The criminal justice system on Indian reservations is so fundamentally broken that it requires a restructuring of police forces, jurisdiction, prosecutors, courts and jails. Systems designed in the 1800s to protect whites against marauding Indians are totally failing to protect reservation residents from violent crime.

National Public Radio recently ran an excellent series on the number of Indian women raped by non-Indians. One in three were victimized during their lifetime, most by non-Indians, and very few cases were ever prosecuted, or even investigated.

Police forces are entirely inadequate, whether managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or by the tribes. The core competency of the BIA is not running police departments. Though the Justice Department is currently in low regard, it does have a long tradition of successfully running the FBI.

If a new agency were created within the Justice Department, say the Indian Bureau of Investigation, or IBI, it could have the focus to reduce crime on the reservation. It would need considerable resources, and a tax on gambling casino operators could be a source of additional revenue. Tribes with effective police departments of their own should get subsidies for more officers and cooperation from the IBI.

But the additional officers will not be effective without jurisdiction. The IBI officers should have the same jurisdiction as the FBI – the ability to arrest suspects, Indian or non-Indian, on reservation or off. Their jurisdiction should extend to major crimes on or off the reservation – and to misdemeanors on the reservation. Tribal officers, who undergo substantial training and testing, should be deputized by the IBI, inheriting the same broad jurisdiction.

Next we come to the question of prosecutors and courts. U.S. attorneys, even before the current politicization of the Department, were focused on issues of non-Indians. Usually they are based in urban centers some distance from reservations. The assistants in their offices don’t see prosecuting reservation cases as a career move within the Justice Department, or a step to lucrative private practice. Much the same could be said of federal judges, who have little time for criminal cases from Indian reservations.

A single county in New York state, Manhattan, has its own federal court district, with its own U.S. attorney, assistant U.S. attorneys and U.S. district judges. It is styled as the Southern District of New York. Across the East River, the borough of Brooklyn is styled as the Eastern District of New York. But in the states where most Indians live, there is generally only one federal court district centered on the state capital.

Separate federal court districts should be created to cover the Indian reservations. Perhaps there should be one for the Southwest, and others for the Northwest, mountain states, northern plains, southern plains, Midwest and Northeast. For example, the “Federal District Court for the Native American Areas of the Southwest” would have its own U.S. attorney, assistant U.S. attorneys, federal magistrates and U.S. district judges. It could have headquarters in Window Rock on the expansive Navajo Nation, and satellite facilities throughout the reservations of Arizona and New Mexico.

The prosecutors would be focused exclusively on reducing crime for Native Americans. The judges would devote their entire calendars to crimes against reservation residents. The jury pools in these districts would be almost entirely Native American. This would be a strong warning to non-Indians accustomed to committing crimes against Indians with impunity.

Finally, it is all for nothing unless there is a place to put the bad guys. Jail overcrowding is so bad on the Navajo Nation and other reservations, that they are on a catch and release basis for most crimes. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons should be tasked with solving the problem. It could build new jails in support of the new court districts, or it could contract with nearby local jurisdictions or private contractors to provide the needed jail space.

This extensive overhaul would not be cheap or easy. But it is required in a very fundamental sense to provide “equal protection of the laws” to our Native American population, and end this blight on our national honor.