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Freelance reporter presents data showing Native Americans jailed at far higher rates; CJCC hears jail statistics and staffing challenges
Summary
Sid Schwartz, a freelance reporter with the Sawyer County Record, told the Sawyer County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council that six months of jail reports show Native American inmates averaged 37.8 people — about 66% of the jail population — and that Native Americans are incarcerated at a rate 10.4 times higher than whites, based on his calculations using 2020 Census figures.
Sid Schwartz, a freelance reporter with the Sawyer County Record, told the Sawyer County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council that six months of jail reports show Native American inmates averaged 37.8 people — about 66% of the county jail population — and that his calculations using 2020 U.S. Census population figures produced an incarceration rate for Native Americans of 13.1 per 1,000 population, or 10.4 times the rate for whites.
"If Native Americans were incarcerated the same rate as whites, the jail would have an average of 4 Native American inmates, not 38," Schwartz said, summarizing his findings and the method he used to compare jail counts with county population figures.
The council heard that the sheriff’s office reported February’s average daily jail population at 55 inmates: 13 females and 42 males. The jail report read to the council listed 12 inmates in custody on probation-related holds (about 22% of the population), 32 in pre-sentence detention (about 58%), and 11 sentenced inmates (about 20%). The report also noted three inmates on electronic monitoring on the day the report was generated.
Council members and staff discussed ways to put arrest and booking data into context. A representative of the sheriff’s office told the council that the county’s weekly online booking reports identify the arresting agency and charges and that the jail receives bookings from four law-enforcement agencies in the county, including the Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) Police Department and the city of Hayward. The sheriff’s office agreed to compile a 12-month summary of arresting agencies for the council’s next meeting.
Speakers noted that a portion of current jail occupants are probation holds or pre-sentence detainees rather than newly arrested people. Council members suggested separating out those categories when analyzing racial disparities to better understand drivers of incarceration counts.
Members also raised the shortage of legal counsel in the region. One CJCC member said the county has budgeted about $95,000 for a public defender contract but had received no applicants; the group authorized a no-cost one-year grant extension while the county continues to recruit. Council members discussed practical steps such as broader marketing and outreach to law schools to attract attorneys to northern Wisconsin.
Schwartz told the council he plans to continue reporting and to contact tribal leadership for comment; council members said the CJCC and county should be the forum for discussing data that appear in public reporting. The MOU between Sawyer County and Lac Courte Oreilles — which the county and the tribe use to coordinate criminal-justice efforts and which Schwartz said included a $50,000 tribal contribution — was noted as being on the council agenda for renewal and review.
The council did not take formal action on the data Schwartz presented, but members directed staff to gather additional arrest/booking breakdowns by arresting agency for the coming meeting and to continue the MOU discussion.
Ending: Council members said they want future meetings to include clearer, consistent data points (for example, booking agency and reason for custody such as probation hold) so the CJCC and the public can better evaluate racial disproportionality and operational drivers in the jail population.
