Chair of Racial Disparities Panel says lack of staff and data hobbles equity review; announces resignation

Eitan Ness Redlongo, chair of the Racial Disparities Advisory Panel, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 8 that the panel cannot carry out its mandate without dedicated staff, reliable data access and more frequent, focused work during the legislative session, and said he will resign from the panel.

Redlongo said the panel currently meets once a month for two hours on the second Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m., which he called insufficient to track bills that often change rapidly. “There is a fundamental incompatibility between the way the RDAP is structured and the way the legislature was structured,” he said. “We need legislators to be there who are interested in this study.”

The panel’s duties include producing biennial reports on criminal and juvenile justice and reviewing proposed legislation for equity impacts. Redlongo and other witnesses told the committee that the Division of Racial Justice Statistics (DLJS), created after prior justice‑reinvestment work, is…