{"id":36284,"date":"2023-01-16T17:58:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T00:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/natives-incarcerated-at-alarming-rates-report-shows\/"},"modified":"2023-01-17T00:58:14","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T00:58:14","slug":"natives-incarcerated-at-alarming-rates-report-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/natives-incarcerated-at-alarming-rates-report-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Natives incarcerated at alarming rates, report shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The report shows that American Indians and Alaska Natives are sentenced more harshly compared with White, African American and Hispanic people. (Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A new report released Tuesday shows that Native American people are incarcerated at rates up to seven times higher than White people in the United States.<\/p>\n

The report, \u201cOver-incarceration of Native Americans: Roots, Inequities, and Solutions\u201d was released through the MacArthur Foundation and highlights the alarming incarceration disparities can be based on race and ethnicity.<\/p>\n

Further, American Indians and Alaska Natives are overrepresented in the prison population in 19 states and are sentenced more harshly compared to White, African American and Hispanic people.<\/p>\n

The report was written by Ciara Hansen (Shawnee \/ Cherokee), Desiree Fox (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes) and Ann Miller, an attorney with the Tribal Defenders Office of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The report both highlights the inequality of the American justice system, but also highlights the progress that tribes are making to address the issue.<\/p>\n

Hansen said it was important to publish the report and it is a great step at addressing and examining the issue of over-incarceration of Native people.<\/p>\n

A new report released Tuesday shows that Native American people are incarcerated at rates up to seven times higher than White people in the United States.<\/p>\n

The report, \u201cOver-incarceration of Native Americans: Roots, Inequities, and Solutions\u201d was released through the MacArthur Foundation and highlights the alarming incarceration disparities can be based on race and ethnicity.<\/p>\n

Further, American Indians and Alaska Natives are overrepresented in the prison population in 19 states and are sentenced more harshly compared to White, African American and Hispanic people.<\/p>\n

The report was written by Ciara Hansen (Shawnee \/ Cherokee), Desiree Fox (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes) and Ann Miller, an attorney with the Tribal Defenders Office of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The report both highlights the inequality of the American justice system, but also highlights the progress that tribes are making to address the issue.<\/p>\n

Hansen said it was important to publish the report and it is a great step at addressing and examining the issue of over-incarceration of Native people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that what can be gleaned from the report is that there\u2019s lots of resilience within Native communities, and if we are to move forward in addressing kind of this mass incarceration problem as a nation, and as tribal communities, I hope that the message is that we already have a lot of resilience, and we\u2019re already doing a lot of things right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox echoed those sentiments, adding that she hopes the report also shines a light on practices some tribes have already implemented in its respective communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to communicate with this though, and I think a continuation of that is just highlighting the over reliance on a punitive system that we know doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Fox said. \u201cWe know putting people in jail and fining people who don\u2019t have money to begin with, like none of that actually works. And I think most people agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bria Gillum, a senior program officer at MacArthur, said in the news release from the foundation that the report highlights the \u201cpainful and unacceptable treatment of Native people in the criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our hope that the report contributes to the growing conversation about racial disparities in this broken system, sparks deeper collaboration between state and tribal agencies, and leads to investments in diversion services that can end this devastating cycle,\u201d Gillum said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the most serious offense for 16%t of people held in tribal jails was public intoxication and 15% were held for drug related or DUI charges, the report states. Native youths are more likely to face conviction in adult court, especially for drug-related crimes.<\/p>\n

While writing the report, Hansen said the trio of authors struggled to nail down what they thought the audience needed to hear and that they needed to provide historical context to help people understand the nuances of federal Indian law along with tribal and federal jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat part is so integral to understanding this kind of modern issue,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cOne of the reasons why people aren\u2019t more active in advocating for this change is because it\u2019s so difficult to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the tribes listed in the report which are providing innovative approaches to criminal justice systems include the Kanaitze Indian Tribe in Alaska, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in Michigan and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation In Oklahoma, among others.<\/p>\n

For example, the latter has an intensive reintegration program where \u201cservices begin pre-release and address all aspects of reentry including financial assistance, career development, culturally relevant programming, supervision, and legal counsel,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

Hill has been practicing law for more than 25 years and while she unfortunately wasn\u2019t surprised by the report\u2019s findings, one of her main takeaways is that tribes are coming up with solutions that best serve their populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw anything from tribal systems that were trying to divert people from state court to offer services and do a diversionary court to victim services in Indian Country,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThe other main takeaway was to talk about offering services to people is really the best way to try to address that cycle into the criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving forward, all three authors hope the report continues \u2014 or for some, start \u2014 the discussion on this issue.<\/p>\n

In particular, Hill says the federal government takes a deeper look at funding tribes to enhance tribal court systems and funding public defense systems particularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you\u2019re looking at improving criminal justice outcomes, that really having an in-house public defender for tribal systems is a good first step to that,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that that\u2019s one of the main takeaways, one that we\u2019re unique,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cWe have a unique history with the U.S. government and that we have a lot of resiliency that we can build from.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American people are incarcerated at rates up to seven times higher than White people in the United States<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36284"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}