Bureau of Justice Assistance

TLIP Launches Enhanced Walking on Common Ground Website

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

The Tribal Law and Policy Institute is pleased to announce the launch of the enhanced & updated Walking on Common Ground web resource at:  http://www.walkingoncommonground.org/.

We are planning to mirror much of the tribal and state information through the enhanced www.NRC4Tribes.org website that we are developing.

The primary focus of the website is:

  • Identify and develop resources concerning tribal/state court collaboration & promising practices
  • Identify and develop resources concerning Public Law 280 tribal/state court collaboration & promising practices
  • Subject areas include: courts, law enforcement, detention, child welfare, and multi-agency agreements

Features of the website include:

  • Tribal-State agreements by topic
  • Tribal-Federal Collaborations
  • Promising Practices stories and quotes
  • Resources on the TLOA
  • Interactive searchable map of agreements
  • Listing of all federally recognized tribes, tribal websites and counties, by state
  • Jurisdictional information

Upcoming features include:

  • Tribal-State Court Promising Strategies Publication
  • Public Law 280 Promising Strategies Publication
  • Additional tribal-state collaborations in the area of Detention and Child Welfare
  • Additional tribal-federal collaborations

Send us your examples of collaborations to highlight!  Contact Heather Valdez Singleton for more information: heather@tlpi.org;  323-650-5667

This website was funded under the support of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, USDOJ.

Long Term Plan to Build and Enhance Tribal Justice Systems

Adrea Korthase1 Comment

Earlier this month the DOI and DOJ released the Long Term Plan to Build and Enhance Tribal Justice Systems. An excerpt:

Central Themes of the Tribal Justice Plan
The following major themes emerged from consultation and public comment:

  • Establishing alternatives to incarceration should be the major focus.
  •  The Tribal Justice Plan should be implemented in consultation and collaboration with Tribal Leaders and should be flexible enough to allow tribes to develop strategies tailored to their specific public safety needs and tribal history and culture.
  • The Tribal Justice Plan should coordinate federal, tribal, state and local government resources to support operations, programming in tribal justice systems, and critical infrastructure issues with tribal correctional facilities, fully mindful of the sovereign status of tribes in these coordination efforts.
  • There should be greater coordination between DOJ and DOI with respect to awards for grants that may be used to construct tribal correctional facilities and multi-purpose justice centers (which may be provided by DOJ) and P.L. 93-638 contracts and self-governance compacts for funding operations (provided only by DOI). The Departments are committed to addressing the issue of coordination to address this and other issues related to detention in Indian country.

Additional links can be found at NCAI.

Judicial Symposium for Michigan-Wisconsin-Minnesota Tribal-State-Federal Judges

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The conference is Oct. 12-13, 2010, at the Grand Traverse Resort just outside of Traverse City, Michigan. Come see the colors!!!!

Here is the flyer: Flyer and Agenda.

The speakers include Walter Echo-Hawk, Hon. Korey Wahwassuck, and Hon. David Rausch.

And on the evening of October 11, Walter will be reading from his book at Horizon Books.