See also:
> Community jails

Alaska's community jails have long been ignored in correctional research efforts in the state. These jails are located in small communities which fall in population between the small, predominately Alaska Native villages and the state's three largest cities, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau . The 15 communities which operate jails -- Barrow, Cordova, Craig, Dillingham, Haines, Homer, Kodiak, Kotzebue, Naknek, Petersburg, Seward, Sitka, Unalaska, Valdez, and Wrangell -- range in population from approximately 650 to 8600. (See the map and table in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.)
     They fall between the large cities and the villages in research opportunities as well. In villages, research on justice issues has been sponsored by the state, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and by Native corporations. Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau are the homes of regional jails operated by the state, which has in-house research capabilities as well as resources for sponsoring research. The communities in which the jails are located have too small a tax base to support local research and the jails themselves have too few resources for in-house research efforts. Although many community jail administrators share similar problems, they tend to pursue solutions alone and without the benefit of research to assess the solutions they try. They have had little opportunity to consult with one another, or to empirically assess and ultimately share solutions to common problems.
     This purpose of this project is to establish a research consortium with the 15 Alaska communities that operate jails and to build a research platform from which other projects can be undertaken. With consortium members, the Justice Center will conduct two demonstration projects, both based on an existing multi-year database of booking records accumulated during juvenile jail monitoring activities. In one project, each jail will be profiled to determine, among other things, average lengths of stay, special problems related to alcohol, and seasonal variations in offenses for which people are held. Another project will assess the impact of protective custody holds on the jails.
     The consortium will produce an initial research agenda and assign a priority to the projects. As the consortium's work continues, attempts will be made to find funding on a project-by-project basis.

Products

• "Profiles of Community Jails 1994-1997." [Microsoft Excel charts.] Anchorage: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, March 1999.
• "Jails on the Last Frontier." By N.E. Schafer. Paper prepared for the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, New Orleans, March 2000.
• "Alaska's Community Jails." Community Jails Statewide Research Consortium, Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, March 2000:  Map (.gif)  |  Table (.gif)  |  Map & table

Press releases

• "Schafer Receives NIJ Grant to Initiate Statewide Community Jails Research Consortium": Dr. Nancy Schafer has received a $50,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice to initiate a research consortium of Alaska's 15 community jails (December 9, 1998).
• "Community Jails Consortium Holds Anchorage Workshop": Administrators of Alaska community jails meet in Anchorage under the auspices of the Statewide Community Jails Research Consortium (March 17, 1999).

Articles

• "Community Jails in Alaska." By N.E. Schafer. American Jails 14(3): 9-17 (July/August 2000).