Monday, June 23, 2008

On June 5, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell signed House Bill 5933 into law, making Connecticut only the second state in the nation to require assessment of the racial impact of bills being considered by the state Legislature.

HB 5933 requires all proposed criminal justice legislation to include a statement about the impact the proposed law would have on communities of color. Such statements may help to prevent the passage of future laws such as the crack/powder cocaine disparity that existed in the state until 2005.

Connecticut's crack/powder cocaine disparity disproportionately impacted communities of color and people living in urban areas. The new law requiring racial impact statements is intended to reduce such unwarranted racial disparities in the criminal justice system and enhance public safety.

The passage of HB 5933 (which has now become Public Act 08-143, came as a surprise to many, but not to DPA supporters and to allies like Hartford-based A Better Way Foundation (ABWF). “We’ve been organizing around this bill for a number of years, and with the support of the Black and Hispanic Caucus and the Judiciary Committee, we finally got it passed,” said Lorenzo Jones, executive director of ABWF. “Local communities in Connecticut have been pushing back against the criminalization of people of color under this drug war. With these statements, we can hold drug war bureaucrats more accountable.” DPA worked closely with ABWF in supporting passage of the bill.

Earlier this year, Iowa became the first state to pass a law requiring racial impact statement. Similar bills have also been introduced in Oregon and Illinois.

The passage of the Iowa and Connecticut bills follows on the heels of a report by the D.C.-based research group the Sentencing Project, which issued a report earlier this year that found Connecticut ranked fourth among states with the highest racial disparities in their criminal justice systems.

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