I am an award winning judicial educator who has written and presented on a broad range of issues including: procedural fairness, veterans treatment courts, domestic violence and court media relations.
The Michigan prescription drug and opiate abuse task force found that the surge in heroin use results from the growing opioid prescription drug epidemic. As this plague threatens to overwhelm the criminal justice system and fills hospitals’ emergency rooms, many people are asking what can be done. The most recent research tells us that locking
Whatever joy the Sumerians thought the poppy brought, opiate use — heroin and opioid pain relievers like oxycodon — is now an epidemic, not just in Michigan, but across the United States. In just the past three weeks: Two sisters from Farmington overdosed on heroin in different locations on the same day. A 20-year-old woman from
Last Sept. 25, the people living on Butternut Drive woke to the sound of a detonation reverberating in the darkness. The home at 52600 Butternut was on fire. The 2010 census placed Shelby Township in Macomb County as one of the most affluent communities in the state of Michigan. It is not the type of
Jennifer Myers could not pay $91.99 a month in child support. So she was arrested and when brought to court, where without an attorney, she was put in jail for 30 days. According to the coroner she died died in the Macomb County (Michigan) jail from a sepsis infection. However, what she may have really
The people of the City of Flint were poisoned. There is no evidence that this was intentional; rather Flint’s citizens were treated like numbers in an accountant’s ledger, where spending the least money was thought to be the best decision. It was when members of the Snyder administration understood that their decision was poisoning people,
Hospital liability arises from two separate and distinct sources. The first comes from malpractice committed by medical staff and the second arises from the negligence of administrative staff. The legal theories behind these two sources of litigation are different and can cause confusion for hospital administrators. While a hospital’s liability for the negligence of its
The factors that make up a successful Drug Treatment Court (DTC) are diverse, but the emerging research demonstrates, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the interaction between a judge and a participant is central to that success[1]. The bond between participant and judge is not solely dependent upon the judge’s personality but rather upon the nature
Voting represents the very essence of a democracy and in the last week or so several courts have struck down restrictions on this basic right. These restrictions on the right to vote were passed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder 133 S. Ct. 2612 (2013) That case essentially struck down
The intuitive understanding of the central role of the judge, which had been embraced by many of the original Drug Treatment Court (DTC) judges in creating and operating their courts, has been supported by significant new research. DTCs have been the subject of more scientific research than any other judicial activity. However, the primary focus
In recent years a new kind of dog has begun to appear in courtrooms. These dogs are used as therapeutic support in two basic circumstances, first, for emotionally vulnerable witnesses and second, for individuals who are participating in a Veteran’s Treatment Court. Going to the Dogs? A therapy dog is not a service dog, as