Acoma Tribal Courts Services Improvements

Purpose Area 3 - Project Abstract

Purpose Area 3: With the BJA funding, the Acoma Tribal Court (ATC) will: 1) Improve the pretrial and prosecution diversion and sentencing alternatives by updating policies and procedures and greater inclusion of the Public Defender and Victim Advocate at all three stages. 2) Enhance public defense involvement in pretrial and prosecution diversion, and incorporate collateral consequences as an aspect of public defender services from pretrial to conviction and reentry. 3) Provide legal advocacy support and linkage to victim services and help all Court components provide trauma-informed services. 4) Purchase audio-visual and court amplification systems for the Court and create emergency management policies that increase the Court's preparedness during emergencies.

The Tribal Court, Probation Officers, and Victim Advocate will use Excel logs for data collection and reporting. The Court Administrator will prepare and submit quarterly and semi-annual reports online to BJA.

Federally Recognized Tribe

The Pueblo of Acoma is a federally recognized tribe located in Cibola County, NM. With this funding, The Acoma Public Safety Department will implement the following goals:

During each project year, increase pretrial, prosecution, and sentencing alternatives through culturally relevant screening, intakes, and presentence reports.
During each project year, increase public defense strategies to increase defendants' understanding of their rights and decrease collateral consequences through education and expanded defense support
Improve victims' court experience by providing legal advocacy support and linkage to victim services during each project year.
In Year 1, improve court operations to respond to state of emergencies through equipment purchases and updating policies and procedures applied each project year.