Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Healing to Wellness Court

The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community will use grant funds to address BJA’s goals and objectives to support tribal efforts to develop, support, and enhance adult tribal justice systems and prevent crime, including violent crime and crime related to opioid, alcohol, stimulant, and other substance use disorders. The crime pattern that stems from substance abuse follows the trajectory of being arrested as a minor in possession of alcohol, to the use of marijuana; pills are often the next substance abused (most often by snorting the powder or liquefying and injecting the chemical) followed by larceny, drug sales, and domestic violence. The traditional justice system often incarcerates offenders or remands them to an inpatient treatment facility with no sober living supports after completion of the program. Upon release, the offender goes back to their original environment without developing skills or the mindset to choose sober living. The project proposed through this Purpose Area 3 grant application will enhance an existing Healing to Wellness Court (HWC). The current court is underfunded and hence understaffed, and it not providing HWC client services at the level that the tribal court is capable of in order to meet the needs of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC). The proposed project will address alcohol and substance abuse treatment needs, the problem of recidivism, and the high cost of incarceration in the tribal justice system.