How parole requirements work against indigenous people

Talk Poverty - When Benny Lacayo was released from prison after two and a half years, he had a rough time transitioning. “To try to reconnect, and gain that humanity back, that’s very hard,” he reflected. Reentry was an emotionally overwhelming experience, and the myriad requirements of his parole — and lack of support from the state — made his transition more difficult. Probation and parole typically restrict where someone can live and work, who they can socialize with, where they can travel, and more. People must also regularly report to a supervising officer. “[Probation or parole officers] are trained to help in a certain way, and the way they’re trained doesn’t help,” he says. “[It can] cause more problems and conflict and cause you not to seek help.”

Lacayo is one of the 4.5 million people on probation or parole on any given day in the U.S., almost twice as many people as are currently incarcerated. Community supervision is often thought of as a positive alternative to incarceration. But for many, the strict requirements and intense surveillance turn it into “a secondary form of incarceration,” says Amy Sings in the Timber, an attorney and executive director of the Montana Innocence Project. The consequences for not adhering to the conditions of parole are harsh: A quarter of state prison admissions nationwide are a result of technical violations such as failing a drug test or missing a meeting with a probation or parole officer. “In many instances, in our client populations, there are survival tactics that are criminalized,” reflects Sings in the Timber.

The issue is acute in rural states such as Montana, and disproportionately impacts tribal communities. Native Americans account for 6.5 percent of Montana’s population, but represent 20 percent of the population in men’s prisons and 34 percent of the population in women’s prisons. An ACLU report found that between 2010 and 2017, 81 percent of Native Americans in Montana who were reincarcerated while on probation were charged with a technical violation, not a new crime. More