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An alternative to Blind Justice

By: Dave Emanuel (Diary)  |  August 16th, 2012 at 01:37 PM  | 

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Justice is supposed to be blind. Unfortunately, all too often it is; the blindfold that is so essential in assuring objectivity and impartiality during a trial often blinds a judge to sentencing alternatives that will benefit defendants and society alike. Alternative courts, also called “Community Courts” allow judges to remove sentencing blindfolds and enables them to administer a different form of justice. One that offers options other than time behind bars.

According to Tracey Mason Blasi, an attorney with over 20 years of experience, who is currently a candidate for Gwinnett County Superior Court, “I have served as a municipal judge, and as a professional mediator, and have also worked to settle cases outside the courtroom. When you can mediate and avoid a trial, it saves everybody time and money and often leads to settlements that would be extremely difficult or impossible to achieve in court. Mediation can be a VERY effective alternative, and that’s why I’m working to promote more Community Courts—they are very effective alternatives.”

Gwinnett County already has an alternative court for drug offenders. Ms. Blasi wants to establish one for mentally ill defendants. The rationale behind her efforts is simple– alternative courts are significantly more effective than traditional courts in reducing crime. In Gwinnett County, and across the nation, jails are filled with repeat offenders; it’s not unusual for these offenders to be sentenced to jail 10 times in a 15 year period. These aren’t hardened criminals. They’re people who have fallen into a lifestyle of committing petty crimes as a result of drug abuse, drug dependency or mental health issues.

The intent of alternative courts isn’t to offer soft-on-crime options, or to give criminals a free pass, but to address specific core issues that lead to criminal behavior, rather than the consequences of that behavior. And that’s the key to their success. If you can control the cause, you can eliminate the result.

It’s creative approaches like this that have made Ms. Blasi the candidate of choice for Gwinnett County voters. And her extensive work defending taxpayers against overreaching government agencies, previous judicial experience and a life-long familiarity with Gwinnett County add a unique dimension. One that is essential in a Superior Court judge.

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  • demsaresatanic

    will certainly complete the job, while saving money and relieving jail overcrowding.

    Turning judges into social workers who provide services to the poor dear criminals is just what we need, and you have much support from the Obama Justice Dept. as well; see
    http://www.thecrimereport.org/share-post/community-courts-called-good-for-public-safety-in-budget-crisis

    • Dave Emanuel

      Reading comprehension not your thing? The object of alternative courts is to offer solutions that address core problems and eliminate the results of those problems. Unlike the Obama Justice department, the judges in effective alternative courts have integrity and aren’t soft on crime.

      • demsaresatanic

        opinions and facts, and get back to us with evidence that these alternative courts reduce crime. If you understood the distinction you would have given us data instead of mere libspeak fluff.

        • Dave Emanuel

          You already have your mind made up. But I’ll get some statistics and post them. By the way, these courts are anything but bastions of liberal ideology. They are administered by conservative judges, at least here in the South.

          • PowerToThePeople

            and who are you trying to fool?

            The drug courts across the south have been meccas of bleeding heart nonsense, failure, recidivism, and liberal judges. Does it work sometime, yes. Are there conservatives or at least moderates on the benches, yes. But do not play the south has so many conservatives line because you are wrong, very wrong.

          • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

            about this article. I honestly don’t know much about it, except to say others have told me they’re on board with the approach. The sponsor of the legislation has done some good things, and the folks over at API (who wrote the article) are good folks. I’ve heard some of them speak, and like many orgs of this type, they are “non-partisan” but everything I read and hear from them is conservative.

            PrisonReform-AL

          • PowerToThePeople

            after the 80′s we became a lock em up and throw the key away type society and that has resulted in a high tax burden to the tax payers and over crowded jails and prisons.

            Let me give an example that happened to our friends,

            Son was arrested for DUS (driving under suspension) 2nd. The local jail was built to hold 1100 but housed over 1500. The jail was constantly crying about space, needing more money to build another wing, and yet when our friends son faced the magistrate judge, instead of being releases on his own word, he was given a 3500 dollar bond. Many in this town would not be able to afford that so another payday would enter the overcrowded jail for a very minor offense that has no victim and is not a felony. The story goes on.

            When our friends son went to court, the judge popped him with a 120 day sentence which by state law sent him up to the prison system. He was sent to a medium maximum prison due to it having the room and a misdemeanor offender with no record spend around 62 days with rapists, murderers, thieves, etc.

