Incarceration

Three paintings that are part of Roger Shimomura’s “Minidoka on My Mind” series will be on display in a special section of the Whitney Western Art Museum this winter.

Nationally, Native American people experience disproportionately high rates of recidivism. The Northern Arapaho reentry agency is intended to fight that trend on the Wind River Reservation.

After touring a museum and looking at original barracks as part of a field trip to the World War II-era Japanese-American confinement site, Shuko Yoshikami shared how we can get to know one another and avoid mistakes of the past.

A new report reveals the full picture of correctional control across the United States, including incarceration, probation and parole. Rates of incarceration and supervision vary widely across the Mountain West.

Imprisonment rates are markedly higher in communities of color across the U.S., according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit group that advocates for criminal justice reform. And its work to spotlight what it calls “the geography of mass incarceration” has recently focused on parts of the Mountain West.

A federal judge in Nevada has ruled that a law that further penalizes those who re-enter the U.S. after deportation is unconstitutional. Section 1326 says if you were denied entry to the U.S. or were deported at some point, that law makes entering the U.S. a felony. The Nevada judge says it violates the U.S. Constitution because of its racist, anti-Mexican origins. The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing this decision.

Willy Pepion had a cracked skull, and guards at the federal jail on the Blackfeet Reservation dismissed his pleas for help. He died in his cell. Three hours went by until anyone noticed.

"The corrections officers are basically holding these lives in their hands with their decisions."

The National Congress of American Indians has urged the federal government to place medical personnel in its tribal jails, arguing that the current situation "exacerbates the already challenging problem of health disparities for American Indians."

After months of repeated written questions and public records requests from NPR and the Mountain West News Bureau, Interior Department officials said they now plan to contract with an outside agency to examine the troubles plaguing tribal detention centers.