DUI Court in Schools

See Chris Smith's column in the Empire Section of the Press Democrat, May 6, 2008.

Judge Gary Nadler deserves a lot of recognition for coming up with this idea.  Basically, he takes a session of DUI court to a high school.  Recently, at Casa Grande High School, a DUI offender was sentenced in front of the assembly of high school students.  At the conclusion of sentencing, the young woman was handcuffed and led away by bailiffs to a waiting patrol car to be taken to jail. 

As an attorney who works in the juvenile criminal court, I am so strongly in favor of programs like Judge Nadler's DUI Court in Schools.  It gives kids a rare opportunity to see what real consequences some actions bring.

A lot of my clients are sentenced to the Sonoma County Probation Camp program.  There, kids receive counseling and real job skills - welding, forklift certification, working with power tools that would enable them to be construction workers or carpenters, etc.  The program can be difficult because, in order to succeed, the young people have to take a good, hard look at the choices they've been making, and really want to change.

Lots of kids make it through and go on to wonderful futures.  Unfortuately, because juvenile proceedings are confidential and thus closed to the public, graduations from camp are held in the private confines of the courtrooms.  I think it would be hugely beneficial for the graduations to be held in public.  I say - Let's do them in the lobby!  It would show all the kids who are in trouble and waiting for court that there can be a good outcome, that there is hope and there are programs that can help them have a brighter future.  Let's do them once a month for anyone who wants to participate and have the Press Democrat cover it.  That would also go a long ways towards showing the community that, while there are a lot of kids getting in trouble these days, there are also a lot of kids who are turning things around.  And wouldn't that be nice - to read something positive in the paper?