U. S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance

Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program
FY 2012 Local Solicitation

Funding Opportunity No. BJA-2012-3256

Application No. 2012-H3394-AZ-DJ

PROGRAM NARRATIVE

“Navajo Nation Dependency, Diversion and Alternative Sentencing Peacemaking Project”

 Submitted by:

The Navajo Nation

Peacemaking Program of the Judicial Branch

P.O. Box 520

Window Rock, Arizona 86515

(928) 871-6762

(928) 871-6761 fax

 Contact Person(s):

Josephine Foo, Associate Attorney

Office of the Chief Justice

Gloria Benally, Peacemaking Coordinator
Peacemaking Program of the Navajo Nation Judicial Branch

PROGRAM NARRATIVE

A.          Proposed Program Activities

            The Navajo Nation, through the Peacemaking Program of the Judicial Branch of the Navajo Nation, is applying for $73,479 in JAG funding in order to implement dependency, diversion and alternative sentencing peacemaking services pursuant to the Navajo Nation’s revised Children’s Code, or Alchini Beehaz’áanii Act of 2011, as recently enacted by the Navajo Nation Council on October 31, 2011.

            The new Children’s Code provides for traditional Navajo dispute resolution and accountability methods to be used in dependency, children in need of supervision, and delinquency cases in order to ensure families re-assume primary responsibility, t’ááhó ájít’éigo, in regard to children’s safety and well-being to eliminate the need for Court intervention,^[1]  to address the needs of the child-in-need-of-supervision and to determine what is in the child’s best interest including family involvement^[2], and in delinquency diversion cases is to address the underlying problem.^[3]  In order to achieve these goals, community-based Peacemakers and Traditional teachers would be used by the courts, prosecutor, probation services, and social services to conduct peacemaking sessions, Dine family group conferencing, and life value engagements.  The peacemaker would assist in reaching an outcome consistent with the court, school or agency plan, with a primary role to teach the child and family the fundamental principles that would empower the child, family or group to reach harmony, hozho and sustain hozho for the well-being of the child, family or group for the future. Community peacemakers and traditional teachers charge set fees of $80 per peacemaking or engagement circle session upon referral of juvenile cases by the court, prosecutor, probation services, social services, and schools. 

            The October 31, 2011 enactment of the new Children’s Code has been followed by a period of planning that is now complete.  A Peacemaking Program Guidance was recently completed after a year of planning both during the drafting of the new Children’s Code and following the Code’s enactment and now awaits high level review and formal adoption.  The Program Guidance gives all referring agencies and courts clarity in the peacemaking and engagement circle processes; how to refer cases; how statistics are to be maintained and reports submitted; how individuals are to be tracked and followed up; and so forth.  The Program Guidance, is a full illustration of how program activities will proceed.  It further contains a detailed description of the traditional approach to bringing youth out of chaos and into a permanent sense of harmony.  The traditional process requires discipline and wisdom from the peacemaker, and a degree of heroic effort by the child and family involved. (On June 29, 2012, a revised Program Guidance was renamed "Plan of Operations" and has been submitted to the Law & Order Committee for enactment.)

Funding will pay for 690 peacemaking and engagement sessions over three years and across ten tribal judicial districts, many of which are so remote that the kind of resolution provided by this program may be the only option for isolated children and families.  Funding will further partly pay for trainings across the reservation to the Peacemaking Program, the courts, the Office of the Prosecutor, Probation Services, the Division of Social Services, and law enforcement in order to ensure the smooth running of the program and proper and timely delivery of services. 

B.           Statement of the Problem

By all reports, Navajo children are in crisis and urgently in need of traditional teaching in addition to modern learning for a complete framework to succeed in the future. Gang membership, delinquencies, truancy, school drop outs, and school failures are epidemic. In 1997, Navajo Nation Police reported at least 75 active juvenile gang "sets" or groups and police report that this number has multiplied. Socially marginal elements from border cities and towns are becoming the groups of choice of reservation youth.  An OJJDP-funded study conducted by the Judicial Branch showed that gang members on the reservation are likely to be non-speakers of Navajo language; report severe problems in school; come from urbanized, poor, and generally dysfunctional families; and lack contact with clan members and tribal ceremonies.[4]

