By Melanie Eversley

A first-of-its-kind data analysis in Connecticut shows that Black and Latino defendants with no criminal histories were convicted at rates of 6 percent and 5 percent higher, respectively, than white defendants without criminal histories. 

The study of case dispositions throughout Connecticut courthouses in 2019 also found that defendants who did have criminal histories had nearly identical rates of conviction, regardless of race, The Hartford Courant is reporting. In other words, defendants new to the criminal justice system were treated quite differently when it came to conviction rates.

“What I think we really need to do as a next step is really focus on people who come into the system for the first time without a significant history,” study leader Ivan Kuzyk, outgoing director of the Connecticut Statistical Analysis Center, told the Courant.