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Long jail terms and heavy fines are not the punishments of choice for wrongdoing on the Alexis Reserve.
Though standard Canadian punishment is not completely avoided, it is often tempered or eliminated through the local First Nation justice committee project, a successful program that may now serve as a portable model in reserves across Alberta.
The Alexis Justice Court Model was one of many topics discussed at the Strength in Partnerships Crime Prevention Conference Oct. 3 to 5. The cross-cultural conference was held at Edmonton's Mayfield Inn and was hosted by the Yellowhead Tribal Community Corrections Society.
The model, established in the early 1990s, was the brainchild of Judge Ayotte and Rupert Arcand, a probation officer for the Yellowhead Tribal Community Corrections Society.
They realized a different approach was needed on the reserve to replace the imposed European/Canadian system of justice, as offenders were not experiencing much positive change.
Assembling a group of people from the reserve, chaired by the late Thomas Potts, a justice committee was established.
The committee's role was to assess an accused person's actions and recommend a punishment to the court based on the history, characteristics and plight of the accused.
"(Under the system) you are not just an accused person - not just a number on a docket," said Crown prosecutor Wes Dunfield, one of the speakers at the conference.
Dunfield, who is employed alongside founder Judge Ayotte, said working with the justice committee has allowed many offenders to heal in the community rather than be isolated in jail and often return to the community with more problems.
Because the committee knows all the people in the community so well "the recommendations we get back are absolutely golden," said Dunfield.
The Alexis court model is not very complex and is more economical than other similar models, operating without any government funding, said Dunfield.
It is the hope of the committee to see similar court models set up in other reserves, making sentencing a time for positive change, not just isolation.
The long-standing mistrust of the justice system is slowly changing in Alexis due to the harmonious work between the Canadian justice system and the Native committee, said justice committee chairwoman Sandra Potts.
Potts said the 15 volunteer members of the committee meet with accused individuals for two or three days per month. The original sentence recommendation is followed by ongoing meetings with the offender to report the progress being made.
Many of the offences committed are the result of alcohol abuse, making recovery from addiction a major concern of the justice committee.
"Sometimes it's pretty overwhelming. We get emotionally drained trying to steer people towards sobriety," said Evelyn Potts, justice committee member and widow of the late Thomas Potts.
She said alcoholism is often the thing that needs to be dealt with first before other bad habits can be broken.
The main connection between the committee and the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program on the reserve is Harvey Mustus, a father of eight and a former alcoholic.
He said that five years ago what he did best was "drink and tell lies and cruise around without a licence."
When convicted for an offence, Mustus decided to change his life around and get involved with AA and the justice committee.
He helped set up an AA program in Alexis so people wouldn't have to drive way off the reserve to be part of the program like he did.
The first year there were only two or three participants and Mustus was tempted to give up.
"But I knew it was time for me to do something for my people, so I hung on," said Mustus, who is also a volunteer member of the justice committee.
He has been sober for four years now and said the justice committee and AA worked for him so it can work for others.
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