On June 3, the seven justices of our Supreme Judicial Court published a letter to the members of the Judiciary and the Bar. I don’t think it got much public notice, but it should have, particularly in view of the current discussion regarding racism in the criminal justice system.
The letter said, in part, “…we need to reexamine why, too often, our criminal justice system fails to treat African-Americans the same as white Americans, and recommit ourselves to the systemic change needed to make equality under the law an enduring reality for all.”
As an attorney who has been in the courts for almost 50 years, I have seen how justice is administered unfairly to people of color, but I see it not so much as a problem of overt racial bias, but rather as a result of income inequality.
Defendants with financial means and access to good lawyers who have resources at the ready, usually fare much better than those who rely on overworked and underpaid public defenders or have to go it alone. Unpaid fines and restitution failures lead to more court appearances and more time lost from hourly day work. The threat of losing one’s job forces many to accept plea deals to avoid repeated court dates, and on it goes. Until there is a recognition by the Congress (and our Legislature) that the minimum wage scale is not a living wage scale and that access to justice in the courts is more a matter of financial resources than it is of overt systemic racism, the problem will continue.
The game is rigged against the poor, more often defendants of color, but also the poor of all ethnicities.
Neil Rossman
Swampscott
