Report: Latinos 'Severely Underrepresented' Among California Prosecutors

This is KPBS midday edition. I am Maureen Cavanaugh. Stuck in the 70s, that's at the name of a report comes down from law school that evaluates diversity among California's prosecutors. As you might have guessed the study finds demographics among prosecutors have not kept up with the times. Nearly 70% of California's prosecutors are white just like 70% of California's population was white in the 70s. Now, Whitesnake of only 38% of the state's population, the report finds the group most underrepresented in prosecutors offices are Latinos. They make up 38% of the population and account for 9% of prosecutors. How did this happen, and does it matter. Joining me are Rachel Cano, deputy district attorney, San Diego County and Traci Howard, assistant dean of admissions, California Western School of Law. Dennis Dawson also joins us, he is formerly deputy attorney general and San Diego County office and welcome to the program. Rachel, do the statistics in the Stanford report reflect the makeup of persecutors in San Diego's DAs office? The make up in San Diego is different. In the DAs office the percentage of Latino prosecutors is 13.2% which is higher than the state average listed in the study. When a double the State Bar membership which is six point When a double the State Bar membership which is 6.4%. Looking Asian Americans, the city had an 11.9% and are often San Diego is 11%. It's important to look at the 2002 number when Bonnie came in. Had seven Asian-American prosecutors in 2002. In 2015 we have 27. That has increased significantly because diversity is important here in San Diego and her. African-American numbers the study had a lower percent. The state our membership is at 1.8%. It's difficult to recruits from those numbers. It's important to note their seven African-Americans sitting judges that came from the DAs office. As you say, Rachel San Diego's DA is involved in the whole idea of promoting diversity. She has served on the diversity pipeline committee to get more diversity among prosecutors. At the ranks of prosecutors even here are still mostly white. What are some of the reasons for that? I think the pipeline issue is important. If you're not getting into college or law school, we can't recruit them to come into the DAs office. Has to be a more structured focus on getting students in the high school level and encouraging them to become prosecutors. Dennis, you worked as a state prosecutor for over three decades. What kind of diversity did you experience in your office during that time? With respect to African-American attorneys, I would say the diversity was practically nonexistent. When I entered the office in 1976, was only one other African-American attorney who worked at the state attorney general's office. When I left the office in 2010, out of approximately 100 out of approximately 185 deputy attorney generals in the San Diego office, of the Atty. General, there were only four African-American attorneys. When I left there only three. So the name of this particular report, stuck in the 70s has a particular meaning for you. Since that's when you started your career. We have not made any progress whatsoever when you look at the number, three out of 185. It's unacceptable. Although, I notice Rachel had said the African-American attorney representation in the State Bar was 1.8%. Even assuming that's true, I don't have any doubt that it's not true, it still does not deal with the fact that in the local office to hear of the Atty. Gen.'s office, we are under the percentage in the State Bar. When offices say we have problems finding African-American attorneys in San Diego, that's not true because having been there, I know there were many throughout the decades I was there that applied and were not hired. Also, there's no reason why a national -- nationally respected office such as that could not recruit outside of San Diego County and in fact I was recruited directly from Howard law school in Washington DC. I was happy to come to California to work the office. Let's talk about the pipeline issue. One of the issues report highlights is at the lack of minorities and rolled in law schools in California. What does enrollment look like at the California Western school of law? At California Western, diversity is one of our highest priorities so we work really hard to try to increase our diversity. We have a diversity services director who works on these efforts alongside the admissions office and really helps the law school to look at this issue from a top down approach. As such, we have dedicated funds and finances toward scholarship and students of color, particularly racial ethnic minority students. Over the past couple of years, we have been able to see some slight increases in our number of diversity students on our campus. The Stanford report mentioned how enrollment of minority students in law schools plummeted from 1996, after the passage of prop 209. Does the state proposition that bans consideration of race in public school admissions. Callister is a private school. Do you give consideration to race during admissions? Absolutely. We have a holistic approach. We look at everything when we think about diversity we think about racial ethnic diversity, geographic social economic diversity, cultural, sexual orientation. We take a broad approach? So Why is that an important thing for your school? So What do you think it brings to the classroom and education of your students? In the classroom enhances expensive all students. Reach all students from all over the country being in San Diego, we get students who come from small-town America wants to be in San Diego and people from large cities. It's important to have a diverse representation in the classroom because it enhances the experience for