The Racial and Ethnic Equity, REE, Committee met on January 25, 2023, and is focusing on its priority areas for the year: community engagement, youth disparities in the juvenile justice system, bail reform, alternatives to incarceration, restorative justice practices, and the intersection of the jail population and mental health.
The Committee’s charge is to center the voices of those historically marginalized by the current mode of justice and acknowledge the racial disparities built into the current justice model. As a result, the REE Committee has committed itself to implement a conference, Centering [Racial] Disparity and Highlighting Fairness within the Harris County Criminal Justice System. The conference will be held at the Anderson-Clarke Center on the campus of Rice University on May 18-19, 2023. The aim of the conference is to gather leaders in the field to address racial and ethnic disparities across the Harris County Criminal Justice System by highlighting best practices and solutions for reducing inequalities amongst the most vulnerable populations.
The conference goal is to register 240 Harris County criminal justice stakeholders at no cost, earn TCOLE and CLE credits, and provide feedback on how Harris County can continually support fairness. Please fill out the submission form if you would like to be a presenter at the conference. The MacArthur Foundation supports this inaugural conference through the Safety and Justice Challenge and the Rice University Police Department.