MPR’s Marianne Combs interviews Alan Page, an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, on racial bias and diversity in courts. Page describes the steps being taken to foster change.
MPR’s Marianne Combs interviews Alan Page, an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, on racial bias and diversity in courts. Page describes the steps being taken to foster change.
ALAN PAGE: We have worked in the area of the administration of the judicial system in terms of working with the Board of Law Examiners to implement changes that have been recommended. We have gotten legislation with respect to an interpreter services program. We have worked with the Minority Bar Association and with the State Bar Association towards increasing the number of attorneys who provide pro bono services in civil matters for people of color.
We have worked on the jury summons and the qualifications to make sure that people of color are included in our jury pools. We have a training program for those who are employers within the judicial system that is going forward to ensure that people of color are employed in the system and that they are retained and treated fairly once they become employees.
SPEAKER: Can you see any evidence of these initial steps having an effect?
ALAN PAGE: Oh, I think it's too early to see the effects. The pervasiveness of the bias within the system took a long time to get there. And I think it will be some time before we see any direct results. One of the striking things from the report back in June of 1993 was that-- stories that people gave about coming into the judicial system, particularly the criminal justice system, and seeing no one along the way that looked like them.
Well, that will change once we start to have judges at all levels who are people of color, once we have law clerks, secretaries, paralegals that are people of color, the attorneys representing the parties so that people will have a sense that the system, at least, has somebody like them in it and will be fair. It will also, it seems to me, have an impact on the opportunities for people to participate in the judicial system.
There are many examples and much that needs to be done. We have Implementation Committees serving in each of our judicial districts. And each one of those committees is working on district-wide issues that are particular to those districts. So there's a lot being done. And as I say, there is a lot to do.
SPEAKER: What do you see as the future for racial fairness in the courts?
ALAN PAGE: Well, if we don't bring racial fairness to the courts, then I think it will lead to distrust of the judicial system and a sense amongst the state citizens, whether they be people of color or not, that they can't rely on the judicial system to be fair.
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