Recent statistics from the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP) show areas of concerns, said analysts who presented the data to a group studying the issue. As youth advance through the juvenile justice system, minorities receive fewer alternatives to help them avoid detention than whites, among other problems, said Kile Beisner, a CJJP research analyst.

“We don’t have a lot of division between genders, but we do have a lot of division across racial lines,” she said.

The Youth Race and Detention Task Force created by Gov. Chet Culver last year is studying the racial disparities in the juvenile justice system and will make recommendations to reduce them. The 40-member group includes judges, juvenile court officers, child advocates and others. The task force met with officials from the Des Moines School district, Iowa Department of Corrections and Iowa Workforce Development last Thursday at Iowa Workforce Development in Des Moines.

The data, which compared whites with all minorities grouped together, didn’t surprise the meeting attendees.

“If you just pulled out African-Americans and Native Americans, the numbers would be even worse,” said task force member Brad Richardson, coordinator of Iowa’s DMC Resource Center, research scientist and adjunct professor at the University of Iowa.

Iowa has 11 secure juvenile detention facilities. White females account for 89 percent of the juvenile population between the ages of 10 and 17 years-old, but 67 percent of detentions; minority females account for 11 percent of the population, but 33 percent of detentions; white males account for 89 percent of the population, but 61 percent of detentions and minority males account for 11 percent of the population, but 39 percent of detentions.

Iowa tops the nation for imprisoning blacks at a rate that is 13.6 times the rate of whites, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project.

The task force, which met last Thursday, will meet again in May.

“This is a distinction that we don’t want,” Culver said. “And we all know that we must and can do better.”

Culver laid out three steps his office has taken to reduce the racial disparities in Iowa’s prisons, juvenile justice system and public schools.

“Unfortunately, on too many occasions, racial disparities still exist in our society and in our institutions,” Culver said. “This is wrong and it is time for us to do something about it.”

But a researcher and adjunct professor from the University of Iowa who organized the three-day conference, which ends tomorrow, said it could take years before the racial disparities are reduced — and it probably won`t happen while Culver is in office.

“I think we can bring the numbers down considerably, but can we bring them down one to one? I don’t know if we’ll ever reach that,” said Brad Richardson, coordinator of Iowa’s DMC Resource Center, which is part of the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice.

About 350 people attended the conference. Dozens of experts from across the nation presented information on the causes of the racial disparities and how to better serve minority populations. The conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the Downtown Holiday Inn.

Blacks are the hardest hit by the disparities found in Iowa’s prisons, juvenile detention centers and school discipline rates. Blacks account for just 2.3 percent of Iowa’s population, but 25 percent of its prison population. Black juveniles are arrested at five times the rate of whites. Blacks account for 5 percent of Iowa’s public school enrollment, but 22 percent of school suspensions.

Culver told conference-goers the state will work to “eradicate the problems of racial disparity in Iowa, whether it exists in hiring practices, in our schools, in our businesses or in our correctional system.”

Proposals from a group Culver convened last April to study the racial disparities in the prison system will go before the Iowa Legislature in January, he said. His office is working with the Iowa Department of Education to identify why black children are suspended at a higher rate than whites. Culver signed an executive order last month creating the Youth Race And Detention Task Force that will make recommendations to ensure that young minorities are “fairly and justly” treated by the system and to develop policies to combat recidivism.

“Let me make it clear, it is my administration’s policy to end the overrepresentation of minorities in Iowa’s correction system for adults and juveniles,” Culver said.

Shay Bilchik, director for the Center for Juvenile Justice Report and Systems Integration at Georgetown University, told gatherers that most studies show there is no evidence that the racial disparities in the child welfare system occur because of higher rates of abuse and neglect. The studies show there is “no significant difference” in the crime rates between blacks and whites in the juvenile justice system, he said.

“I will take the position that it is indeed both of these things that come into play that leads to the disproportionality that’s present both in child welfare and juvenile justice — a broad set of underlying societal issues and system decision-making contributing to the problem as well,” he said. 

More must be done to help families mired in poverty, improve access to job training for adults and youth, and keep families connected to education, among other things, Bilchik said.

“We have failed our children, and in particular we have failed our children of color,” he said. “We have failed to treat them and their families equitably and equally in how we ensure children of color have the connections to people who provide not only safety and well-being, but a permanence that includes those intimate relationships to provide healing power and a bridge to a healthy future.”

“We need to get others engaged in this effort to address the real racial bias we have in this state in so many areas — child welfare, prisons, juvenile justice; the list just goes on and on,” said Brad Richardson, coordinator of Iowa’s DMC Resource Center, which is part of the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice.

About 400 people are expected to attend the conference, scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Thursday and from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and at the Downtown Holiday Inn. Some preconference activities began Wednesday.

Iowa tops the nation for imprisoning blacks and suspending black students from public schools, according to national reports. Blacks account for 5 percent of Iowa’s public school enrollment, but 22 percent of school suspensions. Blacks account for just 2.3 percent of Iowa’s population, but 25 percent of its prison population.

The DMC conference was originally designed to increase awareness and find ways to reduce the racial disparities in Iowa’s juvenile justice system. Topics were expanded this year to include inequalities in school discipline, said Richardson, who is also a research scientist and adjunct professor at the University of Iowa.

“We have the worst record on school disciplinary action in the country,” he said. “Now we’re the worst state in overrepresentation in the adult prison system.