Jailing of American Indian adolescents

Based on a random sample of 300 youth detained prior to trial in a Southwestern Indian Community, this paper analyzes the pre-trial incarceration of American Indian adolescents. It discusses two major similarities between the detention of adolescents in this Indian community and the detention of adolescents nationwide, including the minimalization of the potentially deleterious effects of incarcerating adolescents and the detention of minor offenders. It also emphasizes divergences between the detention of adolescents in the Indian community and the detention of adolescents nationwide: a much higher rate of detention and recidivism on the reservation; the multiplicity of legal jurisdictions to which Indian adolescents are subject; administration of the reservation detention facilities by Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) personnel with minimal training in adolescent services; the unique power of BIA police to determine unilaterally who will be detained initialy; and the extreme lack of alternative resources for adolescents and families within the Indian community.