MTIP’s New Community-Based Legal Assistants Program
In honor of Native American Heritage Month this November, MTIP is excited to share an update about its new Community-Based Legal Assistants Program. This month serves not only to celebrate the rich history, culture, and achievements of Indigenous peoples, but also as a reminder to acknowledge and address the racial disparities faced by Indigenous individuals within Montana’s legal system.
Montana state data shows that Indigenous people comprise 6.6% of the Montana state population but are nearly 20% of the state prison population. Indigenous people account for 37% of the women’s state prison population and 21.2% of the men’s state prison population.
Upon recognizing these unique injustices, MTIP has begun developing our Community-Based Legal Assistants Program. This initiative prioritizes culturally sensitive investigations that foster trust within Tribal communities, departing from traditional investigative models by investing in and engaging with Community-Based Legal Assistants (CBLAs). With their deep-rooted connections and profound understanding of their communities, CBLAs are uniquely positioned to investigate potential wrongful convictions effectively.
Background
Over the last three years, the Montana Innocence Project began working with Tribal communities to identify ways it could increase access to MTIP’s services and increase the impact of our work in Indigenous and rural communities in Montana. Access barriers greatly impact many Indigenous applicants, which make up 28% of MTIP’s annual requests for legal assistance. With only one staff member managing the legal program prior to this year, the vastness of Montana posed serious geographical and complex cultural barriers that a larger staff capacity was needed to overcome.
In January, with the support of new funding, MTIP was able to hire a new Investigations Manager and Legal Fellow, and contract with Community-Based Legal Assistants to build our legal and investigative capacity. Over the last several months, MTIP has established a place-based investigative model that allows our organization to conduct thorough, trauma-informed investigations and culturally-aware practices to provide meaningful representation for wrongfully convicted and unjustly incarcerated Indigenous peoples and others hailing from rural communities.
Training and Development
MTIP has successfully conducted investigations in Indigenous and rural communities through the work of legal assistants who are direct members of those communities. Their individual lived experiences make them uniquely suited to identify and mitigate the unique challenges in program priority geographic areas. MTIP contract legal assistants currently work on the Flathead and Fort Peck reservations, and in Billings and Dillon, Montana.
“Our model commits organizational resources to provide hard skills investigative training for rural and Indigenous community members. The trainings and cohort structure are meant to complement and amplify the soft skill sets that CBLAs have developed through their lived experience and recognize that their connection to community matters,” said MTIP Executive Director Amy Sings In The Timber. “Our goal is a reciprocal relationship; wherein MTIP clients benefit from the unique experience and knowledge of the CBLAs and their involvement in clients’ legal representation, and MTIP’s investment in the professional development and paid services of CBLAs is a direct benefit to the CBLAs themselves, their families, and their communities.”
In April, the MTIP legal team completed an investigative training with Midwest Innocence Project that helped to institute trauma-informed interviewing, to explore opportunities for improving case development, and to provide structures and best practices for investigations.
As a result of this training, MTIP has made significant strides in creating a comprehensive legal assistant manual. This manual equips legal assistants with a diverse array of methods to effectively gather information while prioritizing cultural sensitivity, particularly when working with Indigenous communities. Legal assistants now have the tools to employ trauma-informed techniques, including rapport-building strategies and open-ended questions to help foster trusting and respectful relationships throughout the investigative process.
“The training helped me to strengthen my interviewing skills and rapport-building techniques…I have been able to develop good relationships with [prison] staff too, which has made this process way more comfortable for me,” said Community-Based Legal Assistant Raelene Yazzie.
In years past, the significant distance of Montana’s prisons in proximity to its offices and limited staff and financial resources made regular, in-person visits to people who are incarcerated a challenge. However, due to increased capacity, our presence at the Montana Women’s Prison has amplified, with a 6x increase in interviews conducted, allowing for multiple meetings with clients, employing trauma-informed approaches and providing them access to materials and information that may aid in securing their freedom.
The Impact
Through this new model, our organization has seen a complete transformation in the way that our legal team conducts investigations. By empowering people of community, the program is not only making significant strides in investigating potential wrongful convictions but also fostering trust and collaboration between the Montana Innocence Project and Tribal communities.
With continued support and development, MTIP believes this model has the ability to expand its reach, advocate for the wrongfully convicted, and build lasting bridges between diverse legal advocates from throughout the state and the communities they serve.
Part of that work includes the development of a listening tour to tribal and rural communities throughout the state in the summer of 2025. We look forward to continuing to provide updates and more information about this important work.
We could not be more grateful for the support of the funders and organizational partners who made this new phase of MTIP’s work possible including, McGarvey Law, Sovereign Bodies Institute, CSKT Tribal Defenders Office, Steele-Reese Foundation, and the United States Bureau of Justice Assistance.