Paths to Justice: Identifying Barriers to Equity in the Justice System
On December 15, as part of our Paths to Justice Summit Series, IAALS hosted a webinar, "Identifying Barriers to Equity in the Justice System," the first of two webinars on paths to racial justice in the United States.
Kicking off this final theme of the Paths to Justice Series, we focused in on barriers to equity in our justice system. While there has been a lot of focus on racial injustice in our criminal system, we must recognize this same inequity in our civil justice system. IAALS’ recent report on the Justice Needs and Satisfaction in the United States of America highlighted that the nature, seriousness, and resolution rates of the justice problems Americans experience in their daily lives are shaped in meaningful ways by their income, gender, race and ethnicity, age, and living environment. We have to recognize—and reckon with—the fact that justice is not equally distributed. There are many ways in which our system is set up that create injustices and inequities based on race and ethnicity, socio-economics, gender, and disability.
This webinar spoke to barriers to equity in our justice system. Justice system reformers, including IAALS, must be mindful of such barriers so that innovations and system improvements are implemented in a truly equitable way.
This esteemed panel featured Courtney Bryan (Executive Director, Center for Court Innovation), Valerie Colas (Access to Justice Counsel for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Office of the State Court Administrator), and Camille Nelson (Dean and Professor of Law, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa | William S. Richardson School of Law), whose conversation was moderated by Hon. Jeremy Fogel (Executive Director, Berkeley Judicial Institute).
Thank you to the attendees of this convening who generously gave of their time and expertise to brainstorm around these important issues.
Paths to Justice Summit Series
The goal of this convening was to bring together a group of diverse perspectives and partners to engage in a dialogue around inequity in our civil justice system and to determine ways to take meaningful action to address it. We hope the following summary helps to bring focus and clarity to the dialogue and ongoing collaboration and action.