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Tribal jurisdiction over social and minor crimes: The only feasible resolution for institutional racism in Alaskan criminal law enforcement.

Polta, Catherine E.
June 4, 2015

Source: (2014) Georgetown journal of law & modern critical race perspectives.6:273-284.

Alaska Natives face well-documented impediments to criminal justice and village
public safety.’ Federal, state, and non-governmental investigative committees consistently report systemic racial injustice. Recommendations universally support localization of governance, either by enabling existing tribal entities to self-help or by extending the mechanisms of the State into rural communities. Despite over forty
years of academic consensus, Alaska’s racial injustice persists largely unremitted.
Failure to adequately address the sources and symptoms of racial disparity is in part a factor of changing political administrations, evolving resource considerations, and
competition between state and federal legal regimes. Remedial measures undertaken
by the State suffer from chronic underfunding; meanwhile, tribal entities lack the
resources or legal authority to engage in self-help. Geographic and cultural barriers
exacerbate insufficient resources and obstruct necessary reform. (excerpt)

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