Reports

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  Narrative Report to Law Reform Commission of Australia on Results of Field Trip to the Northern Territory Pursuant to the Reference on Customary Law

  Stephen Conn

  This submission to the Law Review Commission of Australia (later the Australian Law Review Commission) makes recommendations regarding to what extent existing courts or Aboriginal communities themselves should be empowered to apply Aboriginal customary law and practices in the trial, punishment, and rehabilitation of Aboriginal offenders. The report is based on field interviews in six Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory of Australia as well police, magistrates, solicitors, legal aid field officers, the Crown Solicitor of the Northern Territory; and community advisors and staff of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. The report discusses the relationship between indigenous law and the western law system derived from the British common law system as one of legal pluralism — more than on legal process at work in the same environment at the same time — and draws comparisons between legal pluralism as it exists in Australia with the situation in Alaska.

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  Alaska Correctional Master Plan: Proposed Funding Strategy

  Roger V. Endell

  In 1978, the State of Alaska committed itself to the development of a comprehensive master plan for its correctional system based on a philosophy consistent with the mandate of the Alaska Constitution (Article 1, Section 12): "Penal administration shall be based upon the principle of reformation and upon the need for protecting the public." A fundamental goal of the recommendations of the Alaska Corrections Master Plan is the provision of the most adequate corrections system for Alaska at the least possible cost. The single most effective means of accomplishing this is to avoid unnecessary incarceration of offenders, thereby avoiding the capital cost of constructing new facilities to accommodate growing inmate populations. Avoidance of unnecessary incarceration in turn requires development of a full range of community-based corrections programs, including pre-trial release, probation, pre-release, and parole supervision. This report recommends administrative and statutory changes for a proposed funding strategy.

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  Seven Years of Individualized Training: An Examination of Specialized Training Grants Funded by the Alaska Criminal Justice Planning Agency, 1973 through 1979

  Roger V. Endell

  Prior to the establishment of the Criminal Justice Center at the University of Alaska (renamed the Justice Center in 1979), no program has attempted to train and educate Alaska justice practitioners on a continuing basis and at all agency levels. The Alaska Criminal Justice Planning Agency, through the Governor's Commission on the Administration of Justice, has attempted to deal with this training problem on an interim basement through the Specialized Training Grant program, which enables "state and local police officers, correctional officers, prosecutors, public defenders, and court personnel [to obtain] specialized training sponsored by other agencies and institutions," often involving travel out-of-state for programs largely unavailable in Alaska. This study examines individualized grants funded for the years 1973–1979 as a means of measuring the effectiveness of the Specialized Training Grant program as on approach to the continuing professionalization of Alaska's criminal justice personnel.

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  Social Services and Corrections: Some Impressions of the North Slope Borough of Alaska

  Roger V. Endell

  Justice services formerly provided by the State of Alaska to residents of the North Slope Borough have been withdrawn in recent years. For example, there is no longer either an Alaska State Trooper or a Divisions of Corrections probation officer based in the borough capital, Barrow. This report presents observations and recommendations addressing the borough government's questions about the planning and development of borough correctional services, relations with the North Slope Borough Department of Public Safety, Alaska Court System, Alaska Division of Corrections, and Inpuiat University (later known as Iḷisaġvik College), issues related to alcohol offenders, probation services, and other issues related to borough correctional services.

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  Criminally Committed Mental Patient Services: A Task Force Report

  Roger V. Endell and John E. Havelock

  Until 1980, criminal defendants found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity were committed under contract, at the discretion of the Alaska Division of Mental Health, to Atascadero State Hospital in California, a facility suitable to longer-term care of persons needing a secure setting. Changes in California state policy foreclosed this option. The most likely facility in Alaska that could accommodate this class of patients was Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API) in Anchorage; however, introduction of a few new patients with special security needs would have impacts on existing programs of the Institute. This report presents recommendations of the Task Force on Criminally Committed Mental Patient Services for placement and treatment of criminal committed mental patients at Alaska Psychiatric Institute.

