Washington’s Justice System Fails Kids of Color: Adult Charges Reveal Systemic Bias
Despite reforms, Washington continues to charge children of color as adults at disproportionate rates, exposing deep systemic bias that undermines fairness and endangers national values of justice and equality.
Washington state took a step forward in 2018 by passing legislation aimed at limiting the harsh practice of charging juveniles as adults. This was intended to protect vulnerable youth from unnecessarily severe sentences and to address glaring racial disparities. However, new data reveals that while the overall number of juveniles prosecuted in adult court has dropped dramatically, the racial divide remains stark—and troubling. How It Went Wrong: When Justice Is Unequal In 2023, an overwhelming 83% of children charged as adults were youth of color, according to state data. This fact is not just a statistic; it reflects a systemic...
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