Tribe: Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe
§ 1. Policies
In order to provide an alternative to custodial sentencing which emphasizes
rehabilitation rather than retribution and in recognition of the reality that
penal consequences alone do not effectively deter future criminal activity, the
Tribal Council hereby creates the Mashantucket Pequot Pre-trial Intervention
Program (“PTI”). This program has among its purposes the following:
a. To provide defendants with opportunities to avoid ordinary prosecution by
receiving early rehabilitative services when such services can reasonably be
expected to deter future criminal behavior by the defendant, and when there is
an apparent causal connection between the offense charged and the
rehabilitative need, without which cause both the alleged offense and the need
to prosecute might not have occurred.
b. To provide for meaningful tribal community participation in the criminal
justice system through the establishment of a commission of tribal elders who
shall assist in formulating a rehabilitative plan for each PTI applicant which
will serve to balance tribal concerns with unlawful behavior with the need to
deter and rehabilitate such offenders.
c. To provide an alternative to prosecution for defendants who might be harmed
by the imposition of criminal sanctions as presently administered, when such an
alternative can be expected to serve as sufficient sanctions to deter criminal
conduct.
d. To provide a mechanism for permitting the least burdensome form of
prosecution possible for defendants charged with “victimless” offenses.
e. To deter future criminal or disorderly behavior by a defendant/participant
in PTI.