No reform in sight for racist Native American Prison Systems

If you were ever in suspense about it, it looks like you can relax - detention facilities in Indian country are not going to get funding for reform any time soon. The demise of two bills in the 108th Congress settles that.The neglect for Indian prisons, and Indians in the prison system, will go on despite two watershed reports in the past couple of years. The one from this year, the Office of the Inspector General for the Interior Department's ''Neither Safe Nor Secure'' report on Indian-operated detention facilities, got the most attention. It examined the federal prison system for Indians ''as run by the BIA and/or tribes.'' It was completely scathing in its assessment of these facilities, but it buried one key fact that tribal leaders later brought out: Federal funding shortfalls have made it impossible for tribes and the BIA to keep pace with basic maintenance, training and other functions at detention facilities, much less implement needed reforms. Funding for detention facility construction has fallen dramatically over the past two fiscal years, by almost 90 percent to under $2 million in fiscal year 2004.On this as on many other issues, we cannot close our eyes to the problems that plague us - but nor should we be misled by federal agencies into bashing our own people because they can't perform miracles of oversight and effectiveness without proper funding. Instead of highlighting the shortfall in federal funding, the OIG report highlighted tribes that have used casino wealth to establish their own detention facilities.But if we can't get Congress to address Indian prison reform, we can at least recognize the neglect for what it is. It is racism pure and simple. The American criminal justice system is racist. Indian detention facilities don't get the attention they need because it's easier for everyone to just lose sight of Indian prisoners, just as it was easier for years to lose sight of whole Indian nations. [more]