Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls and Attorney General Josh Stein announced as co-chairs that the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, convened by Governor Roy Cooper, adopted two more recommendations during its meeting today. Those include a recommendation for the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) to include information on race in its data reporting and to require racial equity training for court system personnel. The NCAOC will now be asked to implement these recommendations.  

"The Task Force is making great strides to get some recommendations underway immediately,” said Justice Earls. “A number of other significant and comprehensive reforms are under consideration, and we continue to solicit public input as our work progresses to produce a final report of recommendations to the governor by December. We will not rest until we have brought our best to promote racial equity in North Carolina.”

“I am pleased that the Task Force is continuing to move forward and take action,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “These recommendations - along with those we have already made and will make in the coming weeks - will drive improvements to our criminal justice system, making it fairer for everyone. This work is essential, and we have much more to do.”

The task force’s next action will be to hear comments from the public on Thursday, September 3, at 6:00 p.m. People can sign up to speak for up to two minutes during the public comment session. Once individuals sign up, they will receive a Zoom link to log on to and participate in the session. The public comment session can also be streamed live on the North Carolina Department of Justice’s YouTube channel. Additional public comment sessions will be announced in the future and North Carolinians can also make their voices heard by submitting written comments via this form.

Information on previous recommendations and other Task Force action is available at https://ncdoj.gov/trec/.