A national report commissioned by the MacArthur Foundation and released in June found that people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex are overrepresented in the U.S. criminal legal system. In fact, LGBTQ+ people are more than twice as likely to be arrested compared to straight people and three times more likely to be incarcerated than the general population. Those statistics are worse for LGBTQ+ people of color. Jane Hereth, UWM assistant professor of social welfare, conducted a review of existing research and compiled the report as part of the foundation’s initiative to support criminal justice reform. In addition to tracking arrests and incarceration rates, she also documented discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals within the system, and found that it showed up at every stage, from arrest through sentencing, and also in the inmate’s prison experience. Here, Hereth talks about how LGBTQ+ people are often overlooked in criminal justice reform and why the disparity hits younger people hardest.
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