Feds: Report shows progress in tribal prosecutions
Source: Associated Press
Feds: Report shows progress in tribal prosecutions
By DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press | August 26, 2014 | Updated: August 26, 2014 8:04pm
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Federal attorneys say an updated report released Tuesday on investigations and prosecutions on tribal lands shows continued improvement since a 5-year-old study that criticized the Department of Justice for turning its back on reservation crime.
The report from the DOJ states that 2,542 cases were filed in Indian Country in the 2013 fiscal year, a 34 percent increase from when the federal government began its tribal justice initiative in 2009. That's down from the 3,145 cases brought in 2012, which DOJ officials attribute primarily to reduced budgets and a hiring freeze.
Timothy Purdon, U.S. attorney for North Dakota and chair of an advisory committee on Native American issues, said the study proves that federal prosecutors are "keeping our promises" to improve tribal public safety.
"If you deal with more cases, you're moving more violent predators and drug dealers and people like that from the reservation," Purdon said. "I feel like we're making progress, but these problems are centuries in the making. We're not going to solve this at DOJ in three years with a new program."
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released in 2010 revealed that federal prosecutors had declined 50 percent of American Indian cases in a five-year period ending in 2009. Federal officials responded with a report in April 2013 that provided the first look at government investigations and prosecutions on tribal lands.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Feds-Report-shows-progress-in-tribal-prosecutions-5714211.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
