FARGO, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota’s top federal prosecutor told state lawmakers Wednesday that Indian reservations in the state should include halfway houses for people who return home after serving prison sentences.
During an appearance in front of the Senate Committee on Indiana Affairs, U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon said federal law enforcement officials should figure out a way to bring post-release services to the reservations. About 95 percent of Native Americans in North Dakota who are convicted in federal court return to the reservations, where they often get in trouble again.
“One of the challenges we have is that we don’t have halfway house facilities where inmates can do their last six months of custody on the reservations,” Purdon said. “They’re doing these halfway house stints 100 miles from their home.”
Purdon told senators about Standing Rock Indian Reservation client he represented when he was a public defender. Seven years after the man was sentenced to prison, Purdon saw him Bismarck halfway house and he told the attorney he was doing well. He had a job and a sponsor for his Alcoholics Anonymous group.
“When his six months were up at the halfway house, he got in the car and went back to Standing Rock,” Purdon said. “Three months later I got a call that said his probation is being revoked and he’s being sent back to federal prison. I asked him what happened and he said, ’I got back to Standing Rock: no AA group, no sponsor.’”
Purdon said that while the Department of Justice can’t do much about building those facilities, re-entry is high on Attorney General Eric Holder’s agenda.
“In North Dakota, I’m working closely with the court and probation office to see how we can work together to provide some sort of support for those folks coming back,” Purdon said.
Purdon was one of several officials asked to testify Wednesday on a new report entitled “A Roadmap For Making Native America Safer.” The study shows that Native youth experience violent crime at rates up to 10 times the national average.
North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a member of the committee, asked Purdon about expanding the federal court presence on reservations. Purdon noted one wide-ranging case, Operation Prairie Thunder, where the federal magistrate came to Standing Rock and held court on the basketball court in the school gymnasium.
“We as U.S. attorneys need to be working with the courts to try and do more of that sort of thing, of bringing the federal court and making it relevant to Fort Yates or Belcourt,” Purdon said.
Heitkamp said lawmakers would continue to look at locating courts where people live.
“I think we should create an expectation in the Congress that, look, we understand you like your federal courthouses and that you’ve got a lot of security,” she said. “But you also have an obligation here, especially related to major crimes, when you bring it and people can see that there’s consequences, that has an effect, too.”
Purdon touted federal programs for American Indian youths in the Dakotas that are based upon getting work done on the reservations. He told senators that Gary Delorme, an assistant U.S. attorney in North Dakota, makes monthly presentations on safety at lyceums on the Standing Rock high school and middle school.
Purdon noted that Brendan Johnson, the U.S. attorney in South Dakota, has focused on keeping the less-serious juvenile offenders under the supervision of tribal court for as long as possible in order to foster rehabilitation.
“In South Dakota, the Johnson model is a great model,” Purdon said. “I’ve asked my prosecutors to look at that.”
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