Sec. 2. Findings and purposes
434 words·~2 min read·
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Congress finds that— residents of remote Alaska villages suffer disproportionately from crimes and civil disturbances rooted in alcohol abuse, illicit drug use, suicide, and domestic violence; the alcohol-related suicide rate in remote Alaska villages is 6 times the average in the United States and the alcohol-related mortality rate is 3.5 times that of the general population of the United States; Alaska Native women suffer the highest rate of forcible sexual assault in the United States and an Alaska Native woman is sexually assaulted every 18 hours; according to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, one in two Alaska Native women experience physical or sexual violence; according to the 2006 Initial Report and Recommendations of the Alaska Rural Justice and Law Enforcement Commission, more than 95 percent of all crimes committed in rural Alaska can be attributed to alcohol abuse; the cost of drug and alcohol abuse in Alaska is estimated at $525,000,000 per year; there are more than 200 remote villages in Alaska, which are ancestral homelands to Indian tribes and geographically isolated by rivers, oceans, and mountains making most of those villages accessible only by air; small size and remoteness, lack of connection to a road system, and extreme weather conditions often prevent or delay travel, including that of law enforcement personnel, into remote villages, resulting in challenging law enforcement conditions; less than 1/2 of remote Alaska villages are served by trained State law enforcement entities and several Indian tribes provide peace officers or tribal police without adequate training or equipment; the lack of effective law enforcement entities in remote Alaska villages contributes significantly to increased crime, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, domestic violence, rates of suicide, poor educational achievement, and lack of economic development;
Indian tribes that operate within remote Alaska villages should be empowered to participate in local culturally relevant solutions to effectively provide law enforcement entities in villages and access to swift judicial proceedings; increasing capacities of local law enforcement entities to achieve increased tribal involvement in State law enforcement in remote villages will promote a stronger link between the State and village residents, encourage community involvement, and create greater local accountability with respect to violence and substance abuse; and the United States has a trust responsibility to Indian tribes in the State.
The purposes of this Act are— to improve the delivery of justice in Alaska Native villages by encouraging the State and Indian tribes to enter into intergovernmental agreements relating to the enforcement and adjudication of State laws relating to drug and alcohol offenses; and to enhance coordination and communication among Federal, State, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies.