The New York State courts system is rife with institutional racism and lack of diversity despite previously attempted initiatives to address discrimination, according to an independent review of the courts system.
Chief Judge Janet DiFiore commissioned former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security under the Obama administration, Jeh Johnson, to review institutional racism within the courts system operations back in June—in the wake of mass arrests after protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that led to a widely-criticized curfew leaving hundreds of New Yorkers with criminal misdemeanor summonses. The review, released last Thursday, found the courts system is full of racism directed at litigants, attorneys, court officers, and judges amidst a "culture in the courts that discourages compassionate treatment," as one judge told interviewers.
The review, looking at civil and criminal courts across the state, revealed the treatment tenants facing eviction, families trying to hold onto custody of their children, or defendants accused of crimes have to deal with while fighting their cases. Overcrowded courts with a backlog of cases worsened the situation, largely for people of color, the report found.
Interviews with some 289 people revealed the realities of a "second-class system of justice for people of color in New York State," echoing a 1991 review that had similar findings, Johnson wrote in an introductory letter.
"Over and over, we heard about the 'dehumanizing' and 'demeaning cattle-call culture' in these high-volume courts," Johnson wrote.
"The Housing, Family, Civil and Criminal courts of New York City in particular continue to be faced with high volumes of cases, fewer resources to hear those cases, subpar technology and in some instances, crumbling and outdated facilities," the report reads.
A district attorney said, "you don't see, at all, any care or compassion for the family that is watching their son or daughter being sentenced to 20 years in prison. When there's that emotional outburst, they are ushered out of the courts by security."
In another instance, a Family Court judge yelled at a mother who did not know who the father of her child was, asking, "How is it that you people never know?," according to a senior member of a leading bar association cited in the report.
A court-appointed attorney in Family Court purchased a pair of boots on an iPad while her client lost custody of her child, a public defender told interviewers.
The report cited rampant racism among court officers directed at their colleagues as well as litigants.
One now-suspended Brooklyn-based court officer posted an illustration of former President Barack Obama with a noose around his neck and Secretary Hillary Clinton being taken to be hanged in a social media post, which was reportedly a part of a pattern of racist social media posts.
Court officers of color said their white colleagues have used the n-word on various occasions, including directed at Black teenagers on an elevator in one incident, the report said. One white court officer had referred to a Black court officer as "one of the good monkeys," according to the report.
The New York State Court Officers Association president Dennis Quirk was also said to have written on Facebook that protesters who graffitied a courts van were "animals" and placed the Betsy Ross flag—tied to white supremacist groups—in his profile picture. He confirmed the posts were from his social media account to the NY Times, saying the reference to "animals" was not intended to have racial undertones and he didn't know the flag was associated with racist groups.
Quirk referred Gothamist to the union counsel's letter to Johnson, in which union attorney Pat Bonanno "vehemently refutes the inaccurate and defamatory claims directed at its members," who emphasized the claims were often unattributed.
Attorneys of color and judges of colors are impacted by widespread biases as well, the report found. Though judges are more diverse than three decades ago across the state, it has not risen enough to account for the rising population of people of color and the judiciary remains overwhelmingly white. Non-white judiciary rose from 8.2% to 23.9% between 1991 and 2020, while the population of non-white people in New York rose from 30.7% to 44.8%.
The report detailed a host of already-in-place initiatives to address bias and discrimination—but such programs had little funding and a lack of awareness they existed at all. Fear of reporting any racial incidents also plagued the system.
Johnson recommended created a "zero tolerance" policy for racial bias, expanding bias trainings, creating a social media policy, and a series of other recommendations on better data collection and reporting, language services, and diversity hiring practices.
"We fully endorse this report and will proceed now to implement its recommendations," Chief Judge DiFiore said in a statement about the report's release.
A key point among the recommendations was to put someone in charge of accomplishing the changes. As such, DiFiore has appointed the president of the Human Rights Campaign and former counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Alphonso David, to be the courts system independent monitor to carry out the recommendations.
In a video message on Monday, DiFiore added, "As judges and court professionals, we have a solemn obligation to identify and eliminate racial bias from our courts and from the justice system wherever it may exist."