Report: JDAI Sites Must Do Better for Native American Youth

Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive® (JDAI) sites across the coun­try must reeval­u­ate their assump­tions and process­es to safe­ly reduce deten­tion of Native Amer­i­can youth says a new report by the Asso­ci­a­tion on Amer­i­can Indi­an Affairs.

Released in con­junc­tion with Native Amer­i­can Her­itage Month, the report reviews how JDAI sites cur­rent­ly iden­ti­fy and respond to Native Amer­i­can youth, high­light­ing both areas in need of improve­ment and promis­ing efforts.

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion fund­ed report — Exam­in­ing How JDAI Sites Inter­act with Native Youth and Tribes — is based on a 2016 sur­vey and inter­views con­duct­ed by the Asso­ci­a­tion on Amer­i­can Indi­an Affairs. Sites were asked to iden­ti­fy Native Amer­i­can youth and whether or not they had col­lab­o­rat­ed with trib­al gov­ern­ments and trib­al juve­nile jus­tice staff to pro­vide cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate alter­na­tives to detention.

This research revealed two key areas of concern:

1. A lack of reli­able process­es for iden­ti­fy­ing and col­lect­ing data on Native Amer­i­can youth; and
2. A lack of out­reach to tribes to: 
   • col­lect infor­ma­tion on a youth’s sta­tus as a cit­i­zen or mem­ber of a tribe;
   • pro­vide notice to the tribe of a young person’s offens­es; and
   • deter­mine whether there are cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate ser­vices available.

The survey’s find­ings are con­sis­tent with data indi­cat­ing that juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems across the coun­try are fail­ing Native Amer­i­can youth. These youth are detained at dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly high­er rates than any oth­er racial or eth­nic group. They also have the high­est rate of detain­ment for sta­tus offens­es, drug offens­es and tech­ni­cal vio­la­tions of pro­ba­tion and face a high risk of sub­stance abuse and sui­cide as well as sus­pen­sion and expul­sion from school.

Casey Foun­da­tion Senior Asso­ciate David E. Brown says the report’s find­ings serve as an impor­tant call to action for JDAI sites. ​“As we at the Foun­da­tion have increased our empha­sis on race and equi­ty, equi­ty for Native youth in juve­nile jus­tice has been a blind spot for us and many of the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems with which we work. Now we know bet­ter, and lead­ers in the field are show­ing us how to do better.”

One such leader is Shan­non Keller O’Loughlin, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Asso­ci­a­tion on Amer­i­can Indi­an Affairs and one of the report’s pri­ma­ry authors. While there are a few JDAI sites engaged in emerg­ing best prac­tices, O’Loughlin notes that most sites lack con­sis­tent and cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate pro­to­cols to col­lect robust data on Native Amer­i­can youth and to con­nect these youth with cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate alter­na­tives to deten­tion — two core tenets of JDAI.

To help JDAI sites address these con­cerns, the report offers con­crete rec­om­men­da­tions, including:

• Devel­op­ing uni­form and con­sis­tent pro­to­cols for iden­ti­fy­ing Native Amer­i­can youth by trib­al affiliation;
• Estab­lish­ing noti­fi­ca­tion pro­to­cols for inform­ing tribes when a Native Amer­i­can youth enters the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem; and
• Edu­cat­ing staff on the unique issues fac­ing Native Amer­i­can youth and the avail­abil­i­ty of cul­tur­al­ly rel­e­vant alter­na­tives to detention.

JDAI sites in Ari­zona, Mon­tana, New Mex­i­co and Wash­ing­ton are pur­su­ing some of these rec­om­men­da­tions. For exam­ple, Arizona’s Native Amer­i­can Youth Col­lab­o­ra­tive pro­vides guid­ance on iden­ti­fy­ing Native Amer­i­can youth and con­nect­ing them with cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate ser­vices. New Mex­i­co requires trib­al noti­fi­ca­tion in all juve­nile jus­tice pro­ceed­ings where a youth may be detained — and it is the only state in the nation to do so. And in Sno­homish Coun­ty, Wash­ing­ton, court staff and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners par­tic­i­pate in cul­tur­al aware­ness train­ing, which high­lights the impor­tance of pro­vid­ing appro­pri­ate ser­vices to Native Amer­i­can youth.

The prac­tices being imple­ment­ed at these sites, along with efforts already under­way at two trib­al JDAI loca­tions — the Mis­sis­sip­pi Band of Choctaw Indi­ans and the Pueblo of Isle­ta near Albu­querque, New Mex­i­co — are start­ing points for JDAI sites across the coun­try to scru­ti­nize their work with Native Amer­i­can youth and to com­mit to doing better.

Read Exam­in­ing How JDAI Sites Inter­act with Native Youth and Tribes