Black and Hispanic minors in New Jersey are far more likely to be prosecuted as adults than those in other groups, according to anewanalysis of court records by WNYC. Further, far more Black and Hispanic youths are given adult sentences or, in some cases, sent to adult prisons.
Over the past five years, state prosecutors were asked to try 1,251 minors as adults. According to the data, 87.6 percent of those minors were Black or Hispanic.
Race | Number of Minors Requested to be Tried as Adults | Percent of Total |
Black | 849 | 67.9% |
Hispanic | 247 | 19.7% |
Caucasian | 139 | 11.1% |
Other/Unknown | 10 | 0.8% |
Asian | 5 | 0.4% |
Native American | 1 | 0.08% |
Roughly half 692 of those requests were granted, and those minors were all tried as adults. Of those minors, 87.4 percent were Black or Hispanic.