SJC Exchange Library

Originally posted by Wendy Sawyer on 10/08/2024

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Indigenous People's Day is next week, and with that in mind, today Prison Policy Initiative released a new briefing that looks at the latest data on Indian Country Jails. The key takeaway from this new data: after dropping dramatically during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian country jail populations have grown significantly.
 
Importantly, from 2020 to 2023, Indian country jail populations and jail populations nationwide grew at roughly the same pace. However, a deeper dive into the data shows that from 2022 to 2023, Indian country jail populations have outpaced national jail population growth, with 7% growth compared to just 0.2% growth, respectively.
 
In addition, the data shows that several groups are seeing especially rapid growth in Indian country jails:

• In the last three years, the number of adult women in Indian country jails has grown at more than double the rate of men.
• Between 2021 and 2023, the number of people 55 and older in Indian country jails grew by 38%. This reflects similar trends nationwide.

You can find the full briefing at: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/10/08/indian-country-jails-2023/
 
Additionally, to assist in any additional work you may be doing on issues related to Native people and incarceration, here are a few topline numbers to keep in mind:

• At least 29,415 Native people are behind bars in America on any given day.
• More than 71,244 American Indian or Alaska Native people are under some form of correctional control.
• Native people are consistently overrepresented in the criminal legal system, accounting for only 1% of the total U.S. population but 3% of the incarcerated population.

Finally, I would also encourage you to visit our page focused on Native incarceration for additional data and analysis.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Wendy