Black girls are “disproportionately punished” in the education and juvenile justice systems, from school suspension to incarceration, according to a new report from the Jacksonville-based Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center.
Only 21 percent of Florida girls ages 10 to 17 are Black, but in 2019-20 they represented 45 percent of the girls arrested, 47 percent of the girls incarcerated, 52 percent of girls on probation and 52 percent of the girls transferred into the adult criminal justice system. Also, Black girls accounted for 83 percent of the 15 girls under age 10 who were arrested and 55 percent of the 524 girls aged 12 and under who were arrested, according to the report released Thursday.
Black girls also accounted for 49 percent of Florida girls given out-of-school suspensions and 49 percent of the girls who made contact with law
enforcement at school, mostly for fighting and disorderly conduct, according to the report, called “Sounding the Alarm: Criminalization of Black Girls in Florida.”
