Legislature(2007 - 2008)CAPITOL 120
02/14/2007 01:30 PM House JUDICIARY
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| Start | |
| Overview(s): Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT MEETING
HOUSE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
SENATE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
February 14, 2007
1:35 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
HOUSE JUDICIARY
Representative Jay Ramras, Chair
Representative John Coghill
Representative Bob Lynn
Representative Max Gruenberg
Representative Lindsey Holmes
SENATE JUDICIARY
Senator Hollis French, Chair
Senator Charlie Huggins, Vice Chair
Senator Bill Wielechowski
Senator Gene Therriault
MEMBERS ABSENT
HOUSE JUDICIARY
Representative Nancy Dahlstrom, Vice Chair
Representative Ralph Samuels
SENATE JUDICIARY
Senator Lesil McGuire
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
OVERVIEW(S): ALASKA RURAL JUSTICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
COMMISSION
- HEARD
OVERVIEW(S): SEX OFFENDER MANAGEMENT IN ALASKA
- HEARING POSTPONED TO 2/15/07
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
TALIS COLBERG, Acting Attorney General
Department of Law;
State Co-Chair
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Assisted with the overview regarding the
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission.
JAMES TORGERSON, Non-Voting Federal Court Representative
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission
(No address provided)
POSITION STATEMENT: Assisted with the overview regarding the
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission.
LORETTA BULLARD, Non-Profit Native Corporation Representative,
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission
(No address provided)
POSITION STATEMENT: Assisted with the overview regarding the
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission.
BRUCE BOTELHO, Alaska Municipal League Representative
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Assisted with the overview regarding the
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission.
ACTION NARRATIVE
CHAIR HOLLIS FRENCH called the joint meeting of the Senate and
House Judiciary Standing Committees to order at 1:35:54 PM.
Senators Wielechowski, Huggins, and French were present at the
call to order. Representatives Lynn, Holmes, Gruenberg,
Coghill, and Ramras and Senator Therriault arrived as the
meeting was in progress.
^OVERVIEW(S): ALASKA RURAL JUSTICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
COMMISSION
1:36:15 PM
CHAIR FRENCH announced that the only order of business would be
the overview regarding the Alaska Rural Justice and Law
Enforcement Commission ("the Commission").
1:36:40 PM
TALIS COLBERG, Acting Attorney General, Department of Law; State
Co-Chair, Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission,
referring to a PowerPoint presentation, relayed that the
Commission was created by Congress in 2004, that members are
appointed by the U.S. Attorney General, and that the Commission
is charged with four broad areas of investigation as they relate
to rural Alaska: law enforcement, judicial systems, alcohol
importation and interdiction, and domestic violence (DV) and
child abuse. Reading from the PowerPoint presentation, he
mentioned the names and positions of other Commission members.
1:41:17 PM
JAMES TORGERSON, Non-Voting Federal Court Representative, Alaska
Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission, continuing with
the PowerPoint presentation, relayed that the Commission makes
its decisions by consensus, which means that some jurisdictional
questions are not dealt with because it would be unrealistic to
expect the various participants to agree on such questions;
instead, the commission works on issues for which it is possible
to gain consensus, and in forming its working groups, the
Commission attempts to ensure that all stakeholders are
involved. After review and adoption of recommendations that the
working groups come up with, the Commission then acts as an
advocate for implementing those recommendations. In response to
a question, he interrupted the PowerPoint presentation to relay
a few details about the timing, makeup, processes, benefits,
difficulties, agendas, and results of the Commission's meetings
and working group meetings.
MR. TORGERSON, returning to the PowerPoint presentation,
explained that the first working groups developed over 100
options that were then organized into nine general categories of
recommendations - engage in more partnering and collaboration,
make systemic changes to improve rural law enforcement, enlarge
the use of community-based solutions, broaden the use of
prevention approaches, broaden therapeutic efforts, increase
employment of rural residents in law enforcement and judicial
services, build additional capacity, increase access to judicial
services, and expand the use of new technologies; and that the
second working groups narrowed the focus to four specific areas
- developing a tiered system of law enforcement, developing a
model Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) memorandum of
understanding (MOU), exploring new uses for technology, and
alcohol interdiction. He then provided a few details regarding
those four areas of focus. In response to a question, he
indicated that additional conforming legislation may be needed
to assist with alcohol interdiction.
MR. TORGERSON referred to the PowerPoint presentation and the
category of recommendations regarding engaging in more
partnering and collaboration. The needs of rural Alaska coupled
with the limited resources for rural Alaska have elevated this
particular category of recommendations to the top of the
Commission's list, and, as was mentioned earlier, one specific
task has been the development of a model ICWA MOU, which could
then serve as an example of successful partnering and
collaboration.
