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October 8, 2024

New PPI briefing highlights incarceration trends on tribal lands

Emily Widra writing at the Prison Policy Initiative has this lengthy new briefing titled "New, expanded data on Indian country jails show concerning trends extend to tribal lands." The subheading of the piece provides an overview: "In Indian country jails, populations have rebounded from pandemic lows, the detention of women and older adults is increasing, and new offense type data raise questions about why so many people are incarcerated on tribal lands."  Here is how the briefing gets started:

Native people are consistently overrepresented in the criminal legal system, accounting for only 1% of the total U.S. population but 3% of the incarcerated population.  More specifically, the national incarceration rate of Native people is between two and four times higher than that of white people.  Now, newly released data on jails in Indian country in 2023 provide more detail on this disturbing disparity: the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reports that, much like other jails across the country, Indian country jail populations are quickly bouncing back from the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this growth has disproportionately impacted women and older adults.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) collects and publishes data about jail facilities on Native land separately — and with differing kinds of details — from other locally-operated jails across the country. In this iteration of the BJS survey on Indian country jails, the bureau collected new, more detailed information about offense types that are crucial to understanding the role of jails on Native land.  They also reveal the troubling overuse of jails in response to non-criminal behaviors for youth and adults.

October 8, 2024 at 06:39 PM | Permalink

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