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The only certain thing about the future is that
it will surprise even those who have seen furthest into it.
—E.J. Hobsbawm
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Martha Turner
It’s a new year, and as we turn the page and think about new beginnings, we at JJF are saying excelsior which translates upward and onward! We have expanded our work, received numerous grants, added to our wonderful staff, and made many new friends and supporters.
It’s going to be an exciting 2011, and an interesting year. One of those interesting things is a new series of interviews with the judges in our Courthouse here in Fulton County.
Recently our Chief Judge Belinda Edwards spoke with us in an interview to discuss, among other things, adoption and the way that the Court works with families to support them in that process.
Here is part one of a two part interview with Judge Phillip Jackson.
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Honorable Judge Phillip Jackson © c. releford
Judge Phillip Jackson
College: University of Georgia, Georgia State University
Law School: Georgia State University
First Day on Bench: June, 2009
Q: Judge Jackson, can you describe your journey, what it’s been like coming from being a parent attorney to being a judge?
A: It’s been good. Once you become a judge, you have to change your perspective, and you see things a little differently. Being a lawyer is more adversarial, and the lawyer has to be an advocate for his client, whether that be a parent, or the State, or the child.
Q: And you’re trying to win.
A: Well, I don’t know about trying to win, but you’re trying to get what your client wants. Whereas as a judge, the judge is more concerned about justice, and about a fair playing field; making sure everybody is in it fairly, and making sure the right decision is made.
The other thing, from a Juvenile policy standpoint, is that many times it is about service and rehabilitation. It’s not so much about punishment, so you have to get creative about your options. And the Juvenile Justice Fund is right here, and it’s about assistance. Sometimes people need clothing, sometimes they need support programs that might be alternatives; there are group homes, or a safe home for girls – different things like that. So that’s how the Juvenile Justice Fund (JJF) comes in, because not all of the funding comes from the state or the county, and JJF allows us to supplement that, to give services, to try to get justice. You know justice isn’t just about somebody getting punished, or somebody winning, or somebody losing. It’s about just trying to do the right thing. The right thing for everybody.
Q: That’s an interesting thing to say. Some people would raise their eyebrows at that, because our society trends to litigious attitudes, and people getting what they want, and punitive damages, and getting revenge. So it’s interesting to hear a judge talk more about aid and rehabilitation. Not to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like maybe even forgiveness?
A: We’re trying to put a plan in place to make it work, as opposed to just cutting up the family so that one parent gets custody and one parent doesn’t.
Q: Judge Jackson, did you always want to be a judge, or did it just happen that way?
A: No, I didn’t always want to be a lawyer! (laughs)
Once you become a lawyer, I think every lawyer, in the back of their mind, they think about it. They think about, well, if I were the judge, how would I rule this, and what would I do here if I had the opportunity to do something to make it better.
Q: In your time as a lawyer, were there certain judges who inspired you?
A: One thing I’ve learned, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a judge or a teacher or a doctor or a banker or an Indian Chief – you can learn something from everybody, and what it teaches you is that I can’t be somebody else. So number one, you have to try to understand yourself. Number two, what you do – fortunately, it’s not against the law to copy, so you take something good from this person, you take something from that person over there, and if you can work it, if you can make it work, then that’s what you have to do.
Q: What are qualities that you admire in a judge?
A: I admire a good demeanor. People should feel comfortable coming before a judge, and they should feel that the judge is taking them seriously, and that the judge is listening. Someone told me you can’t demand respect, you have to earn it. So I want to listen to them, and have a good disposition, because, you know, unfortunately, anytime a judge makes a decision, people may be upset about the decision.
Q: Yes, about fifty percent of the people.
A: Yes! (laughs) Sometimes you can come up with something where everybody is pretty much in agreement with what is going to work. But unfortunately a lot of times it just goes one way or the other, and you have to have a good disposition so that if you do say something, people won’t feel like the judge is directing it personally. You hope they’ll say “Well, the judge didn’t do this to me personally. The judge is being fair about it. The judge isn’t doing it because I’m short, or because I’m tall, or because I’m from this side of town, or that side of town.”
You have to be comfortable with what you’re doing, no matter what you do. But me, I’m nervous a lot of the time.
Q: Really?
A: You listen to different performers, and they talk about stage fright, and you just wouldn’t know it. I’m nervous.
Q: Would you say that’s because you’re relatively new as a judge, or because you demand a lot from yourself to make good decisions?
A: A combination. I wouldn’t say I’m really demanding, but I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing. I want to succeed, and when you want to succeed and do things, you’re always going to be nervous. When you start taking things too much for granted, you can lose respect, and you can lose that edge.
Q: You don’t want to lose your edge?
A: Right, and I always want to understand what’s at stake – and that’s going to make you a little nervous.
Q: Well, and the quality of a person’s life is at stake. And I suppose their life could be at stake.
A: It could be. But many times it’s about the quality of life. Once a child, or anyone, has been harmed, they need time to heal, and they need to be in the best environment to heal. So as soon as you can get them into a nurturing environment, the sooner they can recover. Sometimes people are so damaged as a child, they’ve been so injured or fractured, that it affects their ability to have a relationship with another person for the rest of their life—one on one, trusting and communicating. That’s something you can never fix, but you can minimize it.
Q: How did it feel the first time you put your robe on, and went out as a judge?
A: Good! I mean, you’re scared and you’re nervous, but it felt good. One thing you learn from being a lawyer is that the law and the court have to be respected. But as a judge you have to be approachable, and the thing about a robe, is that it’s like power: you have to respect it, but you can’t get too comfortable with it. Which is probably why I get nervous—sometimes you get so caught up with the power of it, thinking that you can’t make a mistake. You’re thinking it’s about you, but I have to remember that it’s about doing the right thing. There’s something called robeitis; I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that.
Q: No I haven’t heard of it.
A: Robeitis is a disease that people sometimes get when all this power goes to their head as they put on the robe. And so I say to myself, “Let me be humble, let me understand this and do the right thing, and let me listen.”
Q: Judge Jackson, you are a native Atlantan, and you’ve been in the courts here for many years –
A: Twenty years.
Q: In that time, in 20 years, do you think the legal system has gotten better or worse?
A: In some ways it’s gotten better, and in some ways it’s gotten worse. It’s gotten better from the standpoint that we know more about the law, and automation and computers have helped a great deal. It used to be that you had all these file rooms, and you had case files and mimeograph machines, and it took awhile to find something. The law is about paper; you have to follow due process. But since we have computers, when things are scanned in, what you used to do in days, you can do in minutes. You can find something. You can give somebody a certified copy. You can pull up histories. So with that, it’s great. We understand more, and we can bring in experts – doctors and so forth. Especially in Juvenile, in deciding what needs to be done to help families, it’s so much better.
One way that it’s bad is that there’s more of a need. We have more cases now, and we have fewer resources. We don’t have enough money for judges, parent’s attorneys and children’s attorneys. We don’t have enough beds in hospitals, much less detention centers, and that’s the sad thing because if we had more resources, some of these cases would go away.
Another thing is that people in our generation always talk about immediate gratification. So if someone comes into court, and the judge says this or that, then boom—there’s this expectation that the family is healed, the child is healed –
Q: Yes, tune in next week for the next episode–
A: Yes, you know problems like that — they don’t heal overnight, and if somebody needs counseling or treatment, you’re sometimes talking about months. You’re not talking about days. That hasn’t changed, but expectations have changed, and people want it to be that way—instantaneous.
Another part of it is education and exposure. It used to be, to get things done, you would go back in a room and work it out, and all the public would really know is that it worked. But now you have this transparency, and you have media transparency, where people will say “Oh no, that will never work.” But we don’t give things time to work.
Q: We have so much information now, but we don’t really have the knowledge of how things really do work?
A: Right, and that’s where education comes in. There’s nothing wrong with transparency, and there’s nothing wrong with people knowing. We need to educate people so they know what all the components are, as opposed to just giving them the outcome. Everybody wants somebody punished, but nobody wants an innocent person to be convicted. Yet in public perception, if they see somebody charged, they’ll leap to the conclusion that they must have done it, but sometimes that’s not the case.
Q: You knew Judge “Sammy” Jones, who was Chief Judge here and often described as a judge who really cared about children.
A: He did. The thing about him, if you knew him, was that he had a good disposition and a good demeanor. People respected him. He had a lot of different experiences, and had done so many different things that people could relate to him and he could talk to everybody. He also had a good sense of humor. The children came first. It wasn’t about him, it was about getting the job done.
Q: He didn’t have robeitis?
A: No. He did not have robeitis. But for someone who would have had robeitis, done the things he’d done, and associated with the people he associated with, you know, it could have happened. But he was the type of individual who was focused on doing what was right for the child, and what was right for people. They say “A good leader is a better servant.” You serve people. You’re not a leader if you just order people and have people serve you. That’s a true test– when people feel that you’re in charge, but you’re also looking out for their best interests.
Check back with us on January 26th to read the second half of this interview.
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YESTERDAY I FOUND MY VOICE
TODAY I’M HERE TO SHOUT ABOUT IT
Sharon Simpson Joseph, Esq. , Founder of The Voices Project
On January 20th, a few fortunate girls from the Juvenile Probation Court will step into a new year and an opportunity to change their lives because of The Voices Project, brainchild of Sharon Simpson Joseph, Executive Director of JJF.
“These are our girls, coming through the Juvenile Justice Support System, and the idea is – we’re reaching out to them to inspire hope, options, opportunities, support and love. In collaboration with the probation department and the Georgia Care Connection, JJF’s Voices Project will be helping girls 11 to 17 years old, find their strengths and their own voices, hence the phrase ‘Yesterday I found my voice, Today I’m here to shout about it!’ ”
The girls come here to our Permanency Center after school in small groups of 10 or so. They meet with our staff in a team environment for new, enriching experiences like Cardio Funk, Wonder Root, The Atlanta Ballet, and Group Mentoring Program.
Cardio Funk is a fun, physical workout which also incorporates positive and powerful affirmations for the girls so they can improve their thinking about themselves, their personal worth, and their bodies.
Wonder Root is a community program including everything from the fine arts to performance art to the ability to write your own books, or grow an organic garden.
Volunteers from The Atlanta Ballet are coming to teach ballet, and then we have our Group Mentoring Program, where members of the community come to share their time and experience with the girls.
Last Fall the program was formally launched with the Fulton County Probation Court, and this month marks the inception of the pilot group.
New Voices Project
Click on the link below to hear a short remark from Sharon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpkE70DKyyQ
I spoke with Sharon yesterday about the upcoming first meeting for the Voices Project.
Q: Sharon, you have your girls, you have your new Voices Project Coordinator; classes and volunteers are lined up. How does it feel to be so close to this new beginning?
A: I’m so excited, and with this Atlanta snow storm, we agreed today that our first circle meeting, which was to have been tomorrow, will be postponed until next Thursday. But the feeling is wonderful; I can’t believe how far we’ve come. We’ve gotten several grants that demonstrate people’s belief in this vision. We have a fabulous, fabulous coordinator in Grace, and I couldn’t be happier that our vision is coming to fruition. I know that the girls are going to get so much out of this, and they’re really going to love it.
Q: How long have you had the vision for this project?
A: Since early Spring of last year, 2010. It started out as a germ of an idea, and we felt that we could do something really special to reach girls earlier in this journey. Then we just started talking about it and dreaming about it, and here we are!
Q: How many girls are currently enrolled?
A: The pilot launch group has ten girls.
Q: Are you currently looking for mentors to volunteer?
A: We have a very strong mentor volunteer group already, and the response to this program has just been fantastic. But one of the key components of our plan is not only how the JJF Staff will serve these girls, but how we can initially support them in developing a bond with each other. It’s about them becoming a circle and a group, so prior to introducing the mentors, we’re going to work with them in building their self esteem and their connections with each other.
Q: How important is it that the girls learn to establish lasting relationships?
A: I think it’s critical. I personally believe it’s how we can measure having a productive and successful life. Supporting the girls in being able to establish that — to help them to achieve that type of perspective in life will be doing a huge, huge service for them.
Thanks Sharon, and we will be checking back later for updates on this imaginative new project.
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Grace Schouten, Voices Project Coordinator
Grace Schouten, (pronounced Skowten) is our new Voices Project Coordinator. With a degree in Criminology from the University of South Florida, Grace worked in Child Welfare in Florida before moving to Atlanta. After joining our affiliate, the Junior League, she noticed the work of the Juvenile Justice Fund, and wanted to become involved.
Q: Grace, coming from a Navy background, you moved around a lot growing up. How did that eventually influence your decision to work with youth?
A: Moving around so often, I started to really understand what happens to kids in foster care, how they would bounce around, and how it really tore up normalcy, it tore up everything in their life that every other teenager in a “normal life” would get to do. These teenagers started to run away, they had delinquency problems, and they would be labeled “bad kids.” So I started to research what they call “disconnected youth,” who would withdraw themselves from the system, and from counseling. They kind of rough it, and try to figure out things on their own, and wind up really being lost — I could empathize with them. Their life just falls apart and they don’t have control over it.
Q: Would you say when you were moving around as a teenager, that you had support and were connected?
A: Yes, I would definitely say that’s the difference for me. My father retired when I was 14, so I got to stay in the same high school. But before that I went to 14 different schools, and no one even thought that was odd. But I did some research on “military brats” and there were similarities between our experience and those of the foster care kids. I had family and I had friends who were in the military and were just like me; but if you don’t have that, it’s just chaos, and the foster children get this feeling of disconnection, and of being out of joint.
Q: Stemming from that, what do you hope to provide these girls with who are coming into the Voices Project?
A: To help them feel that they have a place where they belong, and that’s not just in the physical sense, but that they can find things they like to do, and something they can feel passionate about. If they have something they want to talk about, they have someplace to go and get help about it. I want them to have their own spot.
Q: How do you plan to bring that about?
A: The way the course is designed, the girls will explore many components of a rich young adult life: there’s the Health and Wellness, there’s Cultural Arts and Education. Of course there is the CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children) element as well, and there is so much flexibility and diversity in the curriculum that the girls are going to get great exposure. One 15 year old girl I spoke with today told me “I just want to know more. I don’t know what I want.” They don’t know yet what they don’t know, so we help them find the questions, and find a way to begin.
Welcome Grace, and we appreciate your special perspective on the lives of teenagers.
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Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities
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Backpage.com Monitor
Since Craigslist shut down their Adult Services section there has been a migration of those who are seeking to purchase sex on the internet. Most of the migration that occurred has been to the website, www.backpage.com. A Future. Not A Past., as a part of a larger national effort, is trying to apply similar pressure to www.backpage.com that was applied to Craigslist and resulting in the dismantling of their Adult Section. THIS VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY IS FOR FEMALES ONLY. What AFNAP proposed to do is as follows:
- Monitor the backpage.com/Atlanta site weekly for an 8 week period
- Flag pictures that “look young”
- Quantify and record the number of pictures flagged each week
- Report results to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Cyber Tipline
- Provide a total number of flagged pictures to national media to highlight the ongoing and growing concern
We are asking volunteers to make the following commitment:
- Available for DAY TIME hours on Thursdays starting Jan. 20th through Mar. 10th
- Available for a minimum of (1) two hour block of time per month for 2 months – total of 4 hours but it would be ideal to have volunteers for 2 hours each week for the entire 8 week period. Preference will be given to volunteers who can do more than just (1) two hour block during the period to maximize consistency of raters.
- Self-transportation to monitoring site (located inside the perimeter)
- Mandatory attendance of a 1.5 hour orientation session on Jan. 13th, 9:30a.m. – 11:30a.m.
- Mandatory attendance of a 1.5 hour debriefing session each month you volunteer.
If you are interested in becoming a Backpage.com Monitor, please email info@afuturenotapast.org with “Backpage Monitor” in the subject line or call 404.224.4555.
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AFNAP Community Ambassador
Volunteer and use YOUR voice to raise awareness in YOUR community! Become an official A Future. Not A Past. Community Ambassador by attending a one-time 3 hour training session where you will be educated on the commercial sexual exploitation of children here in Georgia and the demand for those children, as well as learning the red flags to look for and services available for any child in need of help, or how to report this crime to law enforcement.
Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011
8:