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The U.S. Department of Justice sponsors tribe-specific efforts to effectively address alcohol and substance abuse and crime in communities. Indian tribes, tribal communities, and native villages are creative in their approaches to address alcohol and substance abuse and crime.

The Department provides resources through its Indian country justice resources for tribal communities to raise awareness, conduct prevention and intervention programs, and develop appropriate policies dealing with alcohol and substance abuse and crime.

Tribal law enforcement reports that more than 90 percent of arrests are alcohol-related. In some tribal communities, the arrests are a small group of individuals who over tax community resources: the tribal justice systems, health and social services system, and family support systems. In other communities, tribal law enforcement experiences high violent crime and high volume of offenders. Methamphetamine use and abuse makes maintaining peace and order a difficult challenge in tribal communities.

Nationally, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports:

• Alcohol and drug use was a factor in more than half of violent crimes against American Indians. Overall, in 62 percent of American Indian violent victimizations, the victim reported that the offender was under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or both.
• About 1,240 American Indians per 100,000 of the population were arrested for alcohol violations (driving under the influence, liquor law violations, and drunkenness) compared with 623 per 100,000 of all persons.
• Arrests of American Indians youth age 17 or under had an alcohol violation arrest rate (681), nearly double that of youth of all races (362).

Several DOJ programs offer assistance in this area as do other federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Indian Health Service.

Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program

The Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program (IASAP) provides resources to American Indian and Alaska Native communities to plan, develop, implement holistic tribal justice strategies to control and prevent alcohol—and substance abuse—related crime and violence. The program established by the FY 2001 Consolidated Appropriations Act, was initiated in FY 2002 by the Bureau of Justice Assistance through a competitive application process in which federally recognized tribes could apply. Since then BJA has conducted annual competitions that have resulted in more than $27 million being awarded to support grants to 65 tribes along with the provision of technical assistance and training services provided through a consortium of organizations led by the Criminal Justice Center for Innovation at Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC), Appleton, WI. Recent highlights include these organizations collectively providing services to 750 persons representing 64 American Indian and Alaska Native communities via workshops, regional round-table trainings, and advisory meetings in which training topics covered but were not limited to comprehensive strategy development, corrections, law enforcement (interdiction and prevention), alcohol and substance abuse (interdiction and prevention), delinquency prevention, and culturally appropriate treatment strategies. FVTC also helped conduct several regional Salish Gatherings in partnership with the Lummi Nation (WA); issued 132 scholarships; and helped plan and administer the National Training Conference for Criminal Justice and Community Leaders, which was attended by 400 tribal representatives.

Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program

The Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program provides financial and technical assistance to states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and tribal governments to develop and implement treatment drug courts that effectively integrate substance abuse treatment, mandatory drug testing, sanctions and incentives, and transitional services in a judicially supervised court setting with jurisdiction over non-violent, substance-abusing offenders. Projects funded under the program are required by law to target nonviolent offenders and must implement a drug court based on defined components. The program supports drug court implementation and enhancement, and technical assistance that is administered through the National Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Program, which works to increase the knowledge and skills of drug court practitioners to plan, implement, and sustain effective drug court programs with emphasis on learning new roles, cross training, and developing a team and a coordinated strategy across justice and treatment systems.

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