Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts

The following sites contain extensive drug court resources. These sites are increasingly including tribal drug court specific resource materials. For additional alcohol and substance abuse resources, see our Alcohol and Substance Abuse page.

As of July 2005, there were fifty-six Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts (Drug Courts) that were fully operational in the United States and seventy-one in the planning stages (Drug Court Activity Update: January 1, 2005, Office of Justice Programs Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project, 2005). As of January 2005, there were 1262 drug courts that were fully operational in the United States and 575 in the planning stages (Drug Court Activity Update: January 1, 2005, Office of Justice Programs Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project, 2005).

Perceptions of Methamphetamine use in three Western Tribal Communities: Implications for Child Abuse in Indian Country - Indian country lacks both a macro and micro study of child abuse and methamphetamines. Because so little is documented routinely by either law enforcement, social services or medical professionals in assessing risks and dangers to children from environments where meth is found, data is difficult to find. However, in an attempt to explore the increasing concerns raised by the emerging methamphetamine epidemic in Indian country, professionals from three Western Tribal communities were asked to complete a survey about their perceptions of meth us and implications for child abuse in the communities in which they worked. This study was funded through the Training and Technical Assistance grant that the Tribal Law and Policy Institute receives for Children’s Justice Act Partnerships in Indian Communities to assist tribes in addressing serious child abuse. The tribes and individuals that participated in the study were guaranteed anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the questions being asked. However, each Tribal Council provided permission for the surveys to be conducted within their service areas.

The Tribal Law and Policy Institute has developed six comprehensive Tribal Healing to Wellness Court publications as part of the Tribal Healing to Wellness Court Technical Assistance Project Resource Publication Series (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view these files). The full series is as follows:

Healing to Wellness Courts: A Preliminary Overview of Tribal Drug Courts
This publication (initially published in July 1999) provides an overview of Tribal Drug Courts or Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts. This overview discusses how the drug court concept is consistent with Native American concepts of justice and how the drug court concept can be adapted to meet the specific needs of individual Native American communities. It provides information concerning the background of the Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts movement, the unique role and importance of Tribal Justice Systems, adapting the term "drug court" for Trial Justice Systems, defining drug courts, and defining Healing to Wellness Courts. It then provides an overview of some of the critical issues and challenges faced by Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts, including the challenge of incorporating tribal custom and tradition, addressing the high volume of alcohol abuse cases, and addressing jurisdictional and resource limitations.
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: The Key Components
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: The Key Components is designed to provide suggested key components and recommended practices needed for Indian Nations and tribal justice systems to consider as they design, develop, and implement drug courts that meet the needs of their individual communities. The publication is organized around ten key components, adapted for Indian nations and tribal justice systems, which describe the basic elements that define Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts. The purpose of each component is explained, followed by several recommended practices that give guidance for implementing each component. Healing to Wellness Courts help to put misguided individuals back on track, on to a healing to wellness journey. As this publication sets forth, each tribal community and nation must define and describe the nature of this healing journey. Its direction and pathway must be guided by each Indian Nation's culture, tradition, common practices, and vision.
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: Treatment Guidelines for Adults and Juveniles (Draft)
Tribal justice systems have often become separated from the provision of healing services. Holistically, this separation of function has made it very difficult to deal effectively with the physical and spiritual healing that is fundamental to tribal tradition. Many tribes have begun the process of annexing their court systems with a range of treatment services that combine traditional healing with western treatment concepts through tribal drug courts - or healing to wellness courts. This publication examines guidelines that have been developed to provide tribal communities with an overview of substance abuse treatment strategies as they have been developed by drug court programs. Tribal programs might consider applying these treatment strategies along with traditional healing practices. These guidelines draw upon the experiences of hundreds of state adult and juvenile drug court programs, operating in various environments and serving a wide range of individuals addicted to alcohol and/or other drugs. This publication examines key issues in developing treatment, developing a wellness court treatment program, adapting treatment program components, special considerations regarding treatment services, strategies for maintaining sobriety (relapse prevention), and looking ahead. Please note that this is the first publication to comprehensively address the difficult and controversial issue of drug court treatment guidelines - consequently, this publication should also prove very useful for state drug courts.
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: The Judge’s Bench Book (Draft)
For every difficult demanding journey, one must have a leader. In a Healing to Wellness Court, that person is the judge. This bench book is designed to provide instruction and practical tools for judges in their efforts to guide those traveling on the road to wellness. It is designed to provide general guidance for judges, examples of court procedure, and tools to assist judges in their wellness court role. This benchbook is also useful for wellness court team members and community leaders who are interested in designing, creating, an implementing a wellness court program.
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: Program Development Guide (Draft)
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts: Program Development Guide is a practical handbook for planning, implementing, and managing Healing to Wellness Courts (adult, juvenile, and family). This program development guide provides step-by-step recommendations for design, development, and implementation of Tribal Healing to Wellness Court programs from a practical standpoint. It is designed to assist steering committees and planning groups as they (1) use team-based approaches; (2) gain knowledge of Healing to Wellness Court concepts; (3) incorporate the ten key components; (4) help establish policies and procedures suitable to the needs of the tribal community; (5) guide the court to integrate available resources; (6) develop interagency agreements; (7) incorporate a management information system to track participants and services; and (8) identify possible problem areas.
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts Operational Materials (with American University) (Please Contact American University for copies of this publication)