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  Legislative Implementation for the Corrections Master Plan, State of Alaska

  John E. Havelock

  In 1978 and 1979 the State of Alaska committed itself to the development of the first master plan for corrections in the state's history. The Alaska Corrections Master Plan included some 576 pages of recommendations plus appendixes. Faced with the task of implementing this plan, the House Committee on Finance of the Alaska State Legislature requested the Justice Center to (1) extract those elements of the master plan which had legislative implications (see "The Alaska Corrections Master Plan: Legislative Implications" by Roger V. Endell, 1979); and (2) to commit to legislative language those proposals which embodied suggestions for legislative change. This report is the product of that second phase study, providing comments and action recommendations for each of eleven recommendations of the Alaska Corrections Master Plan.

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  The Public's Perspective— Justice Administration 1980: A Survey of Public Opinion

  John E. Havelock, Peter Smith Ring, and Kevin Bruce

  This public opinion survey was commissioned by the Alaska Criminal Justice Planning Agency, Governor's Commission on the Administration of Justice, to help people interested in justice administration in planning, predicting, and educating with respect to the future design and administration of the justice system in Alaska. The survey was conducted during November and December 1979 and included 676 respondents from throughout Alaska. The survey elicited public opinion in four major areas: (1) the climate of public safety, including perceptions of crime rates, public safety, gun ownership, victimization, and family violence; (2) images of the justice professional, including professional skills, professionalism, educational qualifications, discretionary judgments, and discriminatory practices; (3) changes in the law, including the role of public opinion in revision of law, strictness and leniency of laws, perceptions of revisions (including recent revisions in sentencing, the Alaska criminal code, alcohol regulations, and drug laws), perceptions of laws relating to alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs, criminality of gambling and sex offenses, and election of justice officials; and (4) public attitudes toward selected decisions regarding the administration of justice, including law enforcement and corrections priorities, justice services in rural Alaska, consolidation of public safety services, police use of firearms, sentencing, and public education in justice.

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  Uniform Juvenile Intake Procedures

  Elizabeth R. Horn

  As noted in the Alaska Corrections Master Plan, intake screening for juvenile offenders for detention and petition is performed in some communities by Alaska Court System employees and in others by employees of the Alaska Department of Corrections. This circumstance, as well as differing community standards, results in divergent practices in different parts of the state. Legislation will be recommended to the 1981 Alaska legislature to unify the administration of intake services in the new Division of Youth Services, and to set forth criteria and standards for decisions with respect to the preadjudication detention of youth and the petitioning of youth to the juvenile court. This report examines the development nationally of standards for secure detention of juveniles and disposition of juvenile cases, and presents recommendations for the administration of intake services, secure detention, and judicial and nonjudicial handling of cases at intake in Alaska.

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  Short Papers Prepared for the Law Reform Commission While in Australia

  Conn N/A

  These four brief papers were submitted for the consideration of the Law Review Commission of Australia (later the Australian Law Review Commission) in its inquiry about whether it would be desirable to apply, either in whole or in part, Aboriginal customary law to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The author presents suggestions and information based on his research on traditional law ways among Alaska Native peoples and the relationship between indigenous law and the western law system in Alaska.

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  Evaluation of Pre-Trial Diversion Project, State of Alaska, Department of Law

  Peter Smith Ring and Kevin Bruce

  In February 1978 the Alaska Department of Law initiated a pilot pretrial intervention (PTI) project in Anchorage directed at first-time property offenders with no history of violence and no current drug or alcohol dependency. The project was aimed at reducing recidivism and costs to the criminal justice system, and included a built-in evaluation component. This report explores the PTI project's impact by (1) comparing PTI clients with other defendants; (2) investigating compliance of PTI clients with contracts to which they agree at time of program entry; (3) comparing costs of PTI compared with those generated in ordinary criminal cases; (4) evaluating the program's administration, identifying its deficiencies, and suggesting improvements; and (5) looking at recidivism rates of PTI clients.

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  The Pre-Law Introductory Program: A Report

  Lois Sanborn and John E. Havelock

  This report describes an intensive four-week Pre-Law School Introductory Program offered in August 1980 by the Justice Center at University of Alaska, Anchorage to potential law school candidates from Alaska, focusing on Alaska Natives and members of other ethnic minorities. Two possible directions for further development of this pre-law program are discussed.

