Implications of Identification

Many studies conclude that American Indians are arrested and incarcerated at a higher-than-average rate, and that they are sentenced to longer and harsher punishment. For example, one estimate places the "Native American incarceration [rate]...about 38% higher than the national rate" (Jamaal Bell, “Mass Incarceration: A Destroyer of People of Color and Their Communities”, Huffington Post 2010.) The US Commission on Civil Rights attributes this high rate to "differential treatment by the criminal justice system, lack of access to adequate counsel and racial profiling." These findings are in line with the widely accepted recognition that racial and ethnic minorities face unique disadvantages--disadvantages that their white counterparts do not face--in the criminal justice system. 

However, in truth, it is extremely difficult to estimate the magnitude of discrimination against American Indians within the US criminal justice system because of issues of identification and classification. According to the 2013 census, 5.3% of the Arizona population identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native alone. So, this number is not going to encompass the 2.6% of people in Arizona who identify as two or more races nor is it going to encompass the people who don't answer the race question. From what I can find, those who answer "some other race" is around 11-13%, which is significant. It is not known how many of these 11-13% are of American Indian ancestry. Also, 30.3% of Arizonans identify as Hispanic or Latino, but the census notes that "Hispanics may be of any race, so also are included in applicable race categories." This could alter numbers since some people with some American Indian heritage may identify as Hispanic, depending on their dominant identity or primary language. The race that someone chooses to identify as may not match the race with which others--jurors, prosecutors, police officers--identify them. There is also potential that within the self-identification process, inmates may choose to mark a race that they would not normally identify with because they believe they will get a certain benefit or avoid a certain disadvantage by being categorized according to a certain race, or because they do not understand or otherwise reject the classification system. 

The Arizona Department of Corrections claims that 5.1% of the Arizona prison population self-identifies as "Native Indian." However, if you look at the incarceration rate that encompasses all correctional facilities in Arizona (federal prisons, jails, halfway houses,etc.)—not all of which use the same “Native Indian” language in race classification, and use other descriptors in its place—this percentage jumps to 10% (Prison Policy Initiative 2014). 

The truth is that we can make estimates about the number of incarcerated American Indians in comparison to the overall population of American Indians and Arizonans, but these estimates are widely complicated by a number of external factors, and may be largely inaccurate.