Delinquency/CHINS caseloads relative to the juvenile population are very high.  In 2006, 1,840 delinquency/CHINS cases were filed with 50% of these placed on long or short term probation.   In 2008, 4,198 juveniles were detained as delinquents or “children in need of supervision” (CHINS) in Navajo juvenile detention facilities, according to Navajo Nation Department of Corrections statistics.  Juvenile delinquency fueled by a rise in methamphetamine use has changed from petty, mostly in-family offenses to violent alcohol and drug related crime. Studies have shown Navajo adolescents are highly susceptible to alcohol and drugs, scoring the highest of all races in alcohol and drug use pathology.[5]  Drug use among the people is epidemic and drug-related assault is rising.[6] The severity of the delinquency problem and family dysfunction can be illustrated through local newspaper reports. According to Navajo law enforcement, known meth users have been as young as 9 years old.[7]  Adult family members have gathered with their children to use meth on Christmas.[8] Almost all students in Navajo schools are classified “economically disadvantaged.”  School counselors have informed the Peacemaking Program that truancy rates in Navajo Nation schools are presently so high that a majority of truancy cases are not filed in the courts out of a sense that both the school and court systems would be overwhelmed with such filings.    

Navajo schools are universally failing.  Navajo students with low reading and math proficiencies are given few skills with which to confront a difficult future.  Of all schools in Navajo country serving Grades 6 – 12 (Middle School, Junior High, High School), only 12 schools out of 78 show adequate yearly progress (AYP) under No Child Left Behind standards in 2005.  (See Tables on pp. 6-7).   The median reading proficiency rate is a disturbing 29.5%, and math proficiency is 20%.  61 schools failed to meet AYP.  Attendance rates are below 92% for 22 out of 61 schools.  Graduation rates are lower than 85% for 19 of 24 New Mexico and BIA schools reporting these rates (BIA-Wingate High School reports a graduation rate of only 18.8%).  Dropout rates are at least 10% for 5 of 11 BIA schools reporting these rates. (The dropout rate at the BIA-Alamo Navajo School in Eastern Navajo is an astonishing 38.5%).  115 incidents on school grounds in 2005 involving law enforcement were reported at Chinle High School, which is noted for violent juvenile gang activity.  In 2003, a display of confiscated weapons from Chinle High School students included baseball bats, knives, numchucks and brass knuckles.  A 2003 Navajo Youth Risk Behavior Survey, tracking the previous month, showed these rates: 49% of middle school and 35% of high school students were in a physical fight; 32% and 22% respectively had carried a weapon; 33% and 34% respectively rode with a drinking driver; 40% and 39% respectively drank alcohol; and 36% and 38% respectively used marijuana.

In isolated homes, incidents of substance abuse and domestic violence are very high.  Youth and families are angry with each other and engage in actions harmful to family and community members.  Each year, Navajos are subject to over 27,000 criminal offenses of which almost one third are domestic violence cases.  Public Safety reports responding to 10,000 domestic violence cases in 2006 while 5,000 of these were court filed.  48,144 court cases were filed in 2008 of which 15,048 or 31.3% were criminal or domestic violence cases.  According to Special Report: Violent crime increasing on Arizona reservations by Mark Shaffer, Indian Country, May 30, 2003, an estimated 95% of violent crime on the Navajo Nation is attributed to alcohol or drugs.  In 2008, police responded to 33 attempted suicides and 11 suicides of reservation youth.

C.          Coordination Efforts Regarding JAG and related Justice Funds

In 2009, the Peacemaking Program received a Tribal Youth Program grant to begin planning for and providing peacemaking and blended peacemaking/ family group conferencing services upon direct referrals from community agencies and schools.  Representatives from STAR schools, the Dept. of Diné Education; Navajo Nation DBHS; Diné Hatathli Association; American Humane Society; Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention at the U.S. Department of Justice; the Peacemaking Program; and consultants all contributed to planning and designing blended peacemaking/family group conferencing services.  It was pursuant to this jump-start from the Tribal Youth Program that the taskforce in charge of drafting the new Children’s Code were able to include peacemaking and engagement circle services to the great extent that such services have been incorporated into the Code.  The planning stage is completed and services are now ready to be provided.

The Judicial Branch has also received information technology funding through the Bureau of Justice Assistance via two Tribal Court Assistance Program grants to fund its Navajo Nation Integrated Justice Information Sharing Project (NNIJISP), which is presently implementing an integrated and firewalled automated case management system in the courts, prosecutors, probations services, and peacemaking programs.  This automated CMS will enable statistics to be quickly and completely gathered from all 10 tribal judicial districts in order to track the effectiveness of this program.

Finally, in 2009, the Judicial Branch received a Recovery Act Rural Law Enforcement grant to fund case management for juveniles in detention to prepare them for return to their communities through the Nabinahazlaago Initiative.  After expiration of the grant earlier this year, the program has been picked up by the Navajo Nation Council and is due to be funded by tribal General Funds.  The Nabinahazlaago Initiative, located within Probation Services, will be a referral source for the program.