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ICYMI: Congressman Brown Urges Comprehensive Military Justice Reform

Press Release

Date: July 21, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Military Personnel Criminal Justice

In Case You Missed It, Congressman Anthony G. Brown (MD-04) a member of the House Armed Services Committee, during a Subcommittee on Military Personnel hearing on the Findings and Recommendations of the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military, urged action on comprehensive military justice reform to address the glaring under-prosecution of sexual assault in our military and over-prosecution of Black and brown servicemembers.

Congressman Brown, a veteran and former JAG officer, is a co-lead of The Vanessa Guillén Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act which would reform the military justice system by moving the decision to prosecute serious crimes in the military from the chain of command.

Black and Hispanic servicemembers are more likely than white members to be tried in general and special courts-martial in all of the military services, even when controlling for attributes such as rank and education. This is across every service of our military.

Key quotes include:

"Madam Chair, I've heard a lot about solving the problem for ten years, we've brought this problem. Finally, after 90 days to review, commanders didn't have it. We recognize and why it really comes down to a data set that soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and guardians don't trust commanders. That's the primary data set here, the lack of trust."

"I put into the record a 1972 study. What they found was a lack of trust between Black and brown servicemembers in commanders. This issues has been around for a long time. It's not a simple problem. It's an under prosecution of sexual assault and an over prosecution of Black and brown people. We know the problem...and there's an opportunity to address that."

"What I haven't heard from the Department is, "Well, we do not want to do the sweeping reform, but can you at least give us some more tools?' All I'm hearing is we'll fix it. And that's what we have head for ten years for sexual assault."


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