ALASKA NATIVES COMMISSION
JOINT FEDERAL-STATE COMMISSION
ON
POLICIES AND PROGRAMS AFFECTING
ALASKA NATIVES
4000 Old Seward Highway, Suite 100
Anchorage,
Alaska 99503
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ANCHORAGE TESTIMONY - OCTOBER 15, 1992
DEPOSITION EXHIBIT #3 - TESTIMONY
OF JIM CHRISTENSEN
Good morning. My name is Jim Christensen and I am the Director of the North Slope Borough Department of Public Safety, the 2nd largest municipal police agency in the State of Alaska. By way of introduction, I have lived in rural Alaska for the past 30 years. I have lived in Cantwell where I completed grade school in a one room school house, Bethel, where I graduated from high school and Fairbanks, where I graduated from the University of Alaska.
For the past 16 years, I have lived and worked in Barrow. I am married to Jeanette Kittick, an Inupiat, and together we have 4 small children.
I am pleased to provide testimony today about Health, social and cultural issues which are impacted by the State and Federal agencies and policies. There are 3 topics I would like to briefly comment on which may be of assistance to you as you gather data for your deliberations. These topics are: Drug and Alcohol Abuse, the Criminal Justice System, and Corrections.
Drug and alcohol abuse is, in my opinion, the leading contributor to crime occurring within the North Slope Region. Sexual assaults, child abuse, elder abuse and domestic violence are just some of the resultant behavior which is caused by drug and alcohol abuse. These types of crimes have a very obvious and devastating impact on the health of rural Alaskans, both mental and physical. Suicide and suicide attempts are reaching epidemic proportions. Recent surveys have suggested that the overall suicide rate among Alaskan Natives is 4 times the national average. Today, 54% of all reported crimes against person within the North Slope Borough involve the use of alcohol or other controlled substances.
The citizens of the North Slope have worked hard to reduce the problems related to alcohol and drug abuse. Several communities have voted themselves dry. Leaders have been elected to key positions of responsibility who have taken a moral and public stand against alcohol abuse. The North Slope Borough Assembly has passed a sweeping, safe-work place plan which is the first of its kind in Alaska to address problems of alcohol and drug abuse in the work force. This plan includes an opportunity for the employee to receive a wide variety of counseling services as necessary, including family counseling.
We in the police profession look at our participation in these programs as vital to the success of maintaining the health and cultural identities of communities in which we live. In addition to maintaining enforcement efforts, we have intensified the prevention and education activities of all of our members. In Barrow, a police officer works in the school system full time in the Drug Abuse and Resistance Education program (or D.A.R.E. as it is nationally known). This is by a cooperative agreement with the North Slope Borough School District. The local public safety officers in every village on the North Slope participate in their community's school activities by sharing with the youth their knowledge about the results of drug and alcohol abuse.
Some of our greatest hopes to combat the problems of drug and alcohol abuse are within our youth. I would like to strongly recommend that the State and Federal agencies increase their financial contributions to communities who have similar partnerships with the common goal of each partner being to educate their youth about drugs and alcohol. We believe that the preventive education training has a very important role in reducing not only drug and alcohol abuse but crime that comes with it.
Another topic that I would like to address is improving the criminal justice system to meet the needs of rural Alaskan Natives. The agencies which comprise the criminal justice system are not adequately funded to fulfill their obligations. For example, in Barrow and some other larger communities, there is no Victim Witness Coordinator position funded and yet in the urban cities there are several of these positions. Even if the positions are funded, there is a critical shortage of housing in the rural communities and therefore, the position may be unfilled. The role of a victim Witness Coordinator in guiding people through the maze of the current criminal justice procedure is invaluable. This is especially true when one considers that the current court system may be totally foreign to the victim or witness who is experiencing it for the first time in their life. The prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges do not speak the Native language. In fact, the adverserial approach used in the state court system often exposes the victims and witnesses to traumatic experiences.
