Latino and Hispanic Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

VI. The Michigan State University Report
U.S. CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM UNFAIR,
UNJUST FOR HISPANICS
Published: Oct. 14, 2004
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hispanics are overrepresented in the nation’s criminal justice
system, with Hispanic defendants imprisoned three times as often and detained before
trial for first-time offenses almost twice as often as whites, despite being the least likely
of all ethnic groups to have a criminal history, a report released today has found.
Commissioned by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation’s largest
Hispanic civil rights organization, the report – Lost Opportunities: The Reality of Latinos
in the U.S. Criminal Justice System – also found that Hispanics represented 13 percent
of the U.S. population in 2000, but accounted for 31 percent of those incarcerated in the
federal criminal justice system. Hispanics have one chance in six of being confined in
prison during their lifetimes, the authors found.
“It is apparent that the criminal justice system in this country is neither fair nor just for
Hispanics,” said Janet Murguia, NCLR’s executive director and chief operating officer.
“Recent polls show that Latinos care very much about protecting public safety and
fighting crime, but they recognize that being tough on crime is not always the same as
being smart on crime. Our community is losing a whole generation of people, and that is
a national tragedy. What we need is a system that does a better job of protecting public
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