Giving Compass' Take:
- The Prison Policy Initiative sheds light on the data demonstrating Native incarceration and how much of the population is in the criminal justice system.
- This data shows an overrepresentation of Indigenous populations in the criminal justice system. How is demographic data lacking and how does that impact criminal justice reform policies?
- Learn more about mass incarceration and the criminal justice system.
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Our 50 state profiles, plus one for D.C. and another for the nation as a whole, draw on graphs made from reports issued as part of our National Incarceration Briefing Series. Adding to this body of work, we’ve created a profile of Native incarceration in the United States to illuminate what data exists about the mass incarceration of Native people.
In the United States, Native people are vastly overrepresented in the criminal legal system. Native people are incarcerated in state and federal prisons at a rate of 763 per 100,000 people. This is double the national rate (350 per 100,000) and more than four times higher than the state and federal prison incarceration rate of white people (181 per 100,000). These disparities exist in jails as well, with Native people being detained in local jails at a rate of 316 per 100,000. Nationally, the incarceration rate in local jails is 192 per 100,000, and for white people, the jail incarceration rate is 157 per 100,000.
Read the full article about Native people who are incarcerated by Emily Widra at Prison Policy Initiative.