            There is a major problem in today’s prisons and that is excessive overcrowding and way too many low level offenders being thrown in for what turns out to be minor offenses or even simple misdemeanors. If a judge can rectify that while keeping the real criminals in prison, I am all for it.

            Where I have an issue with these separate courts is that they justify behavior because of a condition or an addiction, allow way to much repeat behavior prior to bringing down the hammer on the offender, and make it where attorneys will simply claim behavior was not the criminals fault, but was due to drugs or an IQ. Then they go in front of bleeding heart judges that condone the blame game and waste our money trying to prove that.

          • PowerToThePeople

            I am not saying our friend’s son should not have been punished even though the crime of driving under suspension is a pretty minor crime, simply stating that placing a bond on him when the jail was so badly overcrowded and throwing him in prison, much less a medium maximum prison was so much overkill it is not funny.

            That judge would have probably had him on the highway for 120 hours cleaning up all the trash and that is a great punishment that not only saves tax payers a lot of money but makes him give back to the community.

          • PowerToThePeople

            I am, quite frankly, tired of the whole mental illness or low IQ excuse. It is a bunch of liberal BS.

            If a person is smart enough to commit a crime, they are smart enough to pay the price the same way the “smarter or the no mental illness” ones pay. I could care less if a person has a 60 IQ, if they rape and kill my family, I want them cooked or needled while I watch and smile.

            We do not need you or that lady pushing for tax payers to pay for one more liberal courtroom. We have enough already and the mentally ill and the dope heads need to be in the same court room receiving the same punishment as everyone else.

          • Dave Emanuel

            we’re losing the war on drugs. And conventional sentencing hasn’t been much of a weapon. Neither has the death that drug use causes. What we’re facing is a shift in overall societal philosophy that tolerates drug use. As much as I’d like to, we can’t incarcerate everyone who finds the drug lifestyle acceptable. That being the case, we will never win the war on drugs until there is a cultural shift away from the fascination with the drug-”gangsta”-criminal image. Alternative courts offer just that, alternative to jail time, but done right, they offer only one chance. Screw up a second time and you’re back behind bars.

          • Dave Emanuel

            What was I thinking??? It’s far better to not only use, but expand an approach that doesn’t work rather than trying an alternative. And apparently you don’t know much about criminals– except for a few notable exceptions, they tend to be dumber than dirt.

            As for your friend’s son, you think it would have been acceptable for the judge to sentence him to community service rather than prison time, but you won’t accept that alternative sentencing is justified in other instances. So I guess you’re in favor of jail time for traffic violations?

          • PowerToThePeople

            for people such as yourself to comprehend simple English, but try this time. Until you are able to go back, reread all the responses by me along with my very clear explanations as to my positions and then come back and correct the tripe you posted above, I really do not have the time to waste of absurdity.

            Let me know when you have what I asked accomplished. If you are unable to accomplish the simple task required, then do not waste any more of my time or yours posting ignorance.

          • Stricia the site pest
            PTTP, you are the true coward here

            Like you claim, I have little patience for those among us who spew ignorance (e.g., Akin & PTTP).
            Bub, you always miss great opportunities to STFU. While your piehole is closed and you are trying to come up with a rational thought — take a look at this:

            http://disqus.com/powertoothepeople/
            Note the extra

          • Dave Emanuel

            I bow to you as the master of that endeavor. I will give you this though, you bring reality to the concept of a person who has been educated beyond his intellect.

          • PowerToThePeople

            of well, reading is a skill that some are unable to master.

          • demsaresatanic

            how quickly you forget your prior

          • Dave Emanuel

            You’re starting to sound like a Democrat– thinking I have nothing to do but answer your questions. But let’s face it, when I get the statistics, (and I will get them) you’ll just reject them out of hand.

    • reclaimit

      This is just the kind of liberal speak that allows America to keep losing the war on drugs. We’ve been able to put away many more drug dealers and users, thanks to mandatory minimum sentencing. And when we start making a dent in eradicating drug use in this country, along comes liberal calls for plea bargaining and work release. It should be that if you smoke a joint in this country, you go away for a long time. It’s illegal, and you don’t win this drug war unless you are serious about punishment. Instead, we have a country where the last two Democratic presidents admit to using pot. What kind of message is that supposed to be sending? Nice job, libs.