It’s known that our justice system is deeply flawed, however it’s time we look at how our judges are part of the issue and address it in a meaningful way in all states. While how judges get the job varies – appointments by governors or voted in – so too does evaluation. Many of the discussions and discipline of judges occurs behind closed doors and months later, with only a small fraction being considered worthy of investigation. Meanwhile, people go before the judges and lives are affected and – wait, what’s the definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result. Right.
White told me the judge had him do 16 weeks of classes. “It was arbitrary. No oversight, it’s not standardized and no one reviewing…She didn’t even listen to what was going on. She didn’t even take five minutes to even discuss what was happening and that’s not right. You wait six months to have a hearing and it’s over in three minutes sometimes.”
As Sheridan said to me about his experience with Coats and the legal system, “too many believe there are two sides to every story but there’s not. There’s three. There’s the mother’s side, the father’s side, and the truth, which is typically a blend of the two. And that’s supposed to be the judge’s job is to figure out what the truth is by listening to both sides, not just by automatically choosing one side.”
