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23 Crime L. & Soc. Change 1 (1995)

handle is hein.journals/crmlsc23 and id is 1 raw text is: Crime, Law & Social Change 23: 1-16,1995. 1 0 1995 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Jailing of American Indian adolescents The legacy of cultural domination and imposed law LISA BOND-MAUPIN, CAROL CHIAGO LUJAN2 and M.A. BORTNER2 1 School of Behavioral Sciences, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, New Mexico 87701; 2 School of Justice Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA Abstract. Based on a random sample of 300 youth detained prior to trial in a Southwest- ern 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 initially; and the extreme lack of alternative resources for adolescents and families within the Indian community. Introduction The pre-trial incarceration of American Indian adolescents discloses a com- plex matrix of power relationships. Three primary dimensions include the exercise of state coercion in the incarceration of citizens, the power dif- ferentials inherent in the status of adolescents within society, and the cul- tural domination of Indian communities. The controversies surrounding the incarceration of American Indian adolescents parallel those surrounding the incarceration of all adolescents, but the unique historical and cultural con- text of Indian communities and their subordination by the dominant culture accentuate and exacerbate those controversies. Traditional U.S. ideology proclaims a presumption against incarceration, a presumption in which freedom of movement and freedom in decision making are portrayed as inalienable rights. Despite this, the United States has the highest incarceration rates within the Western World,' including the pre-trial jailing of those who have not been convicted of a crime.2 This widespread use of state power to incarcerate citizens extends to adolescents as well as adults:

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