This year's annual Crime in Alaska report was recently released. Brad Myrstol, Justice Center Professor and Alaska Justice Information Center Director, discussed the data compiled from police agencies across the state with Anchorage Daily News.
UAA Justice Center Professor and Alaska Justice Information Center Director, Brad Myrstol, spoke with KNBA about the disproportionally high number of Alaska Native and American Indian inmates in the Alaskan and U.S. prison system.
UAA's Alaska Justice Information Center presented data from 1979 thru 2021 to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Troy C. Payne, Director of AJIC wrote "After a large increase in the mid-2010’s, motor vehicle theft has been trending down since 2018. In both trend and magnitude, Alaska is similar to the national average for property offenses. Alaska has consistently had higher-than-average rates of violence since 1993."
Mateo Jaime, a Legal Studies student, arrived at the court hearing that would, finally, end his years in custody of the Alaska Office of Children’s Services in a buoyant mood. At age 21, young adults “age out” of foster care in Alaska if they have not been adopted or reunified with parents. A judge approves it in a hearing that amounts to a grim bureaucratic formality: A child has passed into adulthood without the foster care system laying a path to permanent legal family for them, and now they are on their own.
The House on Wednesday voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act as part of its proposed $1.5 trillion spending package that includes $73.4 million for urban Indian health and $6.6 billion for Indian Health Services. Sen. Lisa Murkowski mentioned the Alaska Victimization Survey.
