Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC)

Using a multi-faceted approach of direct service, education, and support, California strives to reduce the overrepresentation of youth of color coming into contact with the juvenile justice system - with the ultimate goal being a fair and equitable justice system.   Toward that end, the DMC statewide initiative follows three tracks: direct service through the Enhanced DMC-Technical Assistance Project (TAP) and Support Project grants; education/awareness through our implementation of educational mandates for grantees and stakeholders; and support through both resources and advocac.

DIRECT SERVICE

DMC-TAP II Grants
Funds made available through the Enhanced DMC Technical Assistance Project (DMC-TAP) support probation departments in understanding and identifying DMC in hopes of better equipping these agencies with the tools and resources needed to provide leadership in developing and/or strengthening community-based DMC reduction activities.  The Enhanced DMC-TAP program is comprised of three phases; this incremental approach is designed to assist probation departments in understanding and identifying DMC and to equip these agencies with the resources needed and currently lacking to provide leadership in DMC reduction activities.  The first phase focuses on infrastructure for a DMC reduction effort through Data collection and analysis, DMC Coordination and DMC training department wide.  The second and third phases support the education of stakeholders and the implementation of a DMC reduction plan.  The oversight involved in this innovative approach to DMC is substantial and includes bi-annual site visits, annual monitoring, quarterly progress reports and annual Project Directors’ meetings.  The seven (7) projects actively underway, beginning January 1, 2010 are: Fresno, Humboldt, Marin, Orange, Sacramento, Ventura and Yolo.

DMC Support Grant
To ensure appropriate sustainability occurs with counties already involved in DMC Initiatives longer than 18-months, CSA dedicated approximately $600,000 in Title II funds for continued DMC support activities. These dollars currently fund six (6) counties selected by a competitive process to participate in the DMC Support Project. This grant requires broad system reform and supports probation departments in reducing race/ethnicity disparity and disproportionality (DMC) through the strengthening of DMC reduction activities already underway in their departments and county-wide. DMC Support Project provides funds up to three (3) years for education, DMC intervention(s), evaluation and monitoring, and sustainability. Counties currently receiving DMC Support grants are: Alameda, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz.

Enhanced DMC-TAP Process Evaluation

The purpose of the process evauation was to assist the CSA in planning future DMC activities by identifying the operational strenghts and limitations of the phases of the original Enhanced DMC-TAP, all of which represent a pioneering approach to addressing DMC. The CSA was interested in learning what worked and what did not by understanding the environments in which required activities were implemented, the processes used to implement these activities, and the impact of program fidelity/operations on desired outcomes. The process evaluation design adressed these stated goals and included the five counties participating in the original Enhanced DMC TAP grant (Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Cruz). As a result of a competitive Request for Proposal process, Mark Morris and Associates was selected as the process evaluator. The finding demonstrated the phased approach utilized by the CSA was successful in supporting a sustaining framwork for DMC reduction activities at the local level.


DMC Process Evaluation Reports 

EDUCATION AND AWARENESS
The first educational activity we offer involves the DMC Coordinator working with a DMC expert to provide basic DMC education at the request of local jurisdictions.  This education is geared for those entities wanting to better understand what DMC means, the history of DMC and what expectations are related to the DMC mandate at the federal level.  Additionally, beginning this year, DMC training has been initiated within the Department of Juvenile Justice, Division of Parole Operations as a first step in broad DMC reduction efforts.

The second educational activity, and one of CSA’s most successful, is related to use of incentives within our federal funding sources that invite local jurisdictions to increase their knowledge of DMC.  CSA embedded a DMC focus within our Title V and Title II Formula Block Grants over the course of the last two years. Subsequently, and for the first time, CSA embedded a DMC educational component within the 2008 Juvenile Accountability Block Grant (JABG) and 2009 Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) project. Our hope is that DMC education and awareness will be bolstered at pivotal decision-points within the juvenile justice system throughout counties in California. 

A recent undertaking to the education and awareness component is an Inter-Agency Agreement between CSA and U.C. Berkeley School of Law-Center for Criminal Justice to develop standardized introductory DMC training curriculum and specific DMC training modules, including a Train-the-Trainer tool, to be used within various disciplines across the state with the possibility of utilizing the curriculum as part of the COR probation training.

http:\\www.law.berkeley.edu/11119.htm

The third educational activity is the Statewide DMC Education Initiative, funded through the Federal Title II Formula Block Grants.

DMC Regional Training Grant
Capitalizing on existing work related to "Closing the Achievement Gap" by partnering with the educational system, CSA utilizes an expert trainer to conduct regional trainings for agency representatives that participate locally in the School Attendance Review Board (SARB) process.  CSA and the expert trainer, Dr. Rita Cameron Wedding, specifically focus on engaging law enforcement, school personnel and other stakeholders in the dialogue of DMC reduction and generating additional ideas for exploring and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities observed in suspensions, expulsions, and academic underachievement – often the pathways for youth of color entering the juvenile justice system.

SUPPORT AND ADVOCACY
In addition to the activities described above, the DMC Subcommittee (made up of state and local experts) to the State Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (SACJJDP) is determined to provide leadership for DMC reduction with a two-pronged focus.  This focus, in keeping with the multi-faceted approach and guiding principles that support collaboration with local and state stakeholders, will target law enforcement and school districts; disciplines often considered the pipeline for our youth of color coming into contact with the juvenile justice system. 

A.  The first step toward a DMC focus within California schools has been taken by awarding the 2009 Title V Community Prevention Grant to San Diego County, who will subcontract with San Diego Unified School District to assess, review, analyze then work to modify and/or change the school district’s policies and procedures regarding disciplinary practices in relation to DMC within the targeted areas of City Heights, Encanto, Logan Heights and Golden Hills.  The focus will be on select middle schools and high schools where there are high suspension and expulsion rates, high rates of youth of color as well as 20% of the probation youth. 

B.  The DMC focus with both law enforcement and school districts will take the form of training and education.  After careful assessment of local jurisdictions needs, and in light of the law enforcement and school priority focus, the DMC Subcommittee has recommended regional DMC trainings specifically aimed at engaging law enforcement and school personnel in the dialogue of DMC reduction.  

DMC Brochure
Qs and As on DMC?
DMC Resources and Links
Archives

For more information on DMC related activities, please contact the CSA's DMC Coordinator, Corrections Field Representative Shalinee Hunter, at 916/322-8081 or Shalinee.Hunter@cdcr.ca.gov

Notice of Federal Funding and Federal Disclaimer

This Web site is funded in part through a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this Web site (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).