The Ute Mountain Ute tribe has submitted a letter of intent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to contract a portion of operations at the newly built, $9 million detention center in Towaoc.

Under the Indian Self Determination Act, American Indian tribes can choose to contract all or any portion of community development programs run by the BIA, the federal agency responsible for providing vital resources to tribal governments.

The system is designed to promote tribal sovereignty over federally-funded community resource programs on Indian reservations. It allows tribes to directly hire and train their own people for those positions. Tribes can also elect to leave those programs under the direction of the BIA.

Among other programs, the southwest regional office of the BIA is responsible for Ute Mountain Ute law enforcement, which includes police, courts, criminal investigations and detention. The tribe passed a resolution of intent Dec. 6 to contract and hence receive funds directly for transitional services relating to the new 78-bed jail, scheduled to open soon. A letter of intent was then sent to BIA offices.

"There has been a resolution and a letter submitted for the transitional portion at the new jail in Towaoc, but not for the whole operation of the facility," said Bill Mellick, BIA superintendent of the Ute Mountain Ute agency. "What happens now is we go through a checklist and begin producing the contract, which usually takes anywhere from three months to a year."

Transitional services for the ultra-modern jail and juvenile detention center involve hiring experts to write policy manuals and procedures so that they coincide with federal regulations regarding detention facilities.

"The council wants to make an intelligent decision on the jail contract, and so they passed a resolution of intent to contract, once all of the figures are in," Mellick explained.

Council member and tribal treasurer Art Cuthair said that for now the council is moving cautiously toward retaining operations at the new jail but still needs more information regarding what exactly that would entail and at what cost. Initially, according to Cuthair, the tribe would like to contract maintenance and janitorial services at the new jail from the BIA, and then once that is in place, move forward from there.

"The big picture is that we are looking to take it all over in the end, but we are taking it one step at a time with this letter of intent," he said. "This is something that has been discussed for years and years, but it takes a lot of careful planning."

The federal government recently lifted a one-year moratorium on new tribal contracts for federally funded programs after budgeting $10 million more in administrative funds to be used when those programs were handed over to tribes.