Minutes-02-27-2023-Legislative Breakfast

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6 Chair Bedford reviewed the third item on the Board's list of priority legislative issues: Racial Equity in Criminal Justice — Support continued consideration and implementation, where practicable, of the recommendations of the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC), including: • legislation to legalize the possession and use of marijuana and permit licensed businesses to engage in retail sales to adults, as this decriminalization will in turn broaden the agricultural economy and jobs as well as enhance revenue for governments with taxes, licenses, and other associated revenues that can be utilized to address opioid and other drug-related problems and other needs; • policing reforms to address use of force, community oversight and law enforcement training on crisis intervention; • Funding at the county level to expand access to diversion and restorative justice programs; • the reduction of fines, fees and costs in criminal court, noting that such fines, fees and costs disproportionately impact people of color and people of low income; and • the decompression of Juvenile Justice salaries. Commissioner Richards said some commissioners attended the Justice Advisory Council and received a presentation from Crystal Wynn-Lewis of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety on the state of youth in the juvenile system. She said 16-17 year olds in North Carolina are 54% white, 24% African American, and 17% Latino, but white adolescents make up 29% of complaints, African American adolescents make up 58% of complaints, and Latino adolescents make up 9% of complaints. She said there were 33,000 complaints last period total. She said of those adolescents who were diverted, 47% were white, 33% were African American. She said the types of complaints were broken down into categories including violent, serious, and age-related. Orange County offenses were more violent and serious than state statistics. She said that African American adolescents were 2.8 times more likely to be complained against across the State, but 5 times more likely in Orange County. She said in Orange County white kids make up 61% of the population and 24% of complaints, but African American kids make by 12% of the population and 67% of complaints. She said the numbers that lead to confinement are small across the state except when it comes to African Americans. She said there were only around 100 kids with complaints in Orange County, so there should be very specific help for them and their families. She said this information plus the "opportunity gap" makes her concerned about what is going on in this county. Commissioner Hamilton said the causality is needed in order to reach a conclusion. Commissioner Richards said her point is that with only 100 kids, they should be able to find that out. Commissioner Hamilton said the question is what agency can do that kind of analysis. Commissioner Richards said the county should take that initiative to understand why. She said she believes there's enough energy and resources in this county to inform people of the numbers, and then figuring out what to do. She said she brought this up here in case there are things the legislative delegation can do to collaborate on this. Chair Bedford said this relates to the Governor's Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. Representative Price asked what year the data was from. Chair Bedford said 2021. Representative Price said COVID was a factor as well then. She said when they worked on raising the age of the juvenile jurisdiction, one of the issues was need to have a program for people to go into in lieu of the adult prison, and there is nothing automatically set up. She said