Tribe opens new treatment center (August 4, 2005) A new era in treating substance abuse among Saginaw Chippewa Tribal members begins today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Tribe's new behavioral health center. Part of the 33,000-square-foot, single-story sandstone-and-redwood building actually opened last October, offering outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment. The rest of the center, a residential treatment program for substance abuse and a domestic violence center, is to open this fall. Today, the ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrates the new direction and new facilities, said Elizabeth Evans, Ojibwe Substance Abuse Director for the Tribe. Festivities begin at noon at the center, located on Shepherd Road north of Broadway Road. The residential treatment center will have 18 beds, and planners expect clients to spend about 28 days in treatment. The treatment process combines the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous with Native teachings. Read More>>>

The Tribal Law and Policy Institute provides technical assistance, training and evaluation services for Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts on a fee for services basis. The Institute has provided Technical Assistance services for Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts from the beginning of the Tribal Healing to Wellness Court initiative. The Institute has developed an exceptional pool of consultants with knowledge and experience concerning the tribal drug court concept. They are well versed with tribal issues as well as experienced in the operational and planning issues of adult, juvenile and family drug courts. For more information, please contact the Institute at 323-650-5467 or at 907-770-1950 or .

The Tribal Law and Policy Institute has established a Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts mailing list. To subscribe to the list, send the following message to:

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subscribe TLPIWellness-crts your_name
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The Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program (DCDG), sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, provides financial and technical assistance to states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and American Indian tribal governments to develop and implement treatment drug courts that effectively integrate substance abuse treatment, mandatory drug testing, sanctions and incentives, and transitional services in a judicially supervised court setting with jurisdiction over nonviolent, substance-abusing offenders.

The Drug Court Planning Initiative (DCPI) is sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. This site provides communities participating in DCPI training programs with resource materials that enhance the DCPI training experience. Training resources are provided as supplements to the materials obtained at each DCPI training program.

The Drug Court Clearinghouse Project has been operating at American University since 1994 and serves as a national clearinghouse for drug court information and activity. It provides a wide range of office-based services, including telephone consultation, e-mail responses to information requests, networking and facilitation of telephone conference calls among peers to discuss issues of concern, and dissemination of sample operational materials developed by drug courts. Sample of Healing to Wellness Court documents found on their site.

General Drug Court Resources

Notre Dame Law Review (Word Document)
Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Drug Treatment Court Movement: Revolutionizing the Criminal Justice System's Response to Drug Abuse and Crime in America
Research On Drug Courts: A Critical Review
By Steven Belenko, Ph.D.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
May, 2001
Drug Court Publications Resource Guide
Development and Implementation of Drug Court Systems

The National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) is the principal organization of professionals involved in the development and implementation of treatment-oriented drug courts. Organized in 1994, NADCP's members include judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, treatment providers and rehabilitation experts, law enforcement and corrections personnel, educators, researchers, and community leaders. Information on Training and Technical Assistance, Calendar of Events, Publications, and Mentor Court Network and the following Drug Court Practitioner Fact Sheets:

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the Federal agency charged with improving the quality and availability of prevention, treatment, and rehabilitative services in order to reduce illness, death, disability, and cost to society resulting from substance abuse and mental illnesses. SAMHSA presents three agency websites that maintain official data files on the numbers of people using or needing to use the Nation's network of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment and mental health services. They also offer:

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has an extensive listing of online publications, including the following:

Drug addiction can be effectively treated with behavioral-based therapies and, for addiction to some drugs such as heroin or nicotine, medications. Treatment may vary for each person depending on the type of drug(s) being used and multiple courses of treatment may be needed to achieve success. Research has revealed 13 basic principles that underlie effective drug addiction treatment discussed in NIDA’s Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (see below for complete guide).

Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide

The Treatment Improvement Exchange (TIE) is a resource sponsored by the Division of State and Community Assistance of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment to provide information exchange between CSAT staff and State and local alcohol and substance abuse agencies. The TIE Contract is funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

CSAT Treatment Improvement Protocols (TIPs) are best practice guidelines for the treatment of substance abuse. CSAT's Office of Evaluation, Scientific Analysis, and Synthesis draws on the experience and knowledge of clinical, research, and administrative experts to produce the TIPs, which are distributed to a growing number of facilities and individuals across the country. The audience for the TIPs is expanding beyond public and private substance abuse treatment facilities as alcohol and other drug disorders are increasingly recognized as a major problem.

Norchem'sDrug Testing Quarterly has clear, concise articles and tips put you on top of the ever-changing world of drug testing. Law-enforcement officers, case workers, private industry managers, and medical professionals are among those already benefiting from this timely and informative publication. For previous editions, see their Back Issue page.

Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home, premiered on PBS stations on March 29, 1998. This Web companion piece features Science: The Hijacked Brain, the latest scientific advances in understanding and treating addiction, plus Animated Illustrations of the brain and the mechanism of drugs in the body; Treatment: Changing Lives, how treatment works, types of treatment, profiles of selected programs, and questions to ask; Prevention: The Next Generation, what works and what doesn't, who is at risk, and how we can protect our children; Policy: The Politics of Addiction, current policy, controversial issues, and what you can do to help; Viewpoints, experts debate the hot topics and Help & Resources, get help now, learn if you or a loved one has a problem, and find more information and Guides & Outreach, free, downloadable education guides for viewers, educators, employers, families, and health professionals.

Breaking The Cycle -- A Developmental Model for the Assessment and Treatment of Adolescents with Alcohol and Other Drug Problems was written by Leslie Acoca, M.A., M.F.C.C. for the National Council's Substance Abuse Program. The monograph is dedicated to providing judges with both a theoretical framework for understanding adolescent substance abuse and practical guidelines for generating and choosing effective and economical substance abuse treatment resources. Other resources can also be found at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

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Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts

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FINANCIAL STATUS REPORTING