{"id":32926,"date":"2020-06-19T18:16:01","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T18:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/19\/army-starts-comprehensive-look-at-racial-disparity-in-its-justice-system\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:55:32","slug":"army-starts-comprehensive-look-at-racial-disparity-in-its-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2020\/06\/19\/army-starts-comprehensive-look-at-racial-disparity-in-its-justice-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Army starts \u2018comprehensive\u2019 look at racial disparity in its justice system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An Army assessment began last week to examine racial disparity within its justice system, the service\u2019s judge advocate general said Tuesday during a congressional hearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army\u2019s own evaluation joins that of the other armed services following the release of a Government Accountability Office report last year that found black or Hispanic service members<\/a> are more likely to face a trial than their white counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army is in the \u201cvery early stages of figuring out what could cause this,\u201d Lt. Gen. Charles Pede, the service\u2019s ranking attorney, told lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pede said he has already directed a \u201ccomprehensive assessment\u201d in conjunction with the Army\u2019s provost marshal general \u201cto examine why the justice system is more likely to investigate certain soldiers and what our investigations and command decisions tell us about this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s hearing also comes amid nationwide scrutiny of racial injustice, sparked by the death of George Floyd<\/a>, a black man who prosecutors say was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer while being arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GAO report from last year did note that once service members get to trial, the likelihood of a conviction is nearly the same across all demographic backgrounds, but problems with data collection continue to cloud the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report \u201craises difficult questions,\u201d said Pede. \u201cSitting here today, we do not have those answers, so our task is to ask the right questions and find the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GAO report concluded that the Army, Navy and Air Force, have to do a better job of tracking ethnicity and race data in investigations and personnel databases, using the same categories as military justice databases.<\/p>\n\n\n\t