1:57:07 PM
LORETTA BULLARD, Non-Profit Native Corporation Representative,
Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission, referred to
the PowerPoint presentation and the category of recommendations
regarding making systemic changes to improve rural law
enforcement. One specific recommendation is to develop a
uniform, statewide, tiered system of certification and training
because currently there is no relationship between the different
branches of law enforcement in rural areas - no natural
progression between branches - and so officers in one branch of
law enforcement have to go through training all over again
whenever they choose to work in another branch of law
enforcement. Remarking that having a uniform, statewide, tiered
system of certification and training will help address
recruitment problems in rural Alaska, she briefly mentioned some
of the branches of law enforcement that provide service in rural
Alaska, some of their training criteria, and which entities are
responsible for each branch's standards.
MS. BULLARD spoke of the recommendations pertaining to alcohol
interdiction such as establishing alcohol distribution points in
regional centers of the state to help monitor the influx of
alcohol into dry and damp communities, cross designation of
troopers and postal inspectors to help prevent drugs and alcohol
from being mailed or otherwise flown into Bush communities, and
possibly introducing legislation that would ban shipments of
alcohol in plastic bottle to rural Alaska since plastic bottles
are easier to conceal.
[Mr. Torgerson provided additional comments that were not picked
up well by the microphone.]
MR. TORGERSON mentioned possible legislation proposing
distribution centers in Bethel and Kotzebue, adding that
currently there is one in Barrow.
SENATOR HUGGINS questioned whether all of the Commission's
recommendations were feasible from a legal standpoint.
MR. TORGERSON acknowledged that some were not and were therefore
not being promoted by the Commission. Furthermore, some ideas
involving a change in the law are not yet in the form of
legislation, and the Commission is taking steps to ensure that
everything that is proposed passes constitutional muster.
2:08:29 PM
MS. BULLARD referred back to the PowerPoint presentation and the
category of recommendations regarding broadening the use of
prevention approaches. Currently there is a real lack of
prevention and education services in the villages; also, for
school-age children, there is particularly a need for
information in the schools regarding alcohol, substance abuse,
DV and child abuse, respect-based values, and interpersonal
relationships. She remarked that approximately 44 percent of
the population in certain rural communities is 18 years of age
and younger.
MS. BULLARD referred to the category of recommendations
regarding broadening therapeutic efforts. The Commission
supports the use of therapeutic courts. With recent state and
federal budgetary cuts, however, some programs in rural
communities have been cut, and so there is a huge need for
alcohol and drug abuse treatment as opposed to incarceration.
There is also a need for foster care, which perhaps could be
provided in group-home settings. Another category of
recommendations pertains to increasing employment of rural
residents in law enforcement and judicial services. For
example, 33 percent of those incarcerated in the state are
Alaska Native; therefore, positions in the Department of
Corrections (DOC) ought to be filled with Alaska Natives.
MS. BULLARD mentioned that Village Public Safety Officers
(VPSOs) are currently serving as probation officers in the
villages, and this is working very well, though they are not
fully trained as probation officers. In response to comments,
she acknowledged that allegations of conflict of interest
between village residents and locally hired VPSOs serving as
probation officers do arise, but such allegations are dealt with
at the time on a case-by-case basis.
2:16:42 PM
MS. BULLARD referred back to the PowerPoint presentation and the
category of recommendations regarding building additional
capacity. For example, a lot of VPSOs are being hired from
outside of the community, sometimes even from outside the state,
and this has created "housing crunches" because housing in the
villages is limited in general. Another issue that has arisen
is the deplorable conditions of village holding facilities which
in turn raises liability issues for local and state government.
MS. BULLARD, with regard to the category of recommendations
regarding increasing access to judicial services, said that the
Commission would like to see: enhanced funding to increase
access to civil legal assistance, and better utilization of
tribal courts. In response to a question, she mentioned that
the "Kake tribal court" was been used as an example [of a
successful tribal court] during the Commission's public hearing
process, and that that court was created in 1997 to address
issues of concern in the community - such as youth suicide - in
a non-punitive manner.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL remarked that a lot of communities are
attempting establish a restorative justice model, and that this
creates the potential for jurisdictional problems, adding that
he is not a big fan of surrendering state authority to tribal
governments because, with the exception of the ICWA, there are
no standards established to deal with situations in which
different entities propose different remedies and attempt to
assert their own authority.
MR. TORGERSON acknowledged that the jurisdictional issues need
to be resolved, and although such might not happen until the
U.S. Supreme Court or Congress acts further, the underlying
needs of the community still need to be addressed even if it
means a "jurisdiction-sharing approach."