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  Alaskan Village Justice: An Exploratory Study

  John E. Angell

  Initiated by the Alaska Criminal Justice Planning Agency, this is the first comprehensive study of public safety and the administration of justice in the predominately Alaska Native villages of rural or "bush" Alaska. Researchers visited 56 communities within seven of the twelve Alaska Native corporation regions in the state as part of an exploratory effort to collect crime and justice information for use by the State of Alaska in criminal justice policy development in rural areas of the state. Information was gathered in three ways: (1) review of available documents related to each of the communities; (2) direct observations of the communities and justice operations within them; and (3) structured interviews with community residents to elict both object and subjective information about operation of public safety and social control systems. The 175 interviewees included community officials, village police officers, health aides, and magistrates. The report addresses customs, law, and crime in village Alaska; context on justice services in Native communities; police services; legal and judicial services; prisoner detention and corrections; and recommendations for improving the delivery of justice services to rural communities. The study concluded that bush residents do not receive equal protection regarding public safety and justice services in comparison with their counterparts in larger Alaska communities; that the State of Alaska does not have have adequate data needed to identify and address public safety and justice problems in bush areas; and that bush villages and rural Natives are not homogeneous entities and hence require varied and particularized responses by the state.

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  Alaska Corrections Master Plan: A Preliminary Draft Summary

  Roger V. Endell

  In 1978, the State of Alaska committed itself to the development of a comprehensive master plan for its correctional system based on a philosophy consistent with the mandate of the Alaska Constitution (Article 1, Section 12): "Penal administration shall be based unon the principle of reformation and upon the need for protecting the public." This summary of the Alaska Corrections Master Plan was prepared to facilitate an overview of the various sections of the plan prior to the final meeting of the joint Master Plan Advisory Committee. As the plan itself was not yet in final approved form, this summary reflects the plan as it existed prior to finalization.

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  The Alaska Corrections Master Plan: Legislative Implications

  Roger V. Endell

  This paper provides to members of the Alaska State Legislature a summary of those areas of the Alaska Corrections Master Plan which have obvious legislative implications. It includes recommendations for (1) statutory changes, (2) operational funding (personnel), and (3) capital improvements above and beyond the "normal" correctional budgetary process. It is not an all-inclusive narrative summary of the Master Plan. The summary provides page reference numbers to the Master Plan, general topics, and a brief description of the recommendations under the three major topical headings listed above.

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  Project Evaluation: Tundra Women's Coalition (Bethel), A.W.A.I.C. (Anchorage), Male Awareness Project (Anchorage), Kodiak Women's Resource Center and Kodiak Police Department (Kodiak)

  Conn N/A, Douglas Barry, and Daniel O'Tierney

  This report presents evaluations of three Alaska agencies that deal with domestic violence: Tundra Women's Coalition in Bethel, through its Family Violence Program; Abused Women's Aid in Crisis (AWAIC) in Anchorage, through its programs for battered women as well as its Male Awareness Program; and Kodiak Women's Resource Center, including its relationship to Kodiak Police Department.

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  The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in Alaska

  Peter Smith Ring

  Alaska state law provides that Alaska communities may make legal or illegal the local sale of liquor. Further, they may restrict legal liquor sales to community-run liquor stores and may prosecute other sales of liquor or the possession or transportation of alcoholic beverages with the intent to sell them illegally. This study of the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board, conducted in connection with a larger research project dealing with varying legal approaches to the control of alcohol use in rural Alaska, was designed to determine the extent to which statewide legalistic control mechanisms for beverage alcohol helped or hindered local option control efforts.

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  Manual of Criminal Law and Procedure

  Peter Smith Ring, John E. Havelock, Daniel W. HIckey, and Barry J. Stern

  Intended to aid to Alaska law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties in the field, this manual was designed to provide brief, quick access to major points of substantive and procedural criminal law. The manual contained discussion and procedural guidelines for investigatory stops, identification procedures including line-ups, arrest, search and seizure, interrogation, as well as discussion of justification for the use of nondeadly and deadly force whether by peace officers or civilians, culpability, entrapment, trial preparation, and media relations. The section on substantive criminal law deals with a selection of crimes most likely to be encountered by "street" officers as defined with the recently enacted Revised Alaska Criminal Code (effective January 1, 1980), desribing elements of each crime, investigative hints, and differences with previous provisions of the criminal code, where relevant.

