10th Governors’ Conference On Juvenile Justice
Learning about different cultures and upbringings would be one way to address the overrepresentation of minorities in the juvenile justice system and to address gang violence, presenters said Monday at the 10th annual Governor’s Conference on Juvenile Justice. Reported by the Wichita Eagle.
Or as Mark Masterson with Sedgwick County’s Department of Corrections said on a video clip: “Diversity is a business imperative, not an option.”
More than 500 corrections industry professionals gathered at the Hyatt Regency in Wichita for the conference … Topics include things like access to records, preparing young people to make the transition from incarceration back to the community, and dealing with bullying.
Masterson’s session outlined how Sedgwick County is working to reduce the disproportionate number of racial and ethnic minorities in its system. The disproportion, he said, is particularly high at the arrest point. In 2008, 78 of every 1,000 black youths were arrested for minor crimes compared with nearly 43 of every 1,000 Hispanic youths and 18 of every 1,000 white youths, according to presentation data. Hiring diverse staff to better mirror the clients the system serves and holding staff trainings that consider race and ethnicity, social status, poverty, gender and other identifiers have helped the system become more culturally competent.
Understanding culture is also helpful when dealing with gangs, said Ruben Salamanca, of the Topeka Police Department, who is president of the Kansas Gang Investigators Association. Salamanca said Hispanic gangs are often territorial, and identify with certain geographic areas or neighborhoods, while black gangs are often motivated by money. White gangs, he said, are often motivated by feelings of racial superiority. In Kansas, he said, it’s not uncommon to see mixed-race gangs, too. He discussed the importance of law enforcement understanding gang history dating back decades. “People need to be more culturally competent about who they are and what they’re about,” Salamanca said.
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