Jail crunch creates crisis

By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Getting arrested on the Navajo Nation is like being handed a "get-out-of-jail-free" card, Public Safety Committee Chairperson Hope MacDonald-LoneTree told federal officials this week.

MacDonald-LoneTree testified at a conference in Minneapolis before members of five federal agencies which have united to form the Tribal Training and Technical Assistance (TT&TA) program to address tribal justice issues.

Navajo facilities have deteriorated so severely that prisoners can be kept overnight in only three of the six adult detention facilities. Many inmates serve only a portion of their sentences due to the lack of jails.

"Congress must restore federal funding for prison construction in this year's budget and immediately address the crisis facing Navajo Nation," MacDonald-LoneTree said.

Since December, 1,163 individuals have been booked into the Tuba City facility, but because of dilapidated facilities and a mere 82 prison beds, only nine criminals are actually still serving time.

"This is unacceptable. The federal government has a moral obligation to work with us to ensure the families in Navajo Nation are safe. I urge Congress to take the first step by restoring prison construction funding within the Department of Justice budget," she said.

According to Navajo Nation records, 1,163 individuals have been booked into the Tuba City facility since Dec. 1, 2006, with all but 53 of them released. Those 53 prisoners were housed at other facilities. Only nine are currently serving time.

"The bottom line is that facilities in Navajo Nation aren't fit to house humans," MacDonald-LoneTree said. "Congress must restore funding for prison construction in Indian Country.

"Congress must also retain flexibility to address immediate needs. And in Navajo Nation, we're facing a prison construction crisis. I am anxious to continue working with other tribal leaders to tell Congress that the tribal line items in DOJ budget must be kept," she said.

DOJ officials invited MacDonald-LoneTree to serve on a panel of leaders in Indian Country Public Safety to discuss ways for tribes to partner with other tribal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

The TT&TA is made up of representatives of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, DOJ and the Office of Justice programs.

MacDonald-LoneTree asked DOJ officials: "How is the Navajo criminal justice system ever to adequately partner with other jurisdictions when all we do is release our criminals back into Navajo and neighboring communities?"

With a population of more than 250,000 spread over an area larger than West Virginia, the Navajo Nation makes up more than one-third of the national on-reservation population of Indian Country.

The Navajo Nation has recognized the lack of detention facilities as a paramount priority, and recently enacted a 1 percent sales tax dedicated for detention and other public safety facilities.

"We have raised our own taxes despite the poor economic situation in Navajo Nation to address this vital issue," MacDonald-LoneTree said. "It is time for the federal government to fulfill its trust responsibility and join us in providing funding for new detention facilities."

The Nation's Fiscal Year 2009 budget request to DOI's Secretary Dirk Kempthorn shows public safety and justice the Navajo Nation's second priority behind education, a position it has held for the last three years.

President Bush's 2008 DOJ budget proposes to create four large grant programs to replace more than 70 existing grant programs. The Tribal Prison Construction program is one of those slated for elimination.

The DOJ consolidation proposal also does not provide any indication or surety that Indian programs will receive any funding or that Indian tribes will receive a fair portion of the broad and largely undefined block grant programs.

BIA and DOJ have worked together to build 23 new detention facilities in Indian Country in the last decade. None of those were built on Navajo.

Three Navajo facilities on DOJ's priority list have not received funding, while every other facility ahead of them has been built. Moreover, several facilities ranking below those for Navajo also have been constructed, MacDonald-LoneTree said.

"Hopefully, the U.S. Congress and the Department of Justice will preserve elements of the Tribal Law Enforcement grant programs, especially the Tribal Prison Construction program, so that the federal government can honor its trust responsibility to assist Navajo Nation with the unacceptable lack of detention facilities," she said.