NCJ Number
225002
Date Published
December 2002
Length
72 pages
Annotation
Results are presented from a community-based collaborative evaluation of the juvenile justice system of Southern Ute Nation which sought to place delinquency and juvenile justice in the unique historical, cultural, social, and legal contexts of the Southern Ute Nation.
Abstract
Highlights of findings include: (1) very little juvenile criminal activity was recorded on the reservation during the 11-year study period; (2) there were 263 bookings of 143 juveniles, less than 5 percent of all tribal youth living on the reservation during the study period; (3) the majority of offenses were nonviolent, status offenses with the most frequent being illegal possession/consumption of alcohol; (4) minimal use of the formal adjudication process was found, only 50 of the 263 bookings resulted in a filed petition; (5) no statistically identifiable change was found in recorded juvenile criminal activity associated with the opening of the casino; and (6) a need for service improvement and development in several areas, including, but not limited to a detoxification facility and residential substance abuse treatment facility, a transitional shelter for youths returning home from residential treatment, crisis intervention and counseling services, further development of community-oriented law enforcement programs, school-based intervention, and gender specific prevention and intervention services. Tribal leaders of the Southern Ute Nation want to identify and remedy the issues facing the juvenile justice system within their community. The purpose of this U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention supported research project was to provide comprehensive information to the Southern Ute Nation that enabled the community to more effectively engage in short-term and long-term planning for their juvenile justice system, while addressing the limitations of prior research literature. Multiple research methods were utilized to address four questions which formed the framework of the evaluation: the tribal police jail arrest log between 1988 and 1998, tribal court records of all youths from 1991 through 1998, and results from face-to-face interviews with 11 community representatives and aggregate data from a tribal youth survey. Tables and references