Tribe: Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota - White Earth Band
Section 3-1-2 Purpose.
The Juvenile Justice Code shall be liberally interpreted and construed to
fulfill the following expressed purposes:
1. To preserve and retain the unity of the family whenever possible
and to provide for the care, protection, and wholesome mental and
physical development of children coming within the provisions of
this code;
2. To recognize that alcohol and substance abuse is a disease which
is both preventable and treatable;
3. To remove the legal consequences of criminal behavior from
children committing juvenile offenses and to substitute a program of
supervision, care, and rehabilitation consistent with the protection
of the White Earth Indian Reservation;
4. To achieve the purposes of this code in a family environment
whenever possible, separating the child from the child’s parent(s)
only when necessary for the child’s welfare or in the interests of
public safety;
5. To separate clearly in the judicial process and other’s affecting
children under this code the juvenile offender and the family in need
of services, and to provide appropriate and distinct dispositional
options for treatment and rehabilitation of these children and
families;
6. To provide judicial and other procedures through which the
provisions of this code are executed and enforced and in which the
parties are assured due process and their civil and other legal
rights recognized and enforced;
7. To provide a continuum of services for children and their families
from prevention to residential treatment, with emphasis whenever
possible on prevention, early intervention and community-based
alternatives; and
8. To provide a forum where an Indian child charged to be delinquent
or a status offender in other jurisdictions may be referred for
adjudication and/or disposition, specifically to address the issues of
truancy and curfew violations.