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OJJDP funded the Coalition for Juvenile Justice's fall 2005 ethnic and cultural diversity conference in Seattle, WA, on November 10-13. Titled "Equal Justice for Youth: Innovating for the Future," the conference focused on innovation and system policy improvement and reform designed to eliminate racial/ethnic bias and disparities in the treatment of youth in the juvenile justice system. The conference featured local-level efforts to reduce disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in about 30 communities in a number of states. Conference sessions emphasized federal, state, and local partnerships, data-driven strategies, multiprong approaches, and persistent commitment to reducing DMC.
The State and Local DMC Coordinators and DMC Committee Members Forum drew representatives from 40 states. The Forum generated sharing among the state and local representatives and a list of followup tasks to encourage continued peer support. In addition, OJJDP staff facilitated one-on-one sessions with consultants for 15 states on the use of their DMC Relative Rate Indexes and the review of OJJDP's draft DMC Web-based Data Entry System.
In remarks on the opening day of the conference, OJJDP Administrator J. Robert Flores commended the attendees on progress to date in combating DMC and emphasized the continued need for policy reforms and improvement.
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