Initial Report and Recommendations - Alaska Department of Law

“I think most of us agree that dealing with major crimes, major felonies are besthandled by the State system. But the rest of it that leads up to it can be prevented. Butyou can’t prevent it from a regional hub or from Anchorage or Fairbanks. The peoplethemselves have to be involved. We have been trained for the last 100 years or so to notdo anything for ourselves. So now when you say okay, what can you guys do? We keepour mouths shut because you never back us up if we try. That’s where this fear comesfrom. If anybody in a village testifies against somebody, chances are that person – evenif they’re arrested – will be back in the village in a day or so to cause you heartburnbecause that’s the way the courts work. You don’t have to wait for two years ’till they getout for their crime; they’ll be back in a couple of days to take care of you. So what youhave to do is not only give us the authority to take care of the local problems, not themajor ones, but the local ones – but back us up. Because your systems don’t work uphere – either the federal or the State. You have to give us the authority to be free to takecare of ourselves.”John W. SchaefferNANA Regional Elders Council“In order for the villages to be empowered to handle issues, they need fully educated,trained, organized tribal courts. Each community has a unique way of handling issuesthat affect individuals and families. We need to make sure that we continue to haveworkshops for capacity building to have strong tribal courts. Many of the minor criminalmatters and others can be handled at the local level.“Since alcohol is the main problem, we need to outlaw [alcohol] completely [in] dryareas or regions and not allow the regional hubs to remain damp, like in the case ofBethel. Otherwise we need to have controlled bars or liquor stores. Bootlegging is amajor problem in our communities. Right now in Akiak they are selling between seventydollars and a hundred dollars a bottle and that’s what the going rate is. And maybe inBethel it’s around fifty dollars a bottle. There is no middle ground for this. I think goingcompletely dry would be easier to enforce in Bethel. Otherwise, if it’s damp, the liquor’sbeing brought in and then it’s a haven for bootleggers there.”Mike Williams, President, RurALCAPAkiak“Alcohol and drug abuse has devastated our region, and the majority of crimescommitted and the deaths that occur are alcohol related. We have an extremely high rateof rape and domestic violence, and we have some of the highest suicide, child sexual andphysical abuse and fetal alcohol syndrome rates in the State. We’re told time and timeagain that the State of Alaska‘s figures are higher than the rest of the nation’s. Despitethe alarming statistics, due to funding constraints, we often provide a Band-Aid solutionand can’t provide adequate long-term intervention and prevention services; nor do wehave much-needed rehabilitation services in our region. Our only residential treatmentfacility was closed in 1999 due to lack of funding and there are no treatment options forsex offenders.“The State provides funding for the VPSO program, but it is the only means of publicsafety in our villages. But the annual allocation provides funds for only nine positions inour region. Furthermore, what Kawerak receives does not provide adequate pay for avery difficult job in which there is a very high turnover due to burnout as well as littlesupport for a very stressful job…. A few of the villages have Village Police Officers intheir communities, but with the dwindling resources for city governments, these positionsmay soon cease to exist.”Denise Barengo, Executive DirectorNome Eskimo CommunityAlaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission - Page 16