Indian Law and Order Commission Report: A Roadmap for Making Native America Safer

Description

American Indian and Alaska Native communities and lands are frequently less safe-and sometimes dramatically more dangerous-than most other places in our country. Ironically, the U.S. government, which has a trust responsibility for Indian Tribes, is fundamentally at fault for this public safety gap. Federal government policies have displaced and diminished the very institutions that are best positioned to provide trusted, accountable, accessible, and cost-effective justice in Tribal communities. The Federal government exercises substantial criminal jurisdiction on reservations. As a result, Native people-including juveniles-frequently are caught up in a wholly nonlocal justice system. This system was imposed on Indian nations without their consent in the late 19th century and is remarkably unchanged since that time. The system is complex, expensive, and simply cannot provide the criminal justice services that Native communities expect and deserve.