The Indiana Supreme Court’s Commission on Race & Gender Fairness hosted the first of five forums statewide Monday in Gary to find potential solutions to the barriers that women and people of color encounter in the Indiana judicial system.
Residents, judges, lawyers and politicians, including an unexpected visit from Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, gathered to discuss inequality issues in the state’s judicial system and potential ways to remedy said problems.
“I think it’s extremely important that they come to Gary,” Freeman-Wilson said. “One, because they have such a diverse population in Lake County, but also because it’s one of the most segregated areas of the state. And to come here with a subject relative to the judiciary that is so important to our citizens in Gary speaks volumes about the Supreme Court’s desire to really make a difference.”
The forum provided participants inside the John W. Anderson Library Conference Room at Indiana University Northwest an opportunity to vent frustrations and identify what they believed was the core issue: a lack of diversity in the judicial system.
Lake County Superior Court Judge Bruce Parent said the judicial system is fundamentally flawed. “The system was designed by old white men to protect what they had,” he said.
Parent said the statistics are showing that there’s more diversity among lawyers and judges, but that they still aren’t representative of the population.
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“Even if we look at it on a micro-level, I was the third white male in a row chosen to be a judge in Lake County,” he said. “I’m happy I was selected but something’s not right about that.”
Sheila Moss, the first African-American female judge in Lake County, said over her 24 years on the bench she’s seen a little progress in terms of more minority lawyers, but there’s more work to do.
“It’s more diverse now than it ever has been but the demographics of the county have changed, too, so we need to keep pace with that,” she said.
Others suggested diversifying the legal profession, providing more effective services and solutions toward mental health, improving education and implementing legal literacy at the grade school level to help improve people’s understanding of the judicial system.
“The courts, schools and our legislators have a bigger responsibility and that is we need legal literacy taught within our schools,” Juan Andrade, a Lake County probation officer, said. “What we need to do as a court is come up with a curriculum that could be taught in elementary, middle and high schools.”
After hosting four other forums throughout the state, the commission will deliberate before presenting a formal written report to the Indiana Supreme Court, said Myra Selby, the commission’s president and former Indiana Supreme Court judge.
“The commission will sit down and meet and gather all of the information we have obtained from those commission forums and try and process it and talk about it and from it glean what information we can with which to make specific recommendations to our Supreme Court.”
Selby added that the commission will relay the concerns and problems identified to the Supreme Court, but that the court expects recommendations for solutions.
Gilbert King, a black attorney in Gary, said he’s pleased that the Supreme Court is willing to hear ways to address the racial and gender disparities that exist, but he hopes that people “aren’t here just talking to talk.”
“I hope we implement some of these suggestions and not here just talking or we’re here just wasting time.”
Freeman-Wilson said she’s confident the commission will make beneficial recommendations.
“I have enough confidence in the members on this commission to know that this isn’t just an exercise,” Freeman-Wilson said. “They will leave this process and make some real recommendations to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court will in turn implement some of the suggestions in a way that will promote race and justice fairness in the judiciary.”
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