Preventing crime works in communites

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Lots has been said and written about preventing crime through social development initiatives that are meant to reduce problems that research has shown always lead to societal breakdown. There are housing programs to counter unhealthy living conditions, educational initiatives to stem the school drop out rate, development of recreational facilities and programs to keep youth away from bad influences and drugs, and efforts to improve rehabilitation services for people who have addiction problems or who have run afoul of the law. One of such programs is the First Nations' Crime Prevention Program supported by Alberta Justice.

According to Gloria Ohrt, manager of prevention programs in the policing services branch, public security division of Alberta Justice, currently there are six people in five crime prevention co-ordinator positions on nine reserves participating.

Co-ordinators are attached to the Blood Tribe's Kainai Community Corrections Society, which was the first to sign on in 1989; the Tsuu T'ina Nation-Stoney Corrections Society; the Yellowhead Tribal Community Corrections Society (Alexander, Alexis, Enoch, Sunchild, and O'Chiese First Nations); and the Tallcree Tribal Government of the Tallcree First Nation. These co-ordinators are all First Nations people, who are responsible for administering a wide range of community based and community driven crime prevention programs.

The government does three-year reviews of all of them, with encouraging results so far. Alberta Justice now is looking to expand the program onto additional reserves, Ohrt said.

Alberta Sweetgrass attempted to contact representatives from all the First Nations involved to find out what was working or not working for them addressing the root causes of crime. Not all of them could be reached as they were involved in a two-day planning session at press time. The people we reached, however, were unanimous in stressing the need to continue targeting programs at youth and the need to rely on the support and input of Elders. They also said that whole-hearted backup by chief and council was also essential.

Alberta's crime rate rose by two per cent in 1997, after seeing the rate drop the previous five years. The same year, violent crime in the province was up five per cent, following two years of decline. Over 20 years, violent crime in the province has increased by 36 per cent, compared to 82 per cent for all of Canada. Minor assaults accounted for 81 per cent of the violent crimes in 1997, up from 49 per cent in 1993. The Justice Department reports that most of the increase in violent crime during the past decade can be attributed to a 73 per cent increase in minor assaults in this period. Yet, according to a 1998 Environics Poll, 90 per cent of Albertans believe that increasing crime prevention actions is a "very effective" or "somewhat effective" way to go. Almost as many (87 per cent) supported increasing social programs. Only 55 per cent thought that passing more law was the answer to reducing crime.

All the people we talked to said they had seen improvements, as a result of efforts made by First Nations in concert with the Justice Department. One First Nation spokesperson said that if you took 5,000 people in a city such as Calgary and compared the sample with 5,000 from the reserves, you would still see a disproportionate number of social problems and justice system involvement in the Aboriginal group. Nevertheless, she concurred with Orht's view that "there are some marvelous things going on at a community level in these programs."

The Blood Tribe, which has been at the forefront in this effort to reduce crime, saw one of its own, Wayne Plume, from Kainai Community Corrections, honored in 1997. Plume received the Alberta Justice Crime Prevention Award which recognizes outstanding achievement in crime prevention.

Rick Soup, director of community corrections with Kainai brought Sweetgrass up to date on some of their recent activities. Co-odinator Marcel Weaselhead said he recently had a proposal approved at the federal level to offer workshops to their approximate 7,500 members. Mainly, they target kids who need the programs, he said.

Weaselhead works with volunteers and other agencies, probation officers, Elders, corrections officers, police and gets involved in school recreational activities. These activities are mirrored by co-ordinators on the other reserves, but Kainai's was the first in Canada, according to Soup.

They have formed a Youth Task Force, with volunteer representatives from all four directions of their large reserve.

Their $55,000 budget pays Weaselhead's salary and supports all programs such as floor hockey at Moses Lake, where they provided t-shirts and prizes.

Kainai Community Corrections Society emphasizes cultural programs and Soup reinforces that "the Elders play a big role in everything we do." Their people decided that since there are so many jobs for Elders to do, they did not want to put the burden on just one in a paid position. Therefore, they pay a number of Elders on an honorarium basis: four are attached to probation and court services and related efforts and at least six work in the minimum security correctional facility on reserve, established in 1990.

Soup adds that Elders are constantly involved, counselling probation clients once a week, giving advice on new cases to staff and attending court. They also have monthly meetings with staff to review progress and share information.

Among the initiatives taken by the Blood tribe is their youth ranch, started a couple of years ago for wards of the government. Ten beds are available to the youth and at last count six of the bed are occupied by Blood tribe members. The young people there attend school, work on the ranch and take part in a cultural program.

Soup said, now they have their own police and correctional facility, the logical next step is their own court. Currently, members have to go to Cardston or Fort Macleodto court. In Cardston they represent 80 to 85 per cent of cases on the docket. Soup thinks the Elders will be more effectively used when they have their own court system on reserve. One thing that is working for them now is the community options program which develops a case plan for offenders that help many of them rehabilitate themselves back in to the life of the community through service such as spring clean-up of the reserve.

Monical Onespot, the co-ordinator for the Tsuu T'ina-Stoney Corrections society has been in her position since August 1998. Their program, operating since 1992, serves Tsuu T'ina, Morley and Eden Valley at about 4,800 people in the two tribal groups. The society targets youth involvement (about 40 per cent of their members are under 18) in such activities as the cultural camps that were offered last year for five days in each location.

Their communities are also interested in seeing the concept of sentencing circles expanded. Training is taking place for 20 people in each community, each year to run healing and sentencing circles.

"Although there's no program that's officially set up for that (sentencing circles), what it does is help people use that type of training even in their own families. How to deal with a problem and an issue; how to sit down with family members and discuss the issue. So it is prevention," said Onespot.

Their program to train people for circles started in 1994 with Ray Yellowknee, who now runs the crime prevention program in Wabasca.

Onespot adds they co-ordinate with inter-agency programs on the reserves and try to support each other's programs. This year they have held training for critical incidents, stress debriefing for all staff and have trained some facilitators to run support groups. Like Kainai, they, too, depend on their Elders to counsel clients who are in the justice system.