WILL JUDGE AMANDA WILLIAMS DESTROY THE PROGRESS OF DRUG COURTS IN AMERICA?

Judge Amanda F. Williams

The best way I can describe it was captivating.  Monday evening on my drive home I stumbled across a program on public radio that just was the best piece of journalism I've heard in a long time.

The report examined the Drug Court system in Glynn County Georgia.  It focused on the judge identified as Amanda F. Williams.  The program 'This American Life' weaved a tale of the drug court system like I've never heard before.

It paints a picture of a judge who traps defendants in a treatment system that's unending and punishes them for challenging her dictatorship like authority.  It defies all the good I've heard about Drug Courts around the country.

After hearing the journalist and defendants' evidence I thought to myself this judge could destroy the Drug Court system as we know it through her alleged strong arm tactics from the bench.

If you do only one thing this week, make sure it's listening to this program.  It's eye opening!

Here's an excerpt and a link to the full report:

Ira Glass reports from Glynn County Georgia on Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams and how she runs the drug courts in Glynn, Camden and Wayne counties. We hear the story of Lindsey Dills, who forges two checks on her parents' checking account when she's 17, one for $40 and one for $60, and ends up in drug court for five and a half years, including 14 months behind bars, and then she serves another five years after that—six months of it in Arrendale State Prison, the other four and a half on probation. The average drug court program in the U.S. lasts 15 months. But one main way that Judge Williams' drug court is different from most is how punitive it is. Such long jail sentences are contrary to the philosophy of drug court, as well as the guidelines of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. For violating drug court rules, Lindsey not only does jail terms of 51 days, 90 days and 104 days, Judge Williams sends her on what she calls an "indefinite sentence," where she did not specify when Lindsey would get out.

Link to hear the full report: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/430/very-tough-love