Alaska Justice Forum ; Vol. 15, No. 3 (Fall 1998)

Abstract

A study of Alaska prisoners, described in the Fall 1998 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum, finds that long-term inmates in Alaska prisons show evidence of having experienced a high rate of abuse during their childhoods; the study examined the issue of a “cycle of violence” and sought out correlates of abuse which may have an impact on offense patterns or inmate behavior. A Bureau of Justice Statistics report finds that the number of prisoners under the jurisdiction of federal or state correctional systems grew 5.2 percent during 1997. An Alaska Judicial Council study of felony probation revocation cases found that the reasons for revocation of probation status for Alaska Natives did not differ from those underlying revocation for non-Native offenders, but did find some difference by ethnicity for the original conditions of probation.