Disproportionate Minority Contact Task Force

The City of Charlottesville is committed to understanding the extent and cause of disproportionate minority contact and disparity in the criminal justice system. To that end, city staff have coordinated studies of both the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems:

As a result of the 2011 Charlottesville/Albemarle Commission on Children and Families Task Force on Race Disparity and Disproportionality in Youth Services Final Report (PDF), the Charlottesville City Council established the Charlottesville Task Force on Racial Disparities and Disproportionality.

In 2014, the City Council received a comprehensive report on disproportionality in the juvenile justice system. Council and the City Manager asked staff to look for a way to conduct a similar study for the adult system. In early 2017, The Department of Human Services was awarded a grant from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to launch a study of disproportionate minority contact in the adult criminal justice system in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The first phase of this study process has been completed with preliminary data conclusions, suggestions for areas for improvement in local data collection and recommendations for service system improvement. The City contracted with MGT Consulting Group to conduct the first phase of the study. 

The work was supported by the Adult Disproportionate Minority Contact (D.M.C.) Research and Planning Committee which provided content and context knowledge to the researchers and helped secure data from system partners.