As a longtime Indigenous rights attorney, Gabe Galanda has seen it again and again. Native American kids find themselves accused of minor crimes, yet they’re given no off-ramp to avoid jail, and they become trapped in the juvenile justice system until they end up as adults in a Washington prison.

“It’s rinse-repeat,” Galanda says.

That’s why Galanda, a citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribe, and other advocates for Native Americans, say it’s important for the state to provide alternatives to jail for those arrested at a young age.

Those alternatives, called diversion programs, can be agreed upon by prosecutors in each county, and they may involve sending youth to programs like anger management or therapy.

But in Washington, white children are much more likely to be offered these additional chances than Native American or Black children. A report released this year by the Washington Center for Court Research, a state-funded court research group, finds Native American and Black youths statewide are the least likely of their peers to be offered a path out of the justice system, while white children are most likely to be offered a break. And while chances of being offered diversion drops precipitously after the first offense for all races, that’s particularly true for Native American youths, who are the least likely to be offered diversion when they have two or more offenses, the report found.

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