Tribal Justice

This webinar will discuss how being aware and educated about the culture of individuals on supervision can improve the job performance of probation officers, the challenges and barriers that may exist, particularly for non-tribal probation officers, in learning about tribal culture, and identify strategies probation officers working in American Indian/Alaska Native communities can use to learn about the culture of the tribe(s) they frequently work with.

This webinar highlighted key points from the article published in Federal Probation

Kimberly Cobb responded to 9 requests for office based technical assistance during the reporting period. These requests were related to CTAS grant reviews, supervision forms, information sharing and national criminal justice databases, HIPPA guidance specific to treatment and probation, a Tribal/State Summit, and PO job descriptions.

The new project director for the Bristol Bay Native Association Reentry Initiative, Ralph Andrews, contacted APPA on August 21, 2015 to share he had replaced Kimberly Martus and was working to move the project forward. Tribal TTA partners Fox Valley Technical College and the Center for Court Innovation were contacted to coordinate (since Ralph had reached out to each of us for assistance). Since August, this TTA team has 6 calls to coordinate technical assistance in preparation for virtual and onsite technical assistance delivery in early 2016.

The Nez Perce Tribe requested onsite technical assistance to provide training to her new tribal probation officers as well as an refresher training to her seasoned officers on motivational interviewing, evidence based practices, interviewing and report writing, domestic violence, and case planning.

Each year Tanana Chiefs Conference, in partnership with the National Judicial College and University of Alaska, hosts the Alaska Tribal Court Development Conference where basic tribal court development and current topics are discussed. The Conference is intended to provide information to tribes just beginning tribal court development, for tribes that want to enhance or make modifications to their courts, and for tribes pursuing on-going tribal court information specific to Alaska.

The Center for Court Innovation (CCI) reached out to TLPI to assist on a TA request they received from the Wisconsin DOJ. The state is starting a Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee that includes several different disciplines across state and tribal jurisdictional lines. CCI requested TLPI's involvement because of our expertise in the collaboration amongst tribal-state court judges.

The 46th Annual National Tribal Judicial and Court Personnel Conference, hosted by the National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA), included a panel entitled "Tribal Juvenile Code Development (Juvenile Delinquency and Status Offenses." The panel focuses on the recently published "Juvenile Justice--Guide for Drafting or Revising Tribal Delinquency and Status Offense Law" code resource, developed by the Tribal Law and Policy Institute (TLPI).

Project TEAM used funds from our BJA grant to pay for Judges Suzanne Kingsbury and Christine Williams and Jackie Davenport, Court Administrator, to attend and present at the Tribal Law and Policy Institute's Healing to Wellness Court training in September in Albuquerque, NM. the National Criminal Justice Association through Cabell Cropper paid for the Alaska delegation to attend and present at the training.

Project Partner's Kick-off Meeting between IACP, BJA, Urban Institute, and AEquitas.