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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1976)
OCTOBER 29, 1*76 WARM SPRINGS, OREGON PAGE 3 Tribe plans juvenile criminal justice program The need has existed for a long time but the reality of a juvenile Criminal Justice Pro gram for Warm Springs is just now taking form. With the arrival of funding, a program director and a juvenile court judge, work has begun on the development of the program and the facility to house it. A total of $200,000, includ ing a $150,000 grant from the LEAA (Law Enforcement As sistance Administration) and $50,000 from the Tribe, is available for construction of a juvenile justice facility. Such a building would house the Juve nile Court, a Juvenile Deten tion Home and the personnel directly involved in the pro gram. A tentative site by the jail is being considered and negoti ations have begun with an Indian architect from Okla homa. It is expected that a construction contract will be awarded by the summer of 1977 and that the facility may be completed by late 1977. Funds for the implementa tion of the juvenile justice pro gram itself will be supplied by the Tribe and the BIA. Dick Montee has been hired as the Program Director and he is already laying the groundwork for the effective incorporation of the program into the exist ing system of services. (See diagram for the position of the program in relation to other tribal and BIA services and departments) Addressing a multi-faceted, problem Municipal Manager Rudy Clements started the ball roll ing about a year and a half ago by recommending that a grant application be made'to LEAA. But he was not alone in perceiving a widespread com munity problem that was in need of attention. The Tribal Court docket has been crowded with juvenile cases ranging from truancy and runaway to serious alcohol and drug violations. The pro posal for the Juvenile Justice Program (March 1975) refer red to the burden on the juvenile officer who, in the face of an overloaded court, had to handle a large number of less serious cases on an “informal” corrective and re ferral basis, bypassing arrest and trial. Those juveniles requiring incarceration have been placed with adults in the jail, or with less severely troubled kids in the Tribal Group Home, neither of which are ideal ar rangements. Each step of the process was found to be in need of improvement. Not only was a more focused and efficient method of handling arrested juveniles called for, but the need for a detention facility with effective rehabilitation and follow-up was recognized. And most importantly, pre ventative measures were seen as a key to the reduction of juvenile problems. The Juvenile Criminal Jus tice Program will address all these aspects. The program’s three major components - law enforcement, the Juvenile Court and the Detention Home .- will be coordinated by Di rector Dick Montee who oper ates out of the Municipal Branch. Two Juvenile Officers working out of the Police De partment will address the law enforcement phase of the pro gram. The Juvenile Court, al though independent of the Mu nicipal Branch, will be the pivotal part of the juvenile justice system. Referrals will be handled by two Probation and Parole Officers and the Detention Home. And of course Tribal and BIA human services will be utilized as needed. The detention facility will serve to contain offending juveniles as protection to the community, but will also offer them constructive rehabilita tion. A home environment will be created in which counseling, education and the development of personal interests and skills will be encouraged. A resi dence manager, the parole and Kah-Nee-Ta enjoys three month profit For the first time in the history of Kah-Nee-Ta Resort, management is pleased to re port a net profit for the months of June, July and Aug ust 1976, and a gross operating profit for the month of Septem ber. Room occupancies were higher than forecast at both the lodge and the village for those months. According to Ed Manion, enterprise manager, room occupancy during August was the highest on record - the highest in the history of Kah- Nee-Ta Resort. A comparison of June, July, and August 1976 with those same months in 1975 shows the following: June ‘75 a 13.6 percent loss and June ‘76 a 5.5 percent gain; July ‘75 an 11.6 percent loss and July ‘76 an 11.8 percent gain; August ‘75 a 10.2 percent loss and August *76 a 3.1 percent gain. The percentage of rooms occupied at both the village and the Lodge in June, July and Aug. ‘76 is as follows: June, 66 percent; July, 79 percent; and August, 89 per cent. The occupancy rate for the three months averaged out to 78 percent, approximately the same occupancy rate as 1975 with 55 more rooms. This is the first time Kah- Nee-Ta has enjoyed a profit and in addition, records indi cate that volume is picking up earlier in the year and lasting until later in the year. Busi ness is tapering rather than dropping. Ken Smith, General Man ager, said he is interested in the trend and direction of Kah- Nee-Ta business and said he is glad to see the trend as posi tive rather than negative for a change. Tribal Members JUVENILE CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROGRAM Tribal Council REFERRAL SERVICES LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES Chief of Police Juvenile Court Tribal Mental Health Indian Health Service Bureau of Indian Affairs Juvenile Law Enforcement Officers (2) Tribal Education Department Local Public Schools Tribal Employment Program Tribal Recreation Department others as appropriate probation counselors, four at tendants and a cook will be professionally trained to pro vide an effective treatment atmosphere. Operating on the premise that delinquency is a symptom of community and family problems, the Juvenile Crimi nal Justice Program will seek to involve the family of the youth in treatment and to intergrate the juvenile into community activities. In the meantime . . . Although completion of the facility is at least a year off, the program is partially un derway. Juvenile Court Judge Hamilton Greeley is working with Director Montee on set ting up juvenile court proced ures. Court referrals will be handled with existing resources until the staff and facility are ready. Montee hopes to have a second juvenile officer hired soon to ease the caseload in the police department. Montee is also currently meeting with the other departments that will be directly and indirectly in volved - in particular Law Enforcement, Mental Health, and Recreation - in order to pave the way for a coordinated effort. Related activities As the Juvenile Criminal Justice Program gets under way, the existing Law En forcement Department is mak ing some other improvements. The jail, which is currently in a serious state of disrepair, might be getting a facelift. A slide presentation is being pre pared for the General and Mu nicipal Managers, the Law and Order Committee and the Health and Welfare Committee, showing such conditions as large holes in the wall. LEAA or Tribal funding is being sought for the major repair work needed. Nutrition at the jail should improve when the juvenile home’s kit chen is operable since that cook will provide meals for both facilities. A two-part study of law enforcement on Indian reser vations is being launched by the BIA nationwide. The BIA investigators, Chief of Police, Tribal Court and Juvenile Di rector in Warm Springs will spend the next several months identifying all local law en forcement problems and rank ing them in importance. The BIA in D.C. will process the information and provide advice on how to attack the identified problems. Not only juveniles, but the whole community will be bene fiting from the planning and reorganization that is taking place in the area of law en forcement in Warm Springs. DICK MONTEE IS BACK IN TOWN. And greeting him is the entire Juvenile Criminal Justice Program. Montee has been selected as the Director and it is his job to give shape and substance to the new program. Montee is familiar to many Warm Springs residents as the criminal investigator on the reservation from 1967 to 1971. Prior to that he was the Juvenile Officer. The FBI accepted Montee into its ranks in 1971 and he and his family lived in Denver and San Diego for the next 5% years. The Montees decided that central Oregon’s climate was a bit. healthier so they returned in November of last year. While Dick tried to get a transfer from the FBI (which never came through), his wife Eva took a job with the Tribe. Eva is now the Women’s Activities Coordinator at the Community Center. Rudy Clements approached Dick last spring with the Juvenile Program Directorship and the old cop couldn’t resist. Montee considers the job to be quite a challenge and is happy to be back in Warm Springs among the people for whom he has a “real affection and commitment.”
