Developed with support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Planning a Reentry Program: A Toolkit for Tribal Communities is designed to help tribal justice system practitioners create or enhance reentry programs for American Indians and Alaska Natives returning from jail or prison. It also offers guidance for practitioners who are currently working in a reentry program.
Our national survey of tribal justice systems—conducted with partners at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes—found limited use of risk-need assessment tools, despite the expansion of such tools in other jurisdictions and pressure to increase their use across the country. The survey identified a need to develop risk-need responsivity tools built specifically for tribal justice systems, to validate existing tools with Native populations, and to create affordable tribal-owned technological solutions.
Responding to domestic violence safely and effectively is a top priority for many tribal justice systems, especially given the high rates of domestic violence experienced by Native women. Strengthening the tribal justice response can take many, interrelated forms, but may include a specialized Domestic Violence Court as well as implementing Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction under the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. This fact sheet outlines the ways these two interventions can complement and strengthen each other.
Host Juan Carlos Areán from Futures Without Violence speaks with Aldo Seoane and Greg Grey Cloud, co-founders of Wica Agli, and Jeremy NeVilles-Sorell, the director of the National Native Coalition of Men’s Programs, about their abusive partner intervention program in South Dakota and their national work to improve safety and prevent domestic and sexual violence within the indigenous community.
Specialized domestic violence courts have shown promise in keeping victims safe, supporting offenders in changing their behavior, and repairing harm to individuals and communities. Some tribal communities have implemented these specialized courts and dockets to address the high rates of violence that Native women experience, oftentimes by non-Native perpetrators.
Abusive partner intervention programs for people who harm their intimate partners take a variety of forms. These programs may share a set of guiding principles and serve as one piece within a wider coordinated community response to addressing intimate partner violence. In Native American communities, it is important that programs integrate cultural values and norms as a way to meaningfully engage people who have caused harm in a process of change.
Creating a specialized domestic violence court can be daunting for any community. It requires careful planning, leadership, and the buy-in of partners. The Tulalip Tribes of Washington are tackling the issue of domestic violence head-on, spearheading an initiative to create a specialized court, one of the first in a tribal justice system. This outline of their planning process highlights the steps involved and serves as a useful guide for tribes seeking to strengthen their court’s response to domestic violence.
This document describes the Native American method of peacemaking—a non-adversarial form of justice focusing on restoration and the long-term healing of relationships—and offers detailed guidelines for implementation by state courts.
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reintegration Program provides intensive case management and reentry services to tribal members returning to the community from incarceration. The program provides financial assistance for basic needs such as housing, clothing, and groceries, and offers long-term support through educational, vocational, and legal services.
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians created the GREAT Program to intervene with gang-involved youth, create a safer school climate, and provide pro-social gang prevention activities to community youth. In addition to the in-class curriculum, the program provides camp opportunities for youth to participate in throughout the year. This video follows youth, teachers, officers, staff and elders through their summer camp experience, where they share stories on how the program has impacted their lives.
