Justice Department finds bias, constitutional violations in St. Louis County

Black kids in St. Louis, Missouri are being disproportionately impacted by unconstitutional and discriminatory miscarriages of justice within the Family Court system, according to a two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The findings were delivered a week before the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, a black teen who was killed by a white police officer in the St. Louis County town of Ferguson.

CORLEY: Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Depart’s civil rights division, told reporters today the St. Louis County Family Court fails children in a number of ways.

“This investigation is another step toward our goal of ensuring that children in the juvenile justice system receive their constitutionally guaranteed rights to due process and equal protection under the law”, Gupta said.

Both the state court system and the St. Louis Family Court declined to comment on the report.

Her prior groundbreaking work, “The Other Missouri Model: Systemic Juvenile Injustice in the Show Me State”, actually lays out numerous same constitutional and other concerns the Justice Department discovered during its investigation.

St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger said he is “deeply concerned” about the findings.

That report, issued earlier this year, found evidence that the mostly white Ferguson police force and the municipal court exploited minorities to raise revenue through traffic fines and fees. That report was begun following the shooting of Brown, and negotiations between the DOJ and Ferguson officials are ongoing.

The department has accused the court of harsh treatment of black youths, who are given a much harder time than whites, while given less opportunity to benefit from legal help in certain decision stages throughout their trial.

Prolonged detention of juveniles without probable cause and allowing them to plead guilty unaware of the possible consequences was another gripe with the court mentioned in the 60-page report. “In a letter submitted to Gov. Jay Nixon, Stenger, and Judge Thea Sherry, the federal government said it is “committed to seeking a voluntary resolution with you to address the deficiencies discussed” in the report”.

GUPTA: There’s just one public defender who’s assigned to represent all eligible juveniles, a staggering caseload of nearly 400 new cases in 2014, which is twice the accepted standard.

The investigation was among four of juvenile justice systems initiated by the Justice Department in recent years.

A failure to provide children waiting to find out if they will be tried as an adult with adequate due process.

The DOJ reached settlement in 2012 with the Juvenile Court of Shelby County, Tennessee, calling for various reforms. The department in March announced an investigation of due process and disability discrimination concerns in Dallas.