Andrea Joy Campbell: “today I, along with Senators Inouye and Domenici, introduce legislation which will reform the existing Native American…”

“today I, along with Senators Inouye and Domenici, introduce legislation which will reform the existing Native American Pass-Through Program administered by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention [OJJDP], within the Department of Justice, and will create a grant program that will provide direct funding to eligible tribes for the purpose of addressing juvenile justice needs in Indian country. Juvenile delinquency is an enormous problem faced by both State and tribal governments. A February 1997 report, issued by OJJDP, indicated that law enforcement agencies around the country made an estimated 2.7 million arrests in 1995 of persons under age 18. This accounted for 18 percent of all arrests made during that year. OJJDP also reported that while the total number of juvenile arrests for violent crimes decreased in 1995, the total number of arrests is considerably higher than they were in 1992 and 67 percent higher than the 1986 level. Unfortunately, there are no complete and accurate sets of statistics available on the rate of juvenile delinquency among the American Indian and Alaskan Native population as a whole. In spite of this, I think it is fair and accurate to say that the threat of an increased rate of juvenile delinquency is great in Indian country due to the large and growing population of Indian youth under the age of 18.”