Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) refers to the overrepresentation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system. In Massachusetts, as with nearly all other states, minority youth are overrepresented at various stages of the juvenile justice system such as detention and commitment. The Executive Office of Public Safety, the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee and other public and private agencies are committed to reducing DMC in the Commonwealth. EOPS has hired a full time DMC Reduction Specialist. In addition, we also:

• Coordinate the DMC Subcommittee of the JJAC
• Distribute federal grant funds to programs that aim to reduce DMC
• Provide training and technical assistance around DMC and cultural competency
• Gather, analyze and distribute juvenile justice data
• Conduct research on effective DMC reduction programs

The next DMC Subcommittee meeting will be:

For more information about DMC and DMC Subcommittee meetings please contact Andrew Polk at Andrew.Polk@state.ma.us or 617-725-3364.

Massachusetts DMC Reports:

• DMC Stage I Final Analysis (September 1995)  file size 4MB
• DMC Stage II Final Report (April 1996)  file size 4MB

( Note: Files above are both over 1 MB in size)

Additional Resources:

• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) DMC Page
  
  
• OJJDP Disproportionate Minority Confinement Technical Assistance Manual
  
  
• Annie E. Casey Foundation, Pathways to Juvenile Detention Reform, Reducing Racial Disparities in Juvenile Detention
  
  
• Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center
  
  
• Building Blocks for Youth
  
  
• Youth for Justice
  
  
• The W. Haywood Burns Institute