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Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System

“The conference assembled a distinguished group of criminal justice experts ... to identify critical points of intervention and concrete, practical reforms to redress racial disproportionality at every stage of criminal proceedings. Rather than belabor what has gone wrong or has not worked, participants shared innovative disparity-reduction practices from around the country, as well as new ideas for reforming policies that produce mass incarceration (p. 7). Ten sections are contained in this publication: conference mission and overview; what the scope of racial disparities are; town hall meeting; charging, plea bargains, and diversion; pretrial incarceration; jury selection; search, seizure, and identification issues; sentencing and community corrections-a tale of two systems; community justice; and recommendations for moving forward.