Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC)

Since 1988, the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act has required states that receive formula grant program funding to determine whether the proportion of juvenile minorities in confinement exceeds their proportion of the population and, if so, to develop corrective strategies. In 1992, Congress elevated this issue to a “core requirement” of the JJDP Act. In 2002, OJJDP changed the requirement from reporting the proportion of minority juveniles in confinement to include the proportion of minorities at each key decision point in the juvenile justice system.

The shift from the focus on “confinement” to “contact” allows a more encompassing examination of the juvenile justice system because racial/ethnic differences can occur at various decision points within the juvenile justice system. Research has shown that the disparity is the most pronounced at the beginning stages – intake and detention decision points - and when racial/ethnic differences are found, they tend to accumulate as youth are processed through the justice system.

Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) policies require states to determine the existence and scope of disproportionate contact and to take meaningful measures to explain and address it. If disproportionate contact does exist, an ‘assessment phase’ is conducted in an attempt to discover the factors that contribute to the overrepresentation of minority youth. Once a state is aware that disproportionate contact is occurring, an ‘intervention phase’ is implemented. In this phase, interventions, programs and policies aimed at reducing DMC are created and implemented.

Maine’s Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) initiative is a multi–phased, sustained effort requiring systems improvement over many years to build a juvenile justice system that is more sensitive to cultural differences. The Phase I of DMC – Identification, focuses on the determination of whether (and where) disproportionate minority contact exists in our juvenile justice system. To comply with Phase I requirements the data must be collected from multiple sources to identify juvenile minority overrepresentation at key decision points.

Maine’s major DMC data source is the Maine Department of Corrections‘comprehensive management information system, the Correctional Information System (CORIS). This information system collects juvenile information from the multiple decision points, including referrals, diversions, petitions, probation, and confinement in a secure correctional facility. The juvenile arrest data is collected by the Maine Department of Public Safety (MDPS) record management systems unit, including summary data - UCR (Uniform Crime Reports) and NIBRS (National Incident Based Reporting).

Maine’s DMC initiative is a work in progress – the state is currently building the capacity sufficient to meet the needs of DMC reporting. We are working on multiphase, multilevel quality improvement strategies, including improving the quality assurance system, developing instructions on best practice in race/ethnicity data collection, and training of personnel in cultural sensitivity.

With the support and partnership of our Statistical Analysis Center, The Muskie School for Public Service, a personalized, easily accessible training curriculum was developed and tailored specifically for MDOC staff on how to collect citizenship, racial and ethnic data in a sensitive manner.

With this support and partnership, data quality has increased to allow us to see areas of the state where there may be disparity in numbers.

This partnership and a new partnership with The University of Maine School of Law will enable us to study Cumberland County, Androscoggin County and Penobscot County Juvenile Courts as well as Long Creek and Mountain View Youth Development Centers to determine the presence of disparity. The Law School and the Muskie School have agreed to train law student investigators, develop an interview protocol, investigate the five sites, interview the stakeholders at each site, compile the information and produce a written report by mid-December.

The DMC committee will present those findings at a meeting of the stakeholders (juveniles, parents, JCCO's, administrators, judges, police, juvenile defense attorneys, prosecutors) in each location to confirm the accuracy of the data and to develop strategies to address identified disparity. Should the need arise we will develop a Request for Proposals for DMC programming in the spring and begin work in the fall of 2009.

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Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC)