This paper is directed toward helping achieve a better understanding of traditional law ways among Alaska's Athabascan Indians and of the present state of the administration of law in the "bush"-village Alaska. An outgrowth of the 1970 Bush Justice Conference sponsored by the Alaska Judicial Council, the paper's primary purpose is to help facilitate establishment of more appropriate delivery and administration of legal services for ethnically distinct populations of Alaska.

William R. Nix, magistrate supervisor with the Alaska Court System and former an Alaska State Trooper, was interviewed in 1973 about law enforcement in bush Alaska during the early years of Alaska statehood; the relationships between Alaska State Troopers, village councils, magisrates of the Alaska Court System, and district attorneys in regional hubs; bail decisions for accused offenders; and the difficulties of establishing and maintaining a fair and equitable justice system in the predominately Alaska Native villages of rural Alaska.

This paper describes the how the basic values, personality, and culture of Northern (Inupiat) Eskimos contribute to attitudes toward conflict and their society’s capacity to resolve conflict. The paper analyzes the influence of Anglo-American agents of change on that capacity and, especially, the legal system and procedures that developed in the post-contact use of the village council to resolve disputes. It discusses the formal intervention of state law through the magisterial system and its interaction with Eskimo law ways that the village council encouraged. A comparison of village councils and magistrate courts points out the apparent success of the councils due to their unique fit with Eskimo values and expectations. Finally, shortcomings of .the current magistrate system are analyzed with recommendations for policy adaptations.

This exploratory research examines the attitudes of citizens, police clientele, and police in an area where a decentralized, participatory (collegial) team police operation has been implemented, and compares these attitudes with those in a similar neighborhood policed by a classical organizational structure and traditional procedures. The Team Police Model of this study consisted basically of 15 generalist police officers who, with the participation of local citizens, were responsible for defining police goals, priorities and procedures and providing all police services in a precisely defined, low-economic, minority, residential area of Holyoke, Massachusetts for a test period of approximately nine months. The Team used collegial methods for decisionmaking and task forces for performing management functions. The Team followed a "service", rather than "law enforcement" operational philosophy. The control neighborhood was policed by an organization arrangement which was in general consistent with Classical tenets as stated by Max Weber. A traditional "law enforcement" philosophy was used in the Classical neighborhood. The basic assumption underlying this study was police effectiveness in crime prevention and order maintenance is dependent on a supportive public. The primary problem researched was whether public and clientele attitudes toward the police were more supportive in the Team Police than a Classical Police area. Of secondary concern was the impact of the Team Police experiment on police officers attitudes. Perhaps the most important conclusion to be derived from this study is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the collegial Team Police Model as implemented in this project did not have a negative impact on any variable investigated. The positive impact of the project on most variables supports the value of further research with a community-based, collegial team organizational structure for police services.

This excerpt from the forthcoming UCLA-Alaska Law Review article "The Village Council and Its Offspring: A Reform for Bush Justice" describes techniques used historically by Alaska Native village councils to resolve disputes. All of these techniques were observed in 1975 in villages where councils still aid in dispute adjustment.

There is an undercurrent of opinion in Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) administration that the village corporation structure established under the Act is an anachronism, unsuitable to the needs of modern corporate enterprise and accordingly Alaska Native purposes. This line of criticism suggests that the regional corporate structure, also established under the Settlement Act, is sufficient to the needs of the Alaska Native people. Organizational issues in the Settlement Act are both politically and emotionally sensitive. As a result, discussion of this point of view has been muted. It is nonetheless important. The purpose of this paper is to search out the purposes of village corporation existence as a foundation to change or for a better understanding of the roles that are played by them. The Act serves as a written constitution for the Alaska Native people. It must be interpreted broadly to accomplish these fundamental purposes of the people and not as an instrument of a particular economic theory – which is, at least in part, alien to its heritage.

This report was prepared for the Alaska Criminal Code Revision Commission to provide its members with an assessment of the potential impact on the Alaska Division (later Department) of Corrections adult offender inmate capacity likely to result from enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions. The study projected that DOC would need at least 200 more secure units by 1981 if mandatory minimum sentencing was applied to second or subsequent felony offenders for a limited number of felony violent crimes. Application of mandatory minimums for such offenders to ALL felonies would likely result in DOC's entire capacity being used up within three years after enactment of minimum sentencing guidelines.

In 1976, Anchorage School District (ASD) and the Criminal Justice Center at University of Alaska, Anchorage, collaborated to develop a law-related curriculum for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade classrooms, with teacher's manuals written to supplement the basic texts chosen for the program, the "Law in Action" series by Linda Riekes and Sally Mahe Ackerly (West Publishing Company, 1975). This teacher's manual for the unit taught to eighth-graders, "Juvenile Problems and the Law," focuses on the legal aspects of juvenile delinquency and contains information regarding "helping" agencies. The teacher's manual reflects improvements to the original lessons, supplementary classroom activities, supplementary media, and inclusion of Alaska-specific content such as Alaska laws and Alaska community resources. Supplementary material in this teacher's manual does not cover every lesson in the original "Law in Action" unit.

In 1976, Anchorage School District (ASD) and the Criminal Justice Center at University of Alaska, Anchorage, collaborated to develop a law-related curriculum for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade classrooms, with teacher's manuals written to supplement the basic texts chosen for the program, the "Law in Action" series by Linda Riekes and Sally Mahe Ackerly (West Publishing Company, 1975). This teacher's manual for the unit taught to sixth-graders, ""Youth Attitudes and the Police," focuses on the work and responsibilities of police officers, and their relationships with kids. The teacher's manual reflects improvements to the original lessons, supplementary classroom activities, supplementary media, and inclusion of Alaska-specific content such as local newspaper stories about police and Alaska community resources. Supplementary material in this teacher's manual does not cover every lesson in the original "Law in Action" unit.

Prior to the establishment of the Criminal Justice Center at the University of Alaska, no program has attempted to train and educate Alaska justice practitioners on a continuing basis and at all agency levels. The Alaska Criminal Justice Planning Agency, through the Governor's Commission on the Administration of Justice, has attempted to deal with this training problem on an interim basement through the Specialized Training Grant program, which enables "state and local police officers, correctional officers, prosecutors, public defenders, and court personnel [to obtain] specialized training sponsored by other agencies and institutions," often involving travel out-of-state for programs largely unavailable in Alaska. This study examines individualized grants funded for the years 1973–1975 as a means of measuring the effectiveness of the Specialized Training Grant program as on approach to the continuing professionalization of Alaska's criminal justice personnel.