TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More

The goal of the Tribal Justice System Capacity Building TTA Program is to strengthen tribal governments' ability to plan, implement, and enhance tribal justice systems to be able to prevent, control, and investigate crime; to effectively administer justice; and to meet the needs of the community. The FY 2012 Tribal Justice System Capacity Building TTA Program will focus on funding national TTA efforts within five categories: enhancing tribal and state collaborations; comprehensive strategic planning; building tribal capacity to plan, develop, or enhance diversion and community corrections capacity; enhancing tribal justice information sharing efforts; and other tribal justice system capacity building TTA efforts. The programs funded will provide TTA to assist tribes in using data to inform justice system strategic planning, implementation and enhancement; integrate the rich community values of tribal cultures in tribal justice systems and programs; foster tribal and state collaboration to address jurisdictional and legal issues with regard to law enforcement, courts, corrections and reentry within Indian Country, including tribal justice based relationships with service providers; build capacity for community-based alternatives to incarceration; enhance tribal justice information sharing; and meet other tribal justice system capacity building needs.

Through the Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM) project, the Center for Evidence-based Policy at Oregon Health & Science University (Center) will use funds for the following: 1) assist tribes, state, and local governments with developing collaborative initiatives to improve client outcomes and make more effective use of jurisdictional resources; 2) improve site understanding of and readiness to collaborate with jurisdictional partners; 3) enhance site capacity through tool development and ongoing support of collaboration efforts; and 4) engage in widespread dissemination of tools manuals, and lessons learned from pilot sites to foster further collaborative efforts between tribal and non-tribal entities. TEAM project staff will provide on-site and off-site training and technical assistance to three pilot sites who have expressed intent to work on tribal, state, and/or local jurisdictional collaboration. Lessons learned from pilot sites will help inform development of a how-to manual, webinars and presentations for wide-spread dissemination. Examples of collaboration may include joint-jurisdictional courts, restorative justice sentencing circles, avoiding double prosecution of defendants, issues of community and social determinants of health, and others. CA/NCF