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  Alaska Criminal Code Revision — Tentative Draft, Part 5: General Provisions; Justification; Responsibility; Bad Checks; Littering; Business and Commercial Offenses; Credit Card Offenses; Offenses against the Family; Abuse of Public Office; Offenses against Public Order; Miscellaneous Offenses; Weapons and Explosives

  Alaska Criminal Code Revision Subcommission

  The Alaska Criminal Code Revision Commission was established in 1975, and reestablished in June 1976 as a Subcommission of the newly formed Code Commission, with the responsibility to present a comprehensive revision of Alaska’s criminal code for consideration by the Alaska State Legislature. Tentative Draft, Part 5, includes the remaining substantive provisions of the draft Revised Criminal Code not covered in prior parts of the tentative draft: articles on general provisions, justification (part 2), and responsibility (mental disease or defect); remaining sections in the Offenses Against Property chapter (issuing a bad check, littering); articles on business and commercial offenses (part 2) and credit card offenses; offenses against the family; the remaining article in the Offenses Against Public Administration chapter (abuse of public office); two Offenses Against Public Order articles (riot, disorderly conduct, and related offenses; and offenses against privacy of communication); weapons and explosives; and miscellaneous offenses. Commentary following each draft statute is designed to aid the reader in analyzing the effect of the draft Revised Code on existing law and also provides a section-by-section analysis of each provision of the draft Revised Code. Appendices include derivations of each provision of the Code and amendments to provisions contained in the Tentative Draft, Parts 1–3.

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  Alaska Criminal Code Revision — Tentative Draft, Part 6: Sentencing: Classification of Offenses Chart; Index to Tentative Draft, Parts 1-6

  Alaska Criminal Code Revision Subcommission

  The Alaska Criminal Code Revision Commission was established in 1975, and reestablished in June 1976 as a Subcommission of the newly formed Code Commission, with the responsibility to present a comprehensive revision of Alaska’s criminal code for consideration by the Alaska State Legislature. Tentative Draft, Part 6, contains an overview of sentencing in existing Alaska law as of 1978 and the provisions on sentencing and related procedures of the draft Revised Criminal Code, including classification of offenses, probation, fines, restitution, community service, imprisonment, and appeals. Commentary following each article is designed to aid the reader in analyzing the effect of the draft Revised Code on existing law and also provides a section-by-section analysis of each provision of the draft Revised Code. Appendices include definitions, proposed revisions to Title 33 of the Alaska Statutes (parole), a chart of classification of offenses, and an index to the six volumes of the Tentative Draft.

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  Commentary on the Alaska Revised Criminal Code (Ch. 166, SLA 1978) and Errata to the Commentary

  Alaska Criminal Code Revision Subcommission

  This pamphlet contains the Commentary on the Alaska Revised Criminal Code, which was passed by the Alaska State Legislature in June 1978 with an effective date of January 1, 1980. The revision followed four years of work by the Alaska Criminal Code Commission and Subcommission from 1975 to 1978. The Revised Criminal Code represents the first comprehensive revision of Alaska's criminal laws, which from 1899 to 1979 were primarily based on Oregon criminal statutes as they existed at the close of the nineteenth century. Earlier drafts of the commentary on the Revised Criminal Code may be found in the six-part Tentative Draft of the Code prepared by the Alaska Criminal Law Revision Subcommission during 1977 and 1978.

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  Alaska Village Police Training: An Assessment and Recommendations

  John E. Angell

  The nature and effectiveness of such traditional social control methods in Alaska Native cultures is difficult to evaluate because of their displacement by methods introduced by fur traders, the Revenue Cutter Service, and U.S. Marshals. Territorial and state police continued the practice of establishing in Native communities the justice models with which they were familiar. The Alaska State Police began to organize formal training programs for Alaska Native people who would serve as police officers in Fairbanks (1964) and Juneau (1965), with more extensive police training programs financed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Nome in 1966 and the U.S. Department of Labor in 1968 (conducted by the Alaska State Troopers). Beginning in 1971, the Alaska Department of Public Safety received action grants from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) for the initiation of a broadly conceived program for developing crminal justice services in Alaska Native villages statewide — the Alaska Village Police Training program. A total of approximately $542,000 of LEAA was ultimately invested in continuing the program over a period of seven years (1971–1978). The present study evaluates the Alaska Village Police Training program over the seven-year period on program purpose and goals, program achievements and impacts, and program costs. A final section contains recommendations for future programs to improve training for Alaska police in rural villages. Of 292 people trained since the program's inception, only 70 were still serving in their villages as of late 1978.

