Tonight, Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large), will lead a discussion about race and gender disparities in the D.C. criminal justice system. Grosso will be joined by Niaz Kasravi, Director of the NAACP’s Criminal Justice Program, John Brittain, a UDC law professor, Josephine Ross, a Howard University law professor, Seema Sadanandan, Program Director for the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, and Deborah Golden, Director of the D.C. Prisoners’ Rights Project and Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

The discussion, which is being held in cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union, the UDC David A. Clarke School of Law, the Howard University School of Law, the Black Law Students Association, and the Student Bar Association will be moderated by The Voice of Russia’s Kim Brown. According to a press release, this “much needed discussion comes as a response to the American Civil Liberties Union report on racial disparity arrests in the District of Columbia and how it negatively impacts the African American community.”

The report says that, in 2010, 91 percent of all marijuana-related arrests “were of African Americans, despite the National Drug Use Survey showing that there is little disparity drug use between Whites and African Americans.” Grosso, who has not only backed Councilmember Tommy Wells’ (D-Ward 6) marijuana decriminalization bill, but proposed his own marijuana legalization bill (which currently has no co-sponsors or backers), said that “the war on drugs simply has not worked. These arrests for marijuana possession, a non-violent offense affect a person’s ability to secure and maintain a job, find housing and further their education.”

The discussion will be held at the David A. Clarke School of Law at UDC, in Moot Court Room 518 (Building 52) at 5 p.m. DCist will be there and will have a report tomorrow.