SENATOR THERRIAULT cautioned that the Commission should be
careful not to establish a policy piecemeal that the citizens,
through their elected officials, wouldn't approve of as a whole.
MS. BULLARD referred back to the PowerPoint presentation and the
category of recommendations regarding expanding the use of new
technologies, such as allowing law enforcement access to the
connectivity of the "tele-health system" in rural Alaska via an
amendment to the federal telecommunications Act, having the DOC
explore increased usage of electronic monitoring, and allowing
the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board ("ABC Board") to develop a
statewide database in order to track "volume shipments" to the
Bush.
CHAIR RAMRAS noted that he is an "on-premise licensee," and that
he is aware of "package licensees" that ship large volumes of
liquor to damp and wet communities, and remarked that in doing
so they might as well be sending explosives to those
communities.
2:34:10 PM
BRUCE BOTELHO, Alaska Municipal League Representative, Alaska
Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission, in response to a
question, said that the aforementioned database is part of a
comprehensive approach and primarily raises the issue of cost.
The goal is to set up a tracking system managed by the ABC Board
wherein package stores would electronically record sales into a
central database so that cumulative efforts to market into a dry
or damp community could be tracked.
CHAIR RAMRAS said he'd recently had a conversation with the
operations director of a local [Fairbanks] air carrier who
relayed that even when airport police use drug dogs to determine
which packages contain drugs, they are not able to do anything
because they need a warrant that can only issued by a postal
inspector and there isn't a postal inspector in Fairbanks; thus
local law enforcement is unable to address this known drug
problem. He said he would like to see a memorandum from the
Commission specifically addressing this issue.
MR. BOTELHO indicated that the Commission would [issue one],
though it recognizes that there are constitutional and
jurisdictional issues that any forthcoming recommendations
regarding drug and alcohol trafficking must address as well.
MS. BULLARD remarked that the Commission has sought to have
state troopers "cross deputized" by the post office.
CHAIR RAMRAS asked whether it would be helpful for the
legislature, via a resolution, to ask that that process be
expedited.
MR. BOTELHO indicated that the Commission would discuss that
possibility at its next meeting.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL noted that tracking liquor sales to damp
and wet communities could raise constitutional issues.
2:44:18 PM
MS. BULLARD mentioned that some people flying from Fairbanks
into Nome now choose to do so via smaller airlines because they
don't get searched like they would if they flew on Alaska
Airlines.
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL COLBERG referred to the PowerPoint
presentation, specifically the slide titled "Recommendations
Impacting State Law", and indicated that federal and state
funding should be sought, that there should be changes to
Title 4 regarding the definition of "manufacture" and the
expansion of forfeiture provisions, and that there should be
changes to other statutes so that written order sales to dry
towns and shipping plastic [bottles] by air is banned. The next
slide he referred to and commented on offered the following
recommendations: require hub communities to have alcohol
distribution sites - this would centralize alcohol tracking
efforts; allow the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to
delegate authority to tribes; permit tribes to participate in
juvenile sentencing and treatment; allow relatives to take
foster children at [a] standard rate - this could help address
villages' disproportionate per capita problems; and involve
tribes and allow flexibility in foster home licensing.
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL COLBERG attempted to assure the
committee that the [Commission] is in no rush to surrender the
state's rights and is mindful of the issues involved. The
Commission hopes to have the time and money to continue its work
to a conclusion. Although there is a request into Congress to
extend the life of the Commission, which is due to run out of
funds within a month, the Commission is seeking "stop-gap
funding" [from the state] of at least $50,000. The Commission
is very close to making substantive contributions towards
addressing the four underlying issues that the Commission was
created to address.
MS. BULLARD, in response to comments, explained that the
Commission, which is funded completely by Congress, has spent
$272,000 annually.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL surmised that the Commission's funding
might ultimately become the state's burden.
CHAIR FRENCH concurred.
MR. BOTELHO, in response to a question regarding the
Commission's recommendation to alter statute so that written
order sales to residents of dry communities is banned,
acknowledged that several constitutional issues still need to be
addressed.
MS. BULLARD, in response to comments regarding the Commission's
recommendation that an amendment be made to the federal
telecommunications Act in order to allow access to the
connectivity of the "tele-health system" in rural Alaska, noted
that currently under that Act, only hospitals, clinics,
libraries, and schools [in rural Alaska] are eligible for
subsidized rates; the Commission, therefore, is petitioning U.S.
Senator Stevens to make changes that would allow all entities in
rural Alaska to take advantage of those subsidized rates and
that would provide for competition amongst providers of
telecommunications services.
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committees, the joint
meeting of the House and Senate Judiciary Standing Committees
was adjourned at 3:03 p.m.
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