countries and multiple home languages are represented in
our community) become literate in the United States Criminal Justice system as
well as the English language and as immigrants become citizens that there be an
understanding of how to affect social change.
3. The positive steps of the Dubuque Community Schools and the role of the
schools in language literacy and criminal justice understanding is important for
our youth. We will be in continuing dialogue with the schools.
4. At all levels of government there is a concern with fair and impartial practices in
due process, the need for reform in sentencing, parole and reentry. Human
Rights Commissioners should be informed about the changes and be supportive
of promising practices.
5. Policing practices are changing. We commend the intercultural competence
training that officers receive in cooperation with the Human Rights Department.
We encourage this training to also include the concept of implicit bias.
We support the Police Department's commitment to community policing and
encourage the Police Department to expand community policing practices. We
encourage the Police Department to research successful policing practices
already in place in large cities. The evidence is clear for cities such as the
District of Columbia. Community policing is also a part of practice in Iowa
communities such as Davenport and Storm Lake. Dialogs with specialist in
community policing and the Human Rights Department and Human Rights
Commission should result in community policing training and practices that help
to prevent crime.
6. The research and reporting to the Dubuque City Council of steps successfully
taken at the local level elsewhere, along with recommendations for steps that
might be adapted for Dubuque based on local resident concerns.
7. As a Commission we are concerned with efforts to assure a safe community. We
pledge to review and make recommendations related to a safe community that
are consistent with justice, equity and closing the gaps in our city society.
8. Human Rights Commissioners should reexamine the document Racial
Disparities Report to serve as a resources for guiding Dubuque oriented actions
regarding the points above as well as to guide action in other areas (e.g.
Housing) '
"Human Rights Commission Panel Discussion on Race Disparities
The Human Rights Commission hosted a panel discussion aimed at reducing and
eliminating racial, ethnic, and social class disparity in criminal justice, education,
community, employment/economic wellbeing, and housing in Dubuque by providing
access and opportunity for all on January 28, 2015, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at Clarke
University in the Jansen Music Hall. Click this link to view the Race Disparities Report.