US Justice Department finds discrimination problem in local court system

The U.S. Justice Department ( DOJ) has found discrimination problems in court system of the St. Louis County in U.S. State of Missouri, according to a DOJ report released on Friday

The Family Court of St. Louis deprives juveniles of constitutional rights, treats African-American youths more harshly than whites and is rife with conflicts of interest, the report said.

The 60-page federal report said that African-American youths are denied an informal handling of their cases, the desirable course for them, unless they confess wrongdoing, which may "coerce " them into admitting something they did not do.

The DOJ researchers found that nearly four out of five cases were handled informally, or referred to alternatives such as victim restitution, drug counseling and educational programs. They said blacks are not given as much opportunity to benefit.

The report said that adjusted for factors other than race, African-American youths are 2.5 times more likely than whites to be detained before trial and three times more likely to be sent to the Division of Youth Services on parole violations.

There are concerns about the operation of juvenile justice systems around the country, but the peer analysis highlighted for us that certainly along the racial disparities line, St. Louis County stood out, it said.

The Justice Department began an examination of the system in November 2013, after several reports surfaced alleging African- American youths were treated unfairly. That made St. Louis County the fourth juvenile justice operation examined nationwide in three years. Complaints regarding two of the others, in Tennessee and Texas, were settled. One more, in Mississippi, was partly settled but still may lead to litigation.

The action is similar to a different DOJ report issued in March that was highly critical of police and municipal court practices in Ferguson, following the shooting death of Michael Brown in a confrontation with then-police officer Darren Wilson almost a year ago.