Tribal Justice

Chia Halpern provided to CTAS grantees (at the CTAS orientation) the TLPI generated chart that tracks which tribes have enacted: Tribal Law and Order Act Enhanced Sentencing (TLOA ESA)and/or Violence Against Women Act Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction (VAWA SDVCJ). Chia discussed the TA services that TLPI provides in conjunction with the National Congress of American Indians for the Intertribal Technical Assistance Working Group (ITWG) for tribes implementing or preparing to implement VAWA SDVCJ.

Kelly Stoner presented information on assisting Indian tribes in developing and promoting state, local, and tribal legislation and policies that enhance best practices for responding to violent crimes against Indian women, including the crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and stalking. This included a discussion on VAWA Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction over non-Indians.

Jerry Gardner, Kelly Stoner and Chia Halpern assisted the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) with planning and facilitating the sixth in-person Intertribal Technical Assistance Working Group (ITWG) meeting at the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona.

Delivery of a 1.5 hour self-paced, interactive online training titled Safeguarding Children of Arrested Parents

Maintenance and delivery of Child Sex Trafficking: A Training Series for Frontline Officers, an online training for law enforcement that was developed under a different grant that ended in 2015. This project is now continuing to offer the training to the BJA task forces and other law enforcement working on human trafficking.

Jerry Gardner presented TA updates and information on TLOA/VAWA at this training coordinated by the Center for Court Innovation in New York.

The California Tribal-State Court Forum held a meeting in Los Angeles on June 9 2016 and requested TLPI to provide a presentation on National Level collaboration. Jerry Gardner presented to the group.

To address the increasing demand for technical assistance and increasing capacity and programmatic variety of model projects around the country, Center staff propose to re-compete membership in the community court mentor network selected in 2014. This would include issuing a new solicitation for up to five mentor courts – model programs that can provide tailored peer-to-peer technical assistance and host their own site visits. All network members would receive guidance from the Center about hosting site visits, collecting data, incorporating evidence-based practices, etc.

The core Healing to Wellness Court consultant team, which meets twice a month via teleconference, met in person to discuss major grant goals and objectives, discuss emerging Healing to Wellness Court issues as ascertained from onsite technical assistance visits, plan the agenda for the Enhancement Training, and plan goals for the future of Healing to Wellness Courts. Core Wellness Court consultants included Carrie Garrow, Charlene Jackson, Donna Humetewa Kaye, Korey Whawassuck, and Mark Panasiewicz.

The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUS) contacted the Tribal Law and Policy Institute requesting information for planning and operating a Juvenile Healing to Wellness Court.