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Report finds racial disparities in Athens-Clarke County courts


Full report linked below. Summary of findings:


In both the State and Superior Courts of Athens-Clarke County, GA, there are racial disparities in terms of sentencing outcomes when a defendant is sentenced to confinement, the demographics of the cases that were disposed in both Courts, and in the geography of defendants’ last known address.

In State Court, for example, when all else is the same, simply being black shows an increase in confinement by almost 5 days as compared to non-black defendants.

In Superior Court, when all else is the same, simply being black shows an increase in confinement by almost 63 days as compared to non-black defendants.

Although black males make up only 12.6% of the Athens-Clarke County demographics, over 44.7% of all cases in the State Court, and over 60.2% of all cases in the Superior Court from the data set were of black male defendants.

In State Court, 56.64% of white males and 58.41% of white females have addresses listed for Athens, Georgia, as compared to 81.99% of black males and 83.48% of black females.

In Superior Court, 57.17% of white males and 47.33% of white females have addresses listed for Athens, Georgia, as compared to 82.22% of black males and 77.04% of black females.

We ran a regression model with interactive terms (black & male) to see what effects are observed by being both black and male at the same time. The data reveals an increase in confinement of almost 18 days in State court and almost 142 days in Superior Court when a defendant is given confinement as a sentence. This is statistically significant and more than what we observe for the terms white and male at the same time.

There is no observable increase in confinement (when that is the sentence) when the defendant is either a white female or black female as compared to white males or black males.

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