In Race and Washington's Criminal Justice System: 2021 Report to the Washington Supreme Court (2021), the Research Working Group investigated disproportionalities in the criminal justice system and, where disproportionalities were found, investigated possible causes.

The 2021 Gender Justice Study found evidence of many gender inequities in Washington State’s justice system. These inequities most frequently impact Black, Indigenous, and people of color who are women, transgender, and gender nonconforming. Here is a factsheet based on the report.

The Washington State Juvenile Justice Report to the Washington State Governor & Legislature (2020) found that over the past ten years across the state, there have been declining youth arrests and legal system involvement. At the same time, however, there are wide variations in practice regarding the disproportionate arrest of youth of color and use of detention. In these areas, many counties exceed national rates.

In Examining Washington State’s Sentencing Guidelines: A Report for the Criminal Sentencing Task Force (2021), the Washington State Institute for Public Policy examines felony sentencing in Washington State Superior Courts. This report includes an examination of racial disproportionality in sentencing outcomes for standard sentences in the current and alternative guideline grids and for non-standard sentences including enhancements, exceptional sentences, and sentencing alternatives.

University of Washington’s Professor Alexes Harris has written the seminal work on legal financial obligations (LFOs) throughout the country: A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor (2016), with emphasis on Washington State. Further, In a 2020 study of the the Seattle Municipal Court’s imposition of LFOs by race, Professor Harris and her colleague found that Black men and women are significantly more likely than their peers to be sentenced to incarceration in superior court following a paid Seattle Municipal Court LFO sentence and Black men and women are more likely to be incarcerated following an unpaid municipal court LFO than are any other racial or ethnic group.

This Biennial Report of the Statewide Reentry Council (2020) outlines early lessons learned during COVID-19, summarizes the ongoing racial disparities in Washington's criminal legal system, provides recommendations for improving reentry, and summarizes council activities and progress.

The Sentencing Project’s 2021 report, The Color of Justice: Racial & Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons, found that Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons across the country at nearly five times the rate of whites, and Latinx people are 1.3 times as likely to be incarcerated than non-Latinx whites. This report includes a comparison of Washington State data to other states in the country. This report also makes recommendations for reform.