juveniles

The Quiet Crisis in Native American Juvenile Justice

Statistics highlight the magnitude of the problem. Although they represent 1% of the U.S. population, Native American juveniles represent 2% to 3% of youth arrests in categories such as theft and alcohol possession. Similarly, they are committed to adult incarceration at a rate 1.84 times that of whites and are placed under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system at a rate 2.4 times that of whites. In four states with substantial Native American populations, they represent from 29% to 42% of juveniles held in secure confinement.

Read the full article by Robert Winters, JD, Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Kaplan University, at the Corrections.com website.

See related news story from the ICWA INFO website.

Native American Youth Face Antiquated Juvenile Justice System

A 1938 law sweeps American Indian and Alaska Native youth into the federal criminal justice system when they commit anything beyond misdemeanor crimes. Although American Indians comprise little more than 1 percent of the nation’s population, one 10-year study found that at any given time 43-to-60 percent of juveniles held in federal custody were American Indian, a wildly disproportionate number…
Read the rest of this story at the Rocky Mountain News PBS website.