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  Justice Higher Education at the University of Alaska: A Curriculum Study

  John E. Angell

  The University of Alaska has been offering courses in police and correctional subjects since the mid-1960s. The University's entrance into this justice field was to take advantaqe of program opportunities rather than to develop comprehensive academic programs, and consequently the curriculum has developed incrementally — a course at a time. The Criminal Justice Center [later the Justice Center] was established in 1975 to oversee and coordinate the University's efforts in the field of justice. One of the top priorities identified by the Center was the reorganization of undergraduate curriculum offered by the University in justice fields. This document contains the materials developed as a basis for the curriculum planning. Original drafts of each of the chapters of this report were reviewed by a Curriculum Advisory Committee comprising all full-time faculty in the University of Alaska's justice programs during the 1976–1977 acacdemic year, representatives of UA faculty from related fields, and experts on justice higher education from outside the state. This group endorsed (1) philosophy and goals for University of Alaska justice programs, (2) a justice curriculum design for the University, and (3) the essentials of the basic standards for University's justice programs. The goals and curriculum prepared as a result of this project were processed through the University's academic system and approved by the University's Committee on Academic Policy in May of 1977, making these goals and curriculum models officially the basic policy of the University in the area of Justice academic programs. Proposed standards awaited statewide University of Alaska approval at the time of the report.

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  The Alaska Division of Corrections: An Institutional Population and Space Utilization Study

  Roger V. Endell

  The Legislative Interim Committee on Corrections, Alaska State Legislature, requested identification and assessment of the differing segments of institutional populations and their relationships to present space utilization practices of the Alaska Division of Corrections (later Department of Corrections). The basic questions for which solutions were sought related to development of reasonable options for relief of overcrowding in some institutions, to ensure more effective use of bed space in others, and to provide interim short-term solutions to system-wide overcrowding through modifications to existing facilities and through policy changes. The Committee emphasized that long-term facility planning should be properly left to the correctional master plan to be completed by early 1979. This report surveys correctional populations and space utilization practices within the eleven principal correctional centers managed by the Alaska Division of Corrections as of 1977–1978.

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  Alaska Criminal Code Revision — Tentative Draft, Part 1: Offenses against the Person

  Alaska Criminal Code Revision Subcommission

  The Alaska Criminal Code Revision Commission was established in 1975, and reestablished in June 1976 as a Subcommission of the newly formed Code Commission, with the responsibility to present a comprehensive revision of Alaska’s criminal code for consideration by the Alaska State Legislature. Tentative Draft, Part 1 is comprised of four articles contained in the Offenses Against the Person chapter of the draft Revised Criminal Code: criminal homicide, assault and related offenses, kidnapping and related offenses; and sexual offenses. Commentary following each article is designed to aid the reader in analyzing the effect of the draft Revised Code on existing law and also provides a section-by-section analysis of each provision of the draft Revised Code. Appendices include general definitions of terms used throughout the Code, including definitions of the four culpable mental states; derivations of each provision of the Code; existing law that the Code will revise; status of criminal code revision in other U.S. states; and an index to commentary.

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  Alaska Criminal Code Revision — Tentative Draft, Part 2: General Principles of Criminal Liability; Parties to a Crime; Attempt; Solicitation; Justification; Robbery; Bribery; Perjury

  Alaska Criminal Code Revision Subcommission

  he Alaska Criminal Code Revision Commission was established in 1975, and reestablished in June 1976 as a Subcommission of the newly formed Code Commission, with the responsibility to present a comprehensive revision of Alaska’s criminal code for consideration by the Alaska State Legislature. Tentative Draft, Part 2, is comprised of seven articles of the draft Revised Criminal Code: general principles of criminal liability; parties to crime; justification; attempt and related offenses (part 1); robbery; bribery and related offenses; and perjury and related offenses. Commentary following each article is designed to aid the reader in analyzing the effect of the draft Revised Code on existing law and also provides a section-by-section analysis of each provision of the draft Revised Code. Appendices include derivations of each provision of the Code; existing law that the Code will revise; and an index to commentary.