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Legislative panel to study Indian issues
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
Aug. 1, 2002
By Chet Brokaw, Associated Press Writer
PIERRE -- A legislative panel has agreed to study a wide range of alleged
problems in the way American Indians are treated in South Dakota's prisons
and county jails.
The State-Tribal Relations Committee decided Wednesday to study the prison
issue after two women told the panel that Indian inmates commit suicide at
high rates and are treated unfairly in state prisons.
"There's something wrong inside of there, and somebody needs to have a heart
to look," Marletta Pacheco of Rapid City, who lost a nephew to
suicide in the Sioux Falls prison, said.
The committee also agreed to study what state and tribal governments have
done to prepare for coordinating their
responses to emergencies, such as tornadoes or terrorist attacks.
The panel will hold a couple of hearings later this year to gather
information on its study topics. It then will submit a report to the full
Legislature.
Webster Two Hawk, state commissioner of tribal-government relations, said
Indians make up 8 percent of South Dakota's population but that 23 percent of
the male prison inmates are Indians. More than 35 percent of the state's
female prison inmates are Indians, he said.
Rep. Stan Adelstein,
R-Rapid City, said South Dakota has a much higher percentage of Indian
inmates than North Dakota does. Indian inmates also commit suicide at a much
higher rate than other inmates do, he said.
"Something is wrong," Adelstein said.
Pacheco said her nephew, Leighton Rich, died in prison a year ago but said
the family has been unable to get much information from prison officials.
"They found him hanging in his cell, and they said he committed suicide," she
said. "It just loads you up with a thousand questions, and you have no
answers because the institution is a closed place."
Pacheco said she believes more must be done to provide mental-health services
to prison inmates. Indian prisoners also complain about their treatment in
prison, she said.
Twylla Turney of Kadoka, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said she has
filed a lawsuit because her son committed suicide in the Bennett County Jail.
Inmates in prisons and jails are not given the treatment they need, she said.
Turney said she is setting up a suicide-prevention program on the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation.
The legislative committee considered a plan to study ways of attracting more
businesses to Indian reservations, but the proposal was rejected after
lawmakers could not agree on how to approach the problem.
The committee will hear a report later this year on efforts to get nursing
homes or assisted-living centers built on Indian reservations.
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