In January 2000, the Navajo Nation Council decided to revamp the Navajo Nation Criminal Code. The Council eliminated jail time and fines for 79 offenses, required the use of peacemaking in criminal cases, and required that the courts see to the rights of victims. The Council also incorporated the traditional concept of nalyeeh into the criminal code. Nalyeeh refers to the process of confronting someone who hurts others with a demand that they talk out the action and the hurt it caused so that something positive will come of it.
This decision represents a serious challenge to the courts of the Navajo Nation, whose jurisdiction includes tribal members in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Navajo Nation judges had gotten used to the western revolving-door approach to wrongdoings — jailing, probation, new charges, revocation of probation, and the rest of it. Those hurt by crime were left out — the $1,000 restitution orders did not address the trauma caused by the crimes. But the Navajos now realize that the prison approach to crime does not work.
[For more of this story, written by Robert Yazzie, go to http://www.dailygood.org/story...stice-robert-yazzie/]
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