Tribal Justice and Safety In Indian Country

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The National Tribal Justice Resources Center (Resource Center) is the central clearinghouse of information about American Indian and Alaska Native tribal justice systems. Programs and services developed by the Resource Center are offered to all tribal justice system personnel whether they are working witha formalized tribal courts or with traditional tribal dispute resolution forums. The Resource Center provides assistance such as a free searchable national database of tribal court opinions and training. For more information contact its Helpline at 1-877-97NTJRC.
National Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Program (NDCTTAP) is a training initiative that helps communities develop effective adult, juvenile, family, and tribal drug court programs. Communities interested in planning a drug court program are encouraged to register for NDCTTAP. This site provides communities participating in NDCTTAP training programs with resource materials that enhance the NDCTTAP training experience. Training resources contained herein are provided as supplements to the materials obtained at each NDCTTAP training program.
Training and Technical Assistance for Indian Nation Juvenile Justice Systems - This program seeks to increase the capacity of tribal governments to provide adequate and appropriate juvenile justice responses to youth crime, violence, and victimization. The goal of this ongoing technical assistance program is to help equip tribal governments with the necessary information and tools to develop or enhance comprehensive, systemwide approaches to reduce juvenile delinquency, violence, and victimization and to increase the safety of their communities. Types of technical assistance have included juvenile justice and detention needs assessments and program reviews, development of community-based alternatives to incarceration, training on indigenous justice approaches, and seminars on comprehensive juvenile justice planning.
Training and Technical Assistance for Children's Justice Act (CJA) Grantees - The Tribal Law and Policy Institute provides comprehensive, skills-building training and technical assistance to eligible tribes and tribal organizations that receive funding under the Children's Justice Act program. The goal of the project is to assist Children's Justice Act Partnerships for Indian Communities (CJA) grantees in meeting the objectives of their grant programs and in improving the handling of child victim cases through the provision of culturally relevant training and technical assistance services. Primary objectives are to create demonstration projects in Indian communities to improve the investigation, prosecution, and handling of child abuse cases, especially cases of child sexual abuse; assist in the identification, explanation, and dissemination of information concerning promising practices that have been developed by these programs in a manner that will allow other Indian communities to replicate the successes of these demonstration programs; and design, develop, and disseminate culturally relevant training and technical assistance resource materials for CJA grantees.
Tribal Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program - Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) will continue to support CASA programs in Indian country. Court Appointed Special Advocates are appointed by the court to represent a child victim's best interests in child abuse and neglect cases. OVC funding will support four demonstration programs (to be competitively selected), attendance of CASA staff at the National CASA conference, training and technical assistance, and development of guidelines for all 14 tribal CASA programs. For information on CASA resources for Indian tribes, call 1-800-805-6027 or visit the web site at Tribal Court CASA Project.
Tribal Court Bench Book for Domestic Violence Cases - The Tribal Court Bench Book is a general guideline with recommendations to help tribal courts deal with domestic violence cases. It is arranged into three sections: Pre-Trial, Trial, and Post-Trial. The Bench Book is the result of a year-long process to which tribal judges devoted many hours of personal time. That effort has created a unique legal guide on domestic violence by tribal court judges for tribal court judges.
Healing to Wellness Courts: A Preliminary Overview of Tribal Drug Courts - This paper shows how the drug court concept is consistent with traditional Native American tribal concepts of justice and how it can be adapted to meet the specific needs of individual Native American communities.
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: Program Development Guide - Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: Program Development Guide is a practical handbook for planning, implementing, and managing Healing to Wellness Courts (adult, juvenile, and family). This program development guide provides step-by-step recommendations for design, development, and implementation of Tribal Healing to Wellness Court programs from a practical standpoint. It is designed to assist steering committees and planning groups as they (1) use team-based approaches; (2) gain knowledge of Healing to Wellness Court concepts; (3) incorporate the ten key components; (4) help establish policies and procedures suitable to the needs of the tribal community; (5) guide the court to integrate available resources; (6) develop interagency agreements; (7) incorporate a management information system to track participants and services; and (8) identify possible problem areas.
Draft Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: Treatment Guidelines for Adults and Juveniles - Tribal justice systems have often become separated from the provision of healing services. Holistically, this separation of function has made it very difficult to deal effectively with the physical and spiritual healing that is fundamental to tribal tradition. Many tribes have begun the process of annexing their court systems with a range of treatment services that combine traditional healing with western treatment concepts through tribal drug courts - or healing to wellness courts. This publication examines guidelines that have been developed to provide tribal communities with an overview of substance abuse treatment strategies as they have been developed by drug court programs. Tribal programs might consider applying these treatment strategies along with traditional healing practices. These guidelines draw upon the experiences of hundreds of state adult and juvenile drug court programs, operating in various environments and serving a wide range of individuals addicted to alcohol and/or other drugs. This publication examines key issues in developing treatment, developing a wellness court treatment program, adapting treatment program components, special considerations regarding treatment services, strategies for maintaining sobriety (relapse prevention), and looking ahead. Please note that this is the first publication to comprehensively address the difficult and controversial issue of drug court treatment guidelines - consequently, this publication should also prove very useful for state drug courts.
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: The Key Components - This booklet explains each of 10 key components of Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts (drug courts), followed by several recommended practices that provide guidance for implementing each component.


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