Subject: Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC) Web Site
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 14:27:28 -0400
Reply-To: juvjust@ncjrs.org
Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC) Web Site
For more than a decade, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP) has been a leader in efforts to reduce the
overrepresentation of minority youth in the Nation's juvenile justice
system. Disproportionate Minority Confinement (DMC), or the
overrepresentation of minority youth in juvenile detention and correctional
facilities, is the most visible manifestation of this problem, which occurs
at all points in the juvenile justice process.
The 1988 amendments to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
(JJDP) Act require States participating in the Formula Grants program to
make efforts to reduce the proportion of minority youth in secure facilities
if that proportion exceeds the proportion the minority represents in the
general population. As part of this requirement, States must identify the
extent to which DMC exists, assess the reasons for DMC if it exists, and
intervene to reduce DMC.
In 1992, addressing DMC was elevated to a core requirement of the JJDP Act,
with States failing to demonstrate efforts to reduce the overrepresentation
of minority youth in confinement at risk of forfeiting 25 percent of their
annual formula grants allocation.
OJJDP has launched a new Web site to serve as a resource to help States
comply with the JJDP Act's DMC requirements and as a source of information
for all who are interested in understanding and reducing DMC.
Resources:
You may access the DMC Web site at http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/dmc/index.html
For further information about Disproportionate Minority Confinement, e-mail
Heidi Hsia, Program Manager, at hsiah@ojp.usdoj.gov
-- Anonymous, July 30, 2001