August 26, 2025
New research highlights the disparities Black juvenile defendants face in fines from Allegheny County judges.
New light is being shed on the disparities in fines Black juvenile defendants face from Allegheny County magisterial district judges.
Between 2023 and 2024, Allegheny County magisterial district judges ordered children ages 5 to 17 to pay over $190,000 in citation fines, WESA reported. During that time, Black juvenile defendants were fined nearly twice as much as their white peers, data from the Pennsylvania Office of Administrative Courts showed.
Reporters investigating the issue observed court proceedings in nearly a dozen Allegheny County jurisdictions, where waiting rooms were often overcrowded and disproportionately filled with students and families of color, even in majority-white districts. Judge Bruce Boni, who serves McKees Rocks and Stowe Township, acknowledged what he called the “baked-in” racial disparities of the criminal justice system, but said the solution starts with examining how schools and police choose to issue citations.
“There’s only so much a court can do because, again, we are responsive [in nature],” Boni said.
Pennsylvania judges can fine students up to $300. Still, Magisterial District Judge Leah Williams Duncan, one of 46 elected in Allegheny County and the only Black woman among them, said she rarely imposes the maximum penalty.
“We’re already addressing students who have behavioral issues or mental health issues,” she said. “And the resources that are at my disposal to assess a monetary fine — just to me, it makes absolutely no sense.”
A deeper analysis of records from 20 Allegheny County school districts found they issued 934 student citations over three years, excluding truancy cases. Among the citations, nearly one in five went to Black girls, despite Black girls making up only one in 20 students in those districts each year.
Highlands High School graduate Olivia was fined $482.60 just before finishing her senior year after receiving a citation for fighting at school. During the 2022–2023 school year, Highlands police issued 105 student citations; 28 of these, or about 27%, were issued to Black girls.
“It feels like being Black at a white school district, you feel targeted about a lot of things,” Olivia said. “They point you out for everything. And every little thing, every little mess up you do, it’s like you’re targeted.”
The disproportionate use of school citations extends beyond Allegheny County. A 2023 U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that Black girls were referred to law enforcement at school at three times the rate of white girls. That same year, Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Plan showed that while just one in seven youth in the state are Black, they made up nearly a third of all youth arrests.
Olivia’s mother, Pauline McKnight, arranged a monthly payment plan with the court to cover the $482.60 her daughter owed. The cost forced Olivia to skip prom, a sacrifice McKnight, a fellow Highlands High School graduate, hopes will inspire her daughter and other young Black women to stand together and steer clear of becoming victims of a flawed justice system.
“I really would love togetherness, especially with these girls of color, to try to unite and be one,” McKnight said. “It’s not going to be with the school. It’s going to have to come from little old me, and helping these girls grow and mature and know that we carry ourselves well,” she said.
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