everyone. Is certainly something we are mindful of. It helps the professors and it helps other students. Rachel, you're Latina. Had the South Bay branch, what made you want to pursue a law degree? I grew up in Los Angeles in the 70s and 80s. I wanted to go back to the Latino community and help with social injustice. I envisioned working on discrimination issues in employment and housing and perhaps immigration. Like changes. I arrived in San Diego. One of my best friends suggested I look at the DAs office because I'll be helping the Latino community by helping keep it safe and helping victims of crime. Exactly what I feel I am doing now. One of the things people point to when they say you need to get minorities a step up is because if you come from a situation where there are lawyers in your family or the socialize with people who are in the legal profession, you start to think as a child well maybe I'd like to be a lawyer. Was at your expense? I didn't meet a lawyer until I got to law school. I didn't know any lawyers, television didn't have lawyers on TV when I was going out. The next generation grew up with lawn order. I didn't. I just knew players helped people and that's what I wanted to do. When you're trying to reach out to other people, perhaps in the Latino community and the minority can unity, what's kind of experiences do you hear that people have with the legal profession? Are they the kind that would makes me want to become aware? Today it's a much more positive and open. I had a program called Project lead. We talked to fifth graders. I've been doing this for seven years. We talk to fifth graders about the role of prosecutors and the good we're trying to do and bring to justice everyone. I think it's important to reach out to students as young as his greatest. Dennis, there are still some people who look at this report and say so what. I'm going to ask you and Rachel, what do you think is the benefit of having all different kinds of people, as lawyers and prosecutors, what does it bring to the system? If you have people who are not from the Caucasian ethnic group, you're going to have those people bring their expertise and unique perspective to what types of decisions are made in the prosecutor's office. When you bring in Asian attorneys and Latino attorneys and African-American attorneys, you change the conversation as of the Stanford study says. We start rebutting some of the unsettling assumptions that people make in the office about defendants, about victims, about witnesses, about prospective jurors and judges. You have a situation where you increase the sensitivity and you are set stereotypes which are coming from bias. Value people there being a completely different perspective. I think as a result of that, the office of the prosecutor benefits because as an organization, it receives the benefits of decision-making which has a good input from members of the diverse community. Rachel, would you agree? Yes. It helps build trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. Prosecutors make a big difference when it comes to decisions like how a person is charged, what kind of bail is asked for, reaching some sort of a deal, what sentenced the defendant might make. Does that all factor into what you are talking about it comes to bringing these new eyes and this new set of perspectives towards an individual's case? So Yes. Prosecutor typically looks at the seriousness of the case. They are going to look at the interest the victim has in the case, is going to look at the prior record of the defendant when decisions are made about to prosecute or not. What type of the market might be acceptable and bargain for, what kind of sentence may be sought. When you have these other ethnic groups that come in and join the staff of a prosecutor, the prosecutor is not just going to look at those factors that I just mentioned. It's also going to look at new and different perspectives. What was the defendant's background. What type of family did the defendant grow up in, what type of neighborhood did it they come from. Have they been profiled based on physical characteristics. Those of the things I think prosecutor would really benefit by hiring and making sure they hire a diverse staff. As we saw with prop 209, lots of people don't like school admission policies that factor in race. When they are in place, it tends to open the door for kids in careers like law and produce a more diverse population. How do we achieve that effect without admissions based on race? What do we do instead? I'm not sure. I think we need to get out to the schools and encourage them to consider a career in law. Educate them as to what that is and how they can be helping there can see. Tracy, I wondering and all the people who go to Cal Western, do you have people who basically say I want to become a prosecutor? Is that a big career goal for a lot of people who attend? Yes. We have a really strong focus in criminal law Soviet people who decide to come to our law school because they want to focus on that area. Rachel and I were talking before about one of our students who grew up in the San Diego community, because of life experiences he had decided he wanted to go to lie school, -- law school, he wanted to be a prosecutor an intern at our DAs office and is employed as a prosecutor at the office and enjoys his career and credibly. We have people who come and wanting to focus on that area. Many of our new hires come to law school wanting to become prosecutors. They all tell me the same thing, I went to law school because I wanted to become a prosecutor. Now that the Stanford study is out, we will see what will happen with the annual take up these issues. I did speak with San Diego deputy district attorney, the California Western school of law. And Dennis Dawson president of the Bar Association. Thank you.