Among those who do enter the criminal justice system, a disproportionately high number are people of color. In 2010, the BJS found that for every 100,000 Americans, 380 inmates are white, while 2.5 times that many (966) are Latino. A whopping 2,207 are black -- nearly six times as many black Americans are incarcerated as their Caucasian counterparts. Is it any wonder, then, that America's minority communities express such little faith in the fairness of US legal institutions? In a nation that incorporated structural racism into its social system for nearly a century -- after hundreds of years of slavery -- are you really surprised that people of color have historically distrusted the legal system?

Artificial intelligence might soon become a standard part of criminal justice proceedings. If used carefully, the technology might make fairer decisions about the length of prison sentences, determine which police officers to deploy and could also churn through body-worn camera footage, a senior White House adviser said Tuesday. Lynn Overmann, senior adviser within the Office of Science and Technology and co-leader of the White House Police Data Initiative, described the potential role of, and challenges associated with, artificial intelligence in the criminal justice system. She spoke at the second of four workshops co-hosted by the White House about the technology's ability to help the public and the government. The 2.2 million people incarcerated today overrepresent minorities, those with mental health issues and those with substance abuse problems, Overmann said. Data analytics and artificial intelligence could help reduce biases in the criminal justice system, but only if they account for biases in the data they incorporate.