Media

We applaud the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office for their dedication to reviewing their data and identifying opportunities to ensure equitable treatment. We are proud to be working with Boulder and seven other DA offices across the state to develop data dashboards — an important step to support transparency, justice and fairness, and data-driven decision-making.

To support actionability, it is important to distinguish between disproportionality and disparity. As the study illustrates, disproportionality exists throughout Boulder’s criminal justice system, for example, with more people of color arrested than we should expect, given the population. However, the data provides limited evidence of people being treated differently by the Boulder County DA’s Office.

Disparity exists when people who should be treated the same are treated differently. Results show that the racial makeup of the defendant pool did not change much once a case was filed; once charged, Black, Hispanic and white defendants were treated similarly. While results do show differences in prison sentences, the data presented did not consider potential differences in cases, like the severity of charges or the defendant’s criminal history. Further exploration is needed to determine whether prosecutors’ decisions vary for similar types of cases.

The bottom line is that there has not been enough information presented to conclude that there are differences in how the Boulder County DA’s Office treats people. This should be acknowledged while still recognizing and working to eliminate the disproportionalities that exist in the criminal justice system.

Lauren Gase, Denver

Don Stemen, Chicago

Editor’s note: Gase is a senior researcher/project director at the University of Denver; Stemen is professor and director at the Center for Criminal Justice Research at Loyola University Chicago.