Crime fighting takes a hit on the Navajo Reservation

Independent - December 28, 2004: Crime fighting takes a hitWINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation Law Enforcement, Corrections and Criminal Investigations are projecting a combined shortfall of $4.8 million in Fiscal Year 2005, according to Samson Cowboy, director for the Division of Public Safety. Also, Tuba City Jail is on the verge of closing, Hope MacDonald-Lonetree, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said during Monday's meeting. Still worse, the committee has learned that all of the Navajo Nation's jails were built by the tribe and not the Bureau of Indian Affairs as previously thought. MacDonald-Lonetree said the Navajo Department of Justice will would look into the contract with BIA and figure out whether there are any options available to the Nation under the current contract. All six of the detention centers need major renovation. And though no one knows quite how it happened, the Navajo Nation has been left out of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Fiscal Year 2006 detention facilities budget request for appropriations from Congress, MacDonald-Lonetree said.