A partnership between the Alaska Court System and the Kenaitze Indian Tribe to create an experimental court on the Kenai Peninsula was announced Thursday at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention.
The proposed court will see a state judge and a tribal judge sit side by side to hear cases involving substance abuse and is set to begin in March 2016.
The announcement came as part of requests from the Alaska Native tribes to have more authority in the state’s criminal justice system.
The procedures for those types of hearings are still being worked out but the aim is to shift the criminal justice system towards community solutions as a way to cut down recidivism.
