Expert testifies Minnesota offender data show higher offender rates among Black Minnesotans, contests idea system creates racial disparities

David Zimmer, Public Safety Policy Fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, told the Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 29 that a 2022 analysis of offender-by-race data shows Black Minnesotans commit serious crimes at a higher rate than white Minnesotans and that the criminal justice system does not create racial disparities in outcomes.

Zimmer said the new dataset from the Minnesota Department of Corrections allows researchers to use “an honest denominator” — the number of offenders by race rather than the general population — and that his analysis shows Black Minnesotans commit certain serious offenses at substantially higher per‑capita rates than white Minnesotans. “The data shows that Black Minnesotans commit serious crime defined as murder, assault, robbery, weapons, drug and [aggravated] assault at a rate 11 times higher than that of white Minnesotans,” Zimmer said.

Why it matters: The testimony addresses a central debate in Minnesota policy discussions about whether observed overrepresentation of Black people in prison reflects system‑created disparities or differences in offending rates and severity. Legislators said they wanted…