Forum addresses racial disproportionality of Johnson County's Youth Serving systems

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In order to begin to address and eliminate systemic racial disproportionality in Johnson County's youth serving systems, all organizations involved are going to have to work together.

By not blaming others and recognizing existing biases, the problem of disproportionality can begin to be tackled.

That was the message Thursday at Resolving Racial Disparities in Johnson County's Youth Serving systems. The event was hosted by Sara Barron, community relations director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County.

On Thursday afternoon, law enforcement officials, judicial staff, school staff including superintendents, and representatives from the Department of Human Services addressed disproportionality within their existing systems in Johnson County.

Ann Feldmann, assistant superintendent of the Iowa City Community School District and Joan Vanden Berg, the school district's youth and family development coordinator, addressed disparity within the school district.

Of the more than 6,000 office referrals during the 2012-13 school year, there were 3.69 more African-American students represented in the group. Out of the 6,021 office referrals, there were 81 calls to law enforcement.

Lieutenant Doug Hart of the Iowa City Police Department said there were two main reasons for disparity within the police department: systemic problems or overt racism.

In order to combat disparity, the department has been focusing on three key strategies, Hart said. The first strategy is engaging in the community.

In noting the department's community involvement, Hart said officers attended the Latino Festival in 2013 in Iowa City and will attend again this year. He noted department participation in other community events such as National Night Out and the Youth Police Academy.

Hart said diversity helps attract a wide array of talent and gives the police department a broader range of decision making capabilities.

"We value what diversity brings to an organization," he said. "It increases creativity and talent."

Hart noted that the department has begun recruiting from police training programs at historically black universities and colleges. The closest such program is in Missouri, he said. The department is working to bring such out of state talent to Iowa.

Secondly, the department is requiring cultural competency training. For example, officers take part in training on immigration law, he said.

Finally, Hart said the Iowa City Police Department is working to address and monitor for indicators of racial profiling.

Iowa City Police Department detective Kevin Bailey also noted the importance of a diversion program for youth. The goal is to come up with diversion, pre-arrest, so youth can receive services, and never make the system. Sixty-percent of those youth will never go deeper in the system, Bailey said.

Bailey wants to see a diversion program implemented in the Iowa City School District.

Judge Deborah Minot noted that the system has inherent bias built in to it.

"It doesn't matter how fair I am," Minot said. "We have a system which has inherent unfairnesses built into it, and system problems need system solutions. I can go put on my black robe and sit on that bench every day and maybe you'll all come and say, 'Oh, that Judge Minot is so fair,' and at the end of the week, and the month, and the year when I retire from the bench, our system's still going to be disproportionate because I can't change it in my one on one work that I do."

If the way an individual got before a judge was unfair, and "the deck was stacked," it doesn't matter if one particular judge was fair, Minot said.

Minot noted that success is only possible if schools, police departments, law officials and social services officials work together instead of assessing blame to one another.

If everyone agrees that there is a system-wide problem, then that is the best way to begin creating change, Minot said.