Because the current criminal justice system is not capable of adequately addressing all criminal matters in a culturally relevant manner, the police are often left to explain to citizens why certain disruptive behavior cannot be addressed by the bureaucracy. One example that comes readily to mind is the abuse of the citizen band radios. There is no state law governing CB abuse and yet it is a perceived public safety problem in virtually every village on the North Slope. The Federal Communications Commission regulates airwaves under federal law and has on numerous occassions indicated that the use of profanity and vulgarity by people using the CBs is in fact a violation of federal law. However, they do not have the time or the resources to deal with what they perceive to be a minor problem.
Another example of the inability of the criminal system to deal with problems is in the area of Minors Consuming Alcohol. If we want to work with our youth by providing early intervention to prevent negative drinking patterns from becoming reinforced, one of the only tools available to the police is the Minors Consuming Alcohol state law. The District Attorneys in court systems are often too busy to pay attention to these particular low-- level misdemeanors, so the youth involved in drinking are not helped or counseled. Thus, the behavior continues until the offender commits some serious crime. Then, the court system will address the serious crime but not all of the problems that led up to it.
I would like to recommend to the commission that alternative methods of dealing with local disputes by explored. A recent publication by the Alaska Judicial Council titled Resolving Disputes Locally; Alternatives for Rural Alaska, dated August 1992, discusses the results of three such programs: the Minto Tribal Court, the Sitka Tribal Court, and PACT in Barrow which is a community organization of volunteers trained in mediation and conciliation. These methods of conflict resolution can assist communities where the State Justice System fails. This method of using elders from the communities as judges to resolve issues which might otherwise be bogged down or ignored in the State Judicial System merits further analysis. This appears to me to be an excellent technique of involving respected elders who are sensitive to the cultural issues being faced by our youth in solving some of our community problems.
In short, then, I would recommend that State and Federal agencies increase funding opportunities to communities who are willing to develop unique community solutions to augment the State and Federal judicial system.
Another concern is the State corrections system. There are weaknesses in the treatment and rehabilitation of offenders. Today, there are over 100 North Slope residents incarcerated in the State Correctional system. A recent news article reported that 33% of the State's jail population is made up of Alaskan Natives. The Alaskan Native population within the State is approximately 15%. An examination of state programs will show that none are designed to meet the unique social and cultural needs of the Alaskan Natives incarcerated therein. In my opinion, Alaska Natives are being warehoused in correctional institutions which are too distant from their home communities. How can offenders participate in family counseling as treatment therapy when the family and offenders are separated by over 750 miles? How can those who are incarcerated in the current State Correctional system stay in touch with their communities and loved ones and maintain their cultural identity? What do we really think the chances of successful rehabilitation of an Alaskan Native offender will be after several years of no contact with their communities and extended families?
Thus, if we are going to operate within the State Judicial System as it now exists, then we must do a better job with rehabilitation efforts. On the North Slope, we have need for a local regional correctional facility. This will allow for locally designed programs so inmates can be closer to their families. We can develop rehabilitation programs that would gradually reintegrate the offender, with his/her cultural identity intact, back into the community. We are currently conducting a study on the feasibility of a rehabilitation center on the North Slope. We need to have the State join us in a partnership on this project. We may design culturally sensitive rehabilitation facilities but without the partnership of the State and Federal governments in the efforts, it is fiscally unmanageable. Therefore, I would like to recommend to the Commission that they consider this need in corrections and to recommend that funding be available not only for the North Slope but for other communities which are likewise attempting to work on the problem of corrections and of trying to provide rehabilitation and yet at the same time maintain cultural identity.
As I stated earlier, rural Alaska has unique needs and I would hope that the State and Federal agencies will allow the communities the latitude to devise unique solutions. For example, when agencies have funding available for assistance, these grants should allow for innovation. The grant proposals should foster inter-agency partnerships and cooperation in the development of long term solutions to problems of rural communities and Alaskan Natives. The problems mentioned here today are not the fault of any one agency and neither can they be solved by any one group.
In closing, thank you for your time this morning.
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