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Native Americal Law Center
The University of Washington School of Law Native American Law Center received a $350,000 grant
from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Initiative.
This grant will focus on projects within Washington State Tribal communities and address juvenile justice reform.
This grant addresses two specific issues identified in the focus groups held at the Tribal Juvenile Justice Gathering in April 2010.
First, the tribes identified the pervasive need for a modern model tribal youth statute reflecting the cultural values of tribes and allowing
tribal courts to attempt novel, evidence-based interventions.
Second, tribes identified the difficulty of maintaining consistent representation by state-licensed attorneys for
juveniles in rural tribal communities. To address these issues, UW NALC developed two projects: the Model Tribal Youth Code which will
address the TAI of Disproportionate Minority Contact, and the Remote Representation Pilot, which will address the SOTA of Juvenile Indigent Defense.
Both projects are designed to assist in the development of national models for addressing these two target areas in Native American communities.