001[Music] welcome to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson meet the court is brought to you as a public service by the Superior Court of New Jersey in Atlantic and Kate Mae counties as well as the Cape May Institute of Technology to infer to better inform you the public of the workings of a court and the role of the judiciary today's topic community outreach programs what are they who do they service and how do they affect members of the community our guest today the Honorable mark Sansa presiding judge of the drug court and Atlantic and Cape May counties and Jill Hulk Criminal Division manager in Atlantic and Kate Mae counties welcome to our program thank you before we begin can we can you tell us a little bit about yourselves judge we'll start with
002you sorry with me I'm a native of Lanting City New Jersey I practiced law for many years in Atlantic City and became a judge in 2007 been a bad judge for approximately 11 years now I've served in the Family Division I served in the Criminal Division I was the general equity judge for a couple of years and now for about the last two years I've been sitting as the drug court judge in Cape May and Atlantic counties thank you judge Jill tell us about your background I've been with the judiciary of almost 15 years the majority that time with the Criminal Division I've been the criminal division manager about 2 years now and I have my degree in forensic psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice thank you ok now that we know a
003little bit about you let's turn to our topic judge you have been the point person on the outreach program one judge one school which I understand is in its fifth year can you tell us a little bit about that program actually sixth year oh but that's good yeah approximately five or six years ago judge Mendez and I were having a conversation about what ways could we at the courthouse in the judiciary you take more of an outreach role we're very become very insular sitting every day in our courtrooms dealing with a lot of people often very sad stories people whose lives before us are coming apart and sometimes hopefully being put back together but and I think also the perception of the judiciary may not be the highest in the minds of the public because
004they associate the courtroom with a lot of very negative experiences either from family matters or criminal matters even a litigation is not something that most people think is particularly beneficial experience but looking at it from the inside as judge mondays and I both do we saw that you know there are a lot of really incredible things that are happening in the courthouse on a day to day basis we are providing justice for the people of this these counties in this state on a essentially seven day a week 24 hour a day basis there's someone always on duty there we have no vested interest in one person or another we're trying to do justice it's very difficult it is impactful in the lives of people so the theory was how do we get the message out
005it's very difficult to find venues where adults are going to congregate to hear a story like that because people are too busy working day to day however when you have a school-age population and particularly we target the high school-age population the 14 to 18 year olds approximately their their their kids are in school often studying criminal justice constitutional law social studies a lot of things we do are directly relevant to that population but there had been little or no outreach whatever outreach there was to the schools was on a extremely haphazard basis so what we decided to do there approximately 25 high schools in the Atlantic and Cape May County vicinage that's our judicial organization it's called a vicinage it's two counties and we decided we have approximately that amount of judges why don't we
006go and assign one judge to each high school and try to arrange two visits at each high school and at least one court have visits where these young people can come to our courthouses and see the day to day dramas that are going on in the Family Division the Criminal Division the Civil Division and certainly in drug court we've been doing that for five years this is our sixth year we have had tremendous amounts of success we have had approximately four to five thousand interactions with students in Atlantic in Cape May County per year for those for those five or six years it has been agreed the kids are extremely excited about it and we're frankly the judges are excited about it as well the most amazing thing gelada is I have never asked the
007judge to take responsibility be a liaison with any particular school and have had that judge saying no to me so it's great program we're all in in it and it's been extraordinarily successful no that sounds like a great undertaking so how do you keep something like that totally organized well that's a very good question and very difficult we have somebody right here with us today Kathleen o bringer who is the Ombudsman for the Superior Court she has done a lot of it I have been very active in it and Judge Mendes and Howard Burke told a Bowers our trial court administrator they have been very invested in it so when we need to be other places than in the courtroom we have had no problem getting coverage when we go to schools it is a
008communal investment by the judiciary by the judges and by the staff people frankly Jawad I know you're involved Joe is involved and most of the staff people work for the judiciary are involved the traditional way our organizational chart works is we have a school let's let's take Atlantic City High School for example I am in charge I'm at liaison with Lennox City High School which is my alma mater and very frankly many of the judges go to the high schools that they graduated from and I have a face team member which is a judiciary employee who is a non judge do dictionary employee who often is an Atlantic City Atlantic City High School Atlantic City person who has a contacts there we set up a speaking engagement I usually take a prosecutor I take a
009public defender I take another civil lawyer family lawyer we have a team of four or five people that I will take to Atlantic City High School I'm doing it later this month and so we keep that an organizational basis and we do in our program which I was really insistent about and for change I was right we keep statistics we know where we've been how many people event we've interacted with one of the most amazing things is we had a and and you know it's just you know you get a payback and in all sorts of ways and most of the payback is really being able to meet kids on a one-to-one basis and tell them what you do and perhaps provide career advice to them but we were at the judicial college this year
010and Jill you were at a another judicial college where the Chief Justice all of a sudden out of the blue started to take note of the Atlantic City one judge one school program incidentally one judge one school Oh Jo s ojos is our kind of our symbol and a host in Spanish means I so it is kind of the eyes of the judiciary which are focused on the community and we're really trying to help people and inform them and to discuss various issues that may come up so it's just briefly can you tell us what topics you cover well we're supposedly going to cover the American Bar Association has a long day topic every year it is usually extremely uninteresting no offense the American Bar Association there are much bunch of really great people but
011this year it's separation of powers which is somewhat interesting but if I were to tell you that I stuck on the script of the separation of powers you know issues we try to discuss that but really when I go to schools what do we discuss we discuss it because of my drug court orientation we discuss drugs we discuss drugs recovery the dangers the drugs / drugs present to young people I see it every day in drug court and the kids that we talked to are extremely interested and it's an extremely important time of their lives to really get keyed in on what's happening and the dangers and exposures that exist in our community we talked about gun cases in New Jersey we talked about things that are generally of interest to them and we can
012be easily swayed by a question or two into any of the various topics covering any of the matters that we really address as judges on a daily basis I just want to say also when we have our courthouses I have a popular destination how cuz drug court is popular for high school social studies teachers they come in they see what we're doing we have 800 people in drug court and Lanigan Cape May counties it's the biggest program in the state and they see lives that are being put back together firsthand it's tremendously important for these kids and they respond well to it this is meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson will be back with judge Sanson and Joe Houck after this message hello my name is Tom Hegarty I'm a sergeant Decatur County
013Sheriff's Office some of the things you should know when you enter any of our courthouses is once you come in they're going to be screened by an officer at the front desk so what you should not have on you is any weapons tools anything that want to slow down that process you're going to come in put all your metal objects up on the counter step through the metal detector listening to the officers direction once you step through go let you know whether you can continue on or whether you should stop if he stops you you may have to be wounded with it on detect anything else you may have on you that that's not picking on sir so the speed your your trip along with it I'll come in because there may be lines when
014you come in and there may be delays so you want to get here early and you also less objects on you that will impede your progress of the code welcome back to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson today we're discussing community outreach programs with my guests judge marks Anson and Joe Hoke so judge Sanson we were talking about the one judge one school program and you seem to be very passionate about this subject is there anything else you'd like to let our viewers know about the program the only thing I can say Giada is that what is happening in the courthouses we have three in this edition is we have Atlantic City the civil courthouse family court house and in Mays Landing the Criminal courthouse and chemi courthouses both combined is our real-life
015dramas taking place 24 hours a day 7 days a week they're open to the public there's very few proceedings which are closed it's my belief that the more people get involved and understand what the workings of our judicial system the more they will learn to respect it and to honor it particularly with children children watch all this fantasy on TV 20 of the the courtroom shows what's the what's the big one about the district attorneys I don't even know I say on to like I don't watch a lot of TV which I don't but all these programs portray an unreal world the real world is that judges are honest decent people we're all kind of normal we try to do the best we can we try to be fair and impartial where women and men
016who have all practiced law for at least 10 years and we are interested in helping our community and to the extent we can we do we are fully invested in the one judge one school or ojos program and it's going to continue we're going to be visiting schools in your community and hopefully this program will last for a long time to come thank you judge thank you so Joe this brings us to you I understand as criminal division manager you are directing several impactful community programs one in commonly referred to as the bus station outreach could you describe that program tell us a little bit more once a month on the Tuesday of every month the judiciary along with several other social service agencies such as Jewish Family Services Volunteers of America South Jersey legal
017services the the county welfare board that helps people find housing and provides general assistance we all meet at the bus station in Atlantic City we're there from 8:00 to 11:00 in the morning and weird we just do outreach and we talk to everybody that is in the bus station it is a place in Atlantic City where sometimes the homeless do congregate as well as some other at-risk people but we've been doing this since 2015 so pretty much the community is aware that we are always there the last Tuesday of every month and what the judiciary does is we have our computers we you know we set them up and we look up people's cases we see if they're eligible for an expungement we see if they have any bench warrants we try to get them
018recalled if possible and get them a new court dates that they don't risk being arrested and being put in jail we help people get their drivers licenses back if their driver's license has been suspended by the court and we also answer any other general court questions you know we have information on landlord tenant child support family court matters and other things like that so Joe I'm sure our viewers want to know why a bus station well I'm on a local committee called the face team and you know the goal of that committee is to do community outreach and we were discussing a couple years ago how our outreach efforts were not very successful we didn't receive a lot of attendance and at places like the library in the courthouse so I said well we have
019to go somewhere where there already are people and there's a lot of natural traffic especially at-risk people that do need our services like the bus station and it just happened that a friend of mine or a you know a colleague that worked with Jim Family Services was just starting a relationship with the New Jersey Transit Police at the bus station you know to help the some of the homeless people that were congregating there and we just went to him and we asked him if we could set up a table once a month and what we plan on doing and it has just grown tremendously in May 2015 was our first event and in 2015 we served 125 people in 2016 we serve 293 people so almost a double and in 2017 we saw 511 people
020and we're consistently seen between 40 and 60 people every month at the bus station Wow so that's a lot of people that you're servicing so what types of questions or issues do most of those people have most people want to know if they have any bench warrants and if we can have them recalled and get them a court date you know some people have children they don't want to you know be arrested in front of their children they want to be able to go to work without you know being in fear of being arrested and most of these bench warrants are for mine or matters that you know the court is happy to vacate because we really do not want to see anyone go to jail people ask if they're eligible for an expungement an
021expungement is a you know an order that a judge signs basically retracting someone's record from public view so we can screen people to see if they're eligible for that people also have just basic court questions you know about how do they file for a divorce you know landlord tenant issues but mostly we have people that ask about bench warrants and expungements okay judge Sanson just going back to you are there any other counties in the state of New Jersey that are doing a one judge one school type program not currently one of the things that when we were at judicial college just Chief Justice Radner indicated that he would like to see more activity I'm certainly available to to assist but to mine now is we're the only program like it in in this country
022it's been enormous Lisa cessful we've won various regional awards for it and and you know I don't really care about the awards it doesn't make a difference what makes the difference is that we're really really helping kids understand the importance of being a law abiding citizen that's what high school is really all about I mean you learn a lot of other stuff but if you can't learn how to fit in in with society not do drugs stay work and do as much education as will help you make a living and ultimately have a family and stay with that family and support that family then we're really not accomplishing anything in our high schools so I feel our program is something that is going to help young people go along those lines to be the future
023citizens of tomorrow this is meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we'll be back with our guests judge Sansa and Jill Huck after this message hello again some of the things that you should know when you're entering a court room is there's a certain courtroom etiquette is expected of you you should come in quietly take a seat remain quiet at all times you should remove any coverings on your head hats hoodies sit down take any cell phones turn them completely off and have them away if they're a scene out they can be confiscated there's an officer that usually sits in the front of the room he is there for the judges safety as well as the public safety so if you're it going to ask him a question stead of just blurting it out
024or getting up and approaching him get his attention attention discreetly raise your hand and he will approach you and ask the question at a quiet level welcome back to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we are continuing our conversation about community outreach programs with our guests Judge Mark Sampson and Joe Hal Joe we were talking about the bus station outreach program but I'd like to turn to something that our viewers may have heard of many fugitives safe surrenders could you could describe that program to us the past year we've had to larger scale events one in Atlantic City and one in Pleasantville where it was along the lines of that the large scale fugitives safe surrender that was in Atlanta County in 2012 are thousands and thousands of people came to get their
025bench warrants recalled it's obviously smaller than that but bigger than the bus station so we have it on a Saturday instead of during the weekday and what we do is people come they get screened to see if they have bench warrant and then their bench warrants most bench warrants you know are recalled no questions asked and then they get a new court date so this year alone 476 people attended those two events and we were able to recall 407 bench warrants there is another middy fugitive safe surrender event that is occurring in Atlantic City on May 12th and it is called put your life back on track so you talked about expungements and you gave us a definition of what an expungement is but I understand that the Criminal Division does an expungement seminar can
026you explain what that process is like yes I go into the community I actually did one yesterday usually a job placement program sometimes at churches and I just explain what the eligibility guidelines are for an expungement what an expungement is what the benefits are and the process someone has to take in order to get an expungement granted so what are the eligibility requirements for an expungement that is sort of a tricky question because a new law was just signed right before January that does go into effect in October but currently the guidelines are someone cannot have more than one indictable or felony conviction or more than two if they have an indictable conviction more than two disorderly persons convictions if they don't have an indictable convictions they can have up to three disorderly person convictions
027expunged unless they have graduated from drug court and then they can have their entire record expunged regardless of how many convictions they have that is changing in October though October 1st more people will be eligible for an expungement the guidelines loosened a little bit sounds like a step in the right direction so you talked about new legislation one of the biggest sweeping reform changes in the state of New Jersey through new legislation was criminal justice reform what type of outreach efforts have taken place to introduce the public to this new legislation we provide handouts and information at the bus station every month on criminal justice reform people do always have questions that we answer them but we also went into the community and did some criminal justice reform specific events we did several in Atlantic
028City some in Pleasantville we did several in Cape May and we basically just explained what the new law is to the public and and you know tell them that it is to their benefit to support this new program and we answer any questions that anybody has so it's really is a constant outreach effort when it comes to criminal justice reform to just inform the public and make sure that they're aware of the change in the law so we talked about a lot of outreach programs that are currently taking place and yourself you've been a part of those outreach programs who other what other staff members are involved and do you involve the judges as well the municipal judges are involved at the fugitive safe surrender events other than that we really don't have judges involved
029in the fugitive surrender or the bus station events are municipal presiding judge Luis Velasco he was very involved in the criminal justice reform out outreach efforts and our assignment judge Julio Mendez and the our trial court administrator Howard birch told are very supportive of all of our outreach efforts and it definitely is a focus for our vicinage to do as many outreach events as possible to reach as many people are there any other agencies that partner with the judiciary to conduct these outreach events most of the social service agencies in Atlantic and Cape May County do partner with us Jewish Family Services Volunteers of America Cape counseling you know both of the county you know welfare boards do so we add legal services South Jersey legal services so we do have you know a wraparound
030approach when we do outreach and make sure that other people are there to fulfill other needs other than court matters so judge you spoke with such passion about the one judge one school program I wonder if there's any other personal rewards for yourself or the other judges that participate in the program yeah here's the key as I said before there's twenty five high schools there's coincidentally approximately 25 judges in the two counties never as anybody as I said ever denied an opportunity to speak at a school we're all local residents we all go to the same wawas we all go to the same shop rights we all go to the same to the same schools in the end to the football game to the basketball games it's great when we see people there who said
031my son or daughter saw you at X High School and they said you were great they really now want to go to law school I've had various people tell me that their children want to go to law school want to become judges want to become this want to become that probation officers people working for the judiciary we also stress career opportunities in the judiciary not just being a lawyer there's a million other things where people can really make a great livelihood and make a contribution to the community we all try to do that and spreading the word is part of our function and we have a very supportive judiciary in that regard and we're extremely proud of this one-of-a-kind program our outreach programs seem like they're doing a lot for the community we are just
032about out of time I'd like to thank our guests for joining us today on this episode of meet the court and I'd like to thank you our viewing audience for tuning in I'm Joey Johnson goodbye for now [Music] you [Music]