Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke Delivers Remarks at the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference

Good afternoon, and thank you for that kind introduction, Congresswoman Wilson. It is an honor to be with you today.

Again, my name is Kristen Clarke, and I am the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. I am the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, raised in Brooklyn, New York. And I am the first woman and the first Black woman confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the division.

I also serve as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys. In that role, it is my honor to join fellow commissioners who are dedicated to studying the most pressing issues impacting Black men and boys in our country.

As we take on issues concerning our criminal justice and juvenile justice systems, I want to talk with you about how the Justice Department works to address The issues that we face. We approached this work with urgency and guided by a few core principles — ensuring Public safety, protecting civil rights, and pursuing justice for our communities.

Last year, I spoke with you about the school-to-prison pipeline. But this year, I want to talk about the conditions inside our jails and prisons, where we know, too many Black and brown people, including children, our detained. 

Just last month, we released findings from a years-long investigation into the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, which detains an 80% Black or Latinx population. We found Texas officials fails to keep children safe from harm, by staff members or by other children. It fails to provide adequate medical care. And it fails to offer legally required special education or related services.

Our report describes unspeakable tragedies. Like the time staff slammed a boy’s head into a brick pillar and knocked him unconscious. Or routinely kept children isolated for 17 to 22 hours a day. Or inflicted punishment on children for behaviors related to their disabilities. Perhaps most devastating is the story of William, who displayed at least 80 acts of suicidal behavior in five years but was moved anyway into an adult detention center at age 16. There, suicide took his life.

Right now, we are focused on instituting reform, which means: limiting use of force, using positive behavior management system, isolating children less, supervising common areas to prevent sexual abuse, addressing children’s mental health needs, and helping  students with special needs.

This May, we opened a similar investigation in Kentucky, where we are now reviewing conditions at eight youth detention centers and working in other states like South Carolina, Connecticut and more. We will fiercely protect these vulnerable children, just as we will aggressively work to ensure constitutional conditions in adult detention facilities.

We appreciate the work you do help expose these conditions and to seek justice. Following the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we recognized the need to do more to ensure constitutional policing. We heard the rallying cries of communities that wanted a real response to the unlawful use of excessive and deadly force. Since 2021, we have prosecuted more than 220 defendants in police misconduct cases and secured more than 170 convictions. This includes the officers tied to the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. It also includes the officers known as the “Goon Squad” in Rankin County, Mississippi, who used torture and violence to assault two Black men. The lead defendant was sentenced to 40 years in prison. And it includes three of the five officers tied to the tragic death of Tyre Nichols who is on trial right now in Memphis, Tennessee. Two other officers have already pled guilty. 

Our work to promote racial justice includes our efforts to fight hate crimes, which have reached alarming levels across the country. Since January 2021, we’ve charged more than 120 defendants in over 110 cases. This includes prosecuting the men responsible for the tragic killing of Ahmaud Arbery; the man responsible for the heinous murder of 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York; and the man responsible for the murder of Dime Doe, a Black transgender woman in South Carolina.

This work also includes our effort to address the rise of white supremacist violence. On Monday, we charged two leaders of a transnational terrorist group called the Terrorgram Collective for soliciting hate crimes and terrorist attacks against Black, immigrant, LGBT, and Jewish people. Their targets included government infrastructure, federal officials, as well as leaders of private companies and non-governmental organizations. Their goal was to ignite a race war, “accelerate” the collapse of what they viewed as an irreparably corrupt government and bring about a white ethnostate. This indictment reflects the Justice Department’s response to the technological face of white supremacist violence — as those seeking mass violence expand their online reach. Technology evolves, but would-be perpetrators should know that we are two steps ahead of you. 

I’ll close by sharing a brief story about what it’s like being a mother of a young Black man in America today. I recall a time when my son was in middle school in New York City. And a white girl said to him and another Black boy that they should shut up before she put them into an Eric Garner chokehold. We must never normalize police violence or racial violence in our country. We must protect our boys, especially our Black boys, who are far too often subjected to injustice. Our work to protect civil rights is a relay race from generation to generation, and I am proud to work with you to keep the baton moving forward. 

Know that this Justice Department, the People’s Justice Department, will always have your back.