On Monday, December 12, Senator Mattie Hunter, at the invitation of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and Enlace Chicago, participated in a jointly sponsored panel to discuss NCLR’s report "Counting Latino Youth in the Illinois Juvenile Justice System," which was released at the event. The audience included practitioners, advocates and policy makers.

NCLR has long been among the foremost civil rights organization advocating for Latinos in the United States, engaging in an array of programs and policies aimed at improving opportunities for the Hispanic population. Enlace Chicago (EC), in turn, is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of the residents of Little Village. Through its Violence Prevention division, EC works to address the issue of youth and gang violence in the neighborhood, and brings organizations and individuals to work toward a just and peaceful community.

The report discussed is part of NCLR’s commitment to compiling information on Latino youth in Illinois to support sound policies for the growing population. The findings of this report indicate that statewide juvenile justice institutions and local jurisdictions do not collect data on youth ethnicity in any systematic way. Without proper counts of the young people in the system, institutions cannot readily identify and address systemic challenges and the need of Latino youth, nor can they develop, implement, and assess targeted policies and practices to reduce the contact of Hispanic youth with the justice systems and increase system fairness. The report identifies policy recommendations to address this issue.