In honor of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we are highlighting the problems of Native peoples in US prisons.
As stated by Cultural Surival – an organization that partners with indigenous peoples to defend their lands, language, and cultures – for large numbers of native Americans imprisonment is familiar way of life. Most Native people have either known life as an incarcerated prisoner or have a close family member who is imprisoned presently or has been imprisoned in the past. This contrasts sharply with the characteristic image of Indian life, which prevails in other countries, that Native Americans live close to nature and embody freedom, liberty and individuality.
There are four particularly salient issues regarding Native American incarceration:
The first – disproportionate incarceration. According to research, Native peoples account for a disproportionate number of inmates in the American prison population; a much higher percentage of Native Americans are imprisoned, per capita, than any other ethnicity except African Americans. Caused by factors such as alcoholism, poverty, the social anomie of living in two worlds, inadequate legal representation and discrimination in the criminal justice system, the Native American incarceration rate is astounding. Some of the more dramatic examples are in Hawaii, Alaska, South Dakota and Montana. In these states Indians comprise 34.7%, 31.7%, 24.9% and 15.5%, receptively, of these states’ prison populations. However, of the total populations of these states, they only comprise 18.9%, 15.9%, 6.5% and 4.7%, respectively. See Native Worship in American Prisons for more details.
The second – disrespect by the government for traditions; according to the article Native American Prisoners, this includes an institutional “color-blindess” which often fails to recognize the effects of prejudice and disregards cultural beliefs and practices.
Third – lack of access to spirituality and to home communities. As stated by Lenny Foster, Director of the Navajo Nation Corrections, “The Paramount Native American human rights problem in American prisons today is the denial of their right to practice tribal religion.” It’s believed that Native inmates face challenges that other prisoners do not because their religious needs are poorly understood. Institutional protection of the exercise of American Indian religion often fails merely because its practice looks different from other religions, and administrators perceive it as threatening to penological interests.
According to Joel West Williams, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and Staff Attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, not only do American Indian inmates have a right to practice their traditional religion; it is often their best hope for rehabilitation. He says that although American Indians inmates must often seek judicial intervention to secure their religious rights, some corrections officials have realized that traditional religious practice does not threaten penological interests. The Coconino County Jail in Arizona is one of the facilities to accommodate sweat lodges most recently. This gives inmates there hope and motivation.
And fourth – disparity between Native justice traditions and the traditional US concept of justice. Traditionally, justice in the Native community has been of a reconciliatory rather than a retributive nature. Admissions of guilt are sought in order to resolve the offense, for the sake of the community, offenders and victims alike. If a tribal member’s behavior was intolerable to the community of origin, and elder counseling, community shaming or other methods were not able to control the difficulty, exile was used as a last resort, and “meant severe hardship”.
Photo courtesy: http://prisonbooks.info/2013/09/23/native-american-inmates-in-alabama-continue-fight-over-prison-systems-rule-against-having-long-hair/
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