WESA 90.5 FM, 12/02/20: “Racial disparities persist in Allegheny County’s criminal justice system, according to a report the Abolitionist Law Center’s Court Watch program released Tuesday. The study documents racial imbalances at the earliest stages of the criminal court process.

It’s the first such publication of the Court Watch program, a volunteer operation that formed in January. In a press release, the group said it seeks “to keep courts accountable through data collection and public reporting.” The volunteers also monitor court hearings, although they said that task has become more difficult with some hearings being held via teleconference due to COVID-19 and requiring dial-in information from judges.

Much of the analysis in Tuesday’s report focuses on 430 cases in which the most serious offense was a misdemeanor. Between May and June, the study found, 44 percent of misdemeanor defendants in Allegheny County were Black, even though just 13 percent of the county’s population is Black. Among males, Black defendants were more likely than their white counterparts to be subjected to money bail before trial, according to the new research.

Duquesne University law professor Jalila Jefferson-Bullock said that such disparities date back to the days of slavery, and that she was “distressed by the [Court Watch] report but not surprised. The statistics really are nothing new, nothing unexpected.”

‘Underlying all of this is bias against Black people, and it’s something that we have to be honest about,’ added Jefferson-Bullock, who is Black. ‘We have to somehow dismantle the narrative that we as a people are dangerous, that we’re always up to no good.’

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