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Blogs by Lisa Adams
good day 2/23/2008 8:29:33 AM
It is nice and sunny again today. I have to marry two people today; ah the life of a judge. I can't wait to be just an attorney again. When I started, I used to worry a lot about how I was doing. But in the end, I realized that this is one of those odd positions in life where you literally cannot please everybody...at all. As a prosecutor, I was threatened with death a couple of times. It's all part of the job. I remember one kid actually followed me home and drove by the house - threatened to kill me. We were sitting in the front yard and stared for a minute before what he had said registered. Oops. the funny part is, I was never scared. I just felt sorry for the kid because that was a really super dope-fiend move. Here, I go to court and hear the cases and make the decision the best I can.
Contrary to popular opinion, judges (at least the ones I have known over the years) do not spend most of their time plotting to send people they have seen before to jail for as long as possible. Quite the contrary. You want to stop seeing the person going to jail and get their their proverbial you know what together.
Even in tribal court there are people who have been through before. I know them on a first-name basis. And I like them as people. I just do whatever I can to try to get them to see that constantly being in front of me is not such a great thing to be doing when you are, like, 20. Oh and not in a lecture sort of way. Lectures are silly and don't work. One kid is so smart, it kills me that he can't get a grip on his issues.
I just wish that there was something else for them to do, especially the youth. It has been proven time and again that jail does not work. It is both counter-intuitive and counter-productive. Sure it's necessary for the serious criminals, but some kid who smoked pot, you want to lock them up? That's just plain stupid.
I am trying to bring some people together to create a program on the Pine Ridge Reservation to give these kids a chance to express themselves creatively - be that through sports or the arts...BEFORE they get in trouble. Give them a shot and let them fly. Mel's cousin, Lovey Two Bulls, and I cooked up this scheme; and she knows someone who wants to help as do we and I am trying to make that connection so we can get this thing off the ground.
You know, it's hard when you live in the middle of nowhere not to get bored when you're a kid. In retrospect, sure, I love living in the country although I do miss the city. But as a kid, I loved all the distractions of the city. I went to art museums and sat for hours drawing the paintings or looking at medieval illuminated manuscripts (the colors are so beautiful).
I know some of these kids can express themselves and are just looking for an avenue to do this. It has to happen. It is time. So I will continue working and doing what I have to do. I just hope our little venture can get off the ground this year some time.
More later when I am waxing less philosophical. :)
