Funding sought to fight meth

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici last week recommended the Drug Enforcement Administration devote more resources to rural areas of New Mexico, including Indian reservations, where methamphetamine production and trafficking is reaching epidemic proportions.

"The Control Meth Act has begun to work to shut down meth labs in the United States. But now I'm hearing from communities across New Mexico, including Indian reservations, that they are being inundated with meth from Mexico and other countries," Domenici said. "It is a serious problem that is affecting people of all social classes."

Navajo Nation Public Safety Committee Chairperson Hope MacDonald-LoneTree and Corrections Director Delores Greyeyes are in Washington this week to lobby for emergency funding for Navajo adult detention centers.

There are fewer than 60 adult inmate beds across Navajo, Greyeyes said earlier this week, thus putting the Nation at a major disadvantage when it comes to housing those arrested for criminal activities. Corrections funding is provided by Public Law 93-638 but only covers personnel cost and not operating expenses.

Corrections served 36,364 inmates in 2005. Each of the six adult jails served an average of 6,060 inmates. Currently, three of the six adult facilities are temporary holding facilities. Three were available for full use until a recent fire closed Chinle jail. Tuba City jail was closed in 2005.

In 2004, 3,000 individuals who committed a criminal act were not processed into local jails following arrest due to lack of jail space. Instead, they were booked in and booked out. Without jail space, funding to bring in more offenders would be a losing proposition for Navajo.

Vulnerable communities
Domenici said he believes the DEA should look at how its resources can be better used to help local and tribal law enforcement.

"State and local law enforcement reap benefits while working alongside federal agents, but I am concerned that small communities are not able to take advantage of these partnerships. This is especially problematic because community population is neither a variable nor a predictor of illegal drug trafficking or abuse," he said.

Domenici serves on the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee that reviewed the FY2008 budget request for the DEA.

Domenici asked DEA Administrator Karen Tandy to report to him on current DEA interaction with small communities and how that contact might be expanded. The FY2008 budget recommends $1.8 billion for the DEA, including $29.2 million in new money to support the Southwest Border and Methamphetamine Enforcement Initiative.

The DEA seized more than two metric tons of methamphetamine on the Southwest Border in 2006, a 129 percent increase. The Southwest Border initiative includes intelligence sharing, and highlights greater cooperation from the Mexican government for joint operations to stop meth traffickers before the drug crosses the U.S. border.

Domenici also asked that the DEA report on meth trafficking trends in New Mexico, including those on Indian reservations.

Mental health courts
On Tuesday, Domenici threw his weight behind a $40 million Department of Justice request to support drug court programs in New Mexico. He also is requesting $10 million in DOJ funding to support mental health courts and $10 million to support grants offered through the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act.

These grants can be used to support mental health courts, mental health and substance abuse treatment for mentally ill incarcerated offenders, and other services.

"Our courts are trying to be innovative in dealing with nonviolent offenders who suffer from mental illnesses. The goal of mental health courts is to divert some mentally ill offenders from jail to treatment," Domenici said.

In January 2006, after eight years of talk and revisions, the Navajo Nation Council passed the Health Commitment Act of 2006, sponsored by 20th Council member Willie Grayeyes.

"Without a code many individuals are held in correctional facilities for their safety, waiting for safe commitment orders to happen," he said.

"The director of state prisons is saying that he is now the director of the largest mental treatment center in the state. That's what's happening out there in the other world," said Court Solicitor Randall Ramsey, who worked extensively on the act and lobbied for its passage.

Domenici said drug courts, as well as mental health courts, maintain separate dockets and provide a supervised treatment alternative to prison sentences for nonviolent drug possession offenders.

"The local drug courts in New Mexico have shown remarkable resolve and creativity in drawing upon local treatment, supervision, and criminal justice resources to provide drug court services to those in need," Domenici said.

The drug court network in New Mexico is comprised of Juvenile Drug Courts, Family Dependency Drug Courts, DWI-Drug Courts and Adult Felony Courts, which are now in McKinley, San Juan, Bernalillo, Cibola, Dona Ana, Eddy, Lea, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe and Taos counties.