San Carlos Apache Tribe, Office of the Public Defender, Accountability for Juveniles

The Justice Department's grant-making components have created a streamlined approach for federally recognized Tribes, Tribal consortia, Alaska Native villages and corporations, as well as authorized tribal designees to apply for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 funding opportunities. The Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) serves as a single solicitation for existing tribal government-specific grant programs administered by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). The CTAS solicitation is designed to assist tribes with addressing crime and public safety issues in a comprehensive manner. The CTAS grant-application process was inspired by and developed after consultation with tribal leaders, including sessions at the Justice Department's Tribal Nations Listening Session in 2009, and has been updated based on continued tribal consultations and listening sessions.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) provides awards under CTAS Purpose Area 8--Tribal Juvenile Accountability Discretionary Grants (TJADG) Program to federally recognized tribes to develop and implement programs that hold tribal youth accountable for delinquent behavior and strengthen tribal juvenile justice systems. Under the TJADG program there are eighteen (18) distinct purpose area objectives. Applicants seeking a TJADG award must select one or more TJADG purpose area objective as a goal and/or focus for the proposed project design. This program is authorized by the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2014, Pub. L. No. 113-76; 128 Stat. 5, 65.

With this funding, the San Carlos Apache Tribe proposes to expand their Office of the Public Defender (OPD) to better support and represent all tribal youth charged with a juvenile offense before the San Carlos Juvenile Court. This expansion would enable the Court to better monitor processes to include identifying and developing new diversion programs for youth. This initiative would also reduce the juvenile population of the San Carlos Juvenile Rehabilitation and Detention Center, and help the tribe approach the incarceration of juveniles as a last resort. This initiative would also ensure that the youth appearing before the Court would understand the nature of the proceedings and the charges filed against them to include having representation immediately following their arrest by the San Carlos Police Department. Additional objectives include educating the community on the need for alternatives to incarceration, improving services for court-involved youth and preventing a juvenile's rights from being violated. The OPD will encourage a collaborative approach to juvenile delinquency and will gather information on resources currently available in the community, identify gaps in services, and map out a plan to ensure youth have access to these services. Finally, OPD will develop a plan for a Juvenile Drug Court to address substance abuse problems of court-involved youth.

Goals and objectives of project will include the immediate advertising and hiring of an Assistant Public Defender (APD). The new hire would then receive training on the Juvenile Court system by the Public Defender staff. Other related objectives would be specified training for the APD to familiarize him/her with Juvenile Court etiquette, the Juvenile Justice Code and Rules of Procedure. Key aspects of the expanded OPD will be to identify current resources and diversion programs and make recommendations for new programs; develop a strategy for the Juvenile Drug Court program; identify the costs and resources necessary to move toward program implementation, and ultimately establish a means for data collection and analysis to evaluate and identify the effectiveness of this program.

CA/NCF