Robert Winters: Quiet crisis faces Native youth in justice system

There is a crisis facing the criminal justice system serving Native American youth. The general public has no idea of the challenges facing this group, but when President Barack Obama convened the White House Tribal Nations Conference in November 2013, one of the four major topics on the agenda was violent crime.

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. The alcohol-related death rate among Native American youth stands at 17 times the national rate. Their suicide rate is triple the national average among males aged 15 to 24. Their high school dropout rate is the highest of any racial group. While at first glance these numbers are bad enough, what makes them even harsher is the fact that the Native American population is a relatively young one: according to the Indian Health Service, in 2008 the median age of the Native American population was 28.0 years versus 35.3 years for the U.S. population as a whole. This means these issues impact a relatively larger portion of the total Native American population.

A look at Native American demographics paints a picture of the source of these sobering numbers. The Native American poverty rate is the country’s second highest at 21% in 2004, behind only to African-Americans at 23% and nearly triple the 8% rate among whites. The high school dropout rate in 2006 was half again the national average at 29.1% compared to 19.6%. Conversely, the baccalaureate degree completion rate is less than half the national rate: 11.5% versus 24.4%. Finally, Native Americans are most likely to suffer from crime, with victimization rates higher than any other U.S. racial group: in 2002 among youth 12 to 17, the rates were 45 per 1,000 for Asians, 95 for whites, and 97 for African-Americans, but 145 among Native Americans. Experts believe that 200,000 Native Americans under age 19 suffer “serious emotional disturbances”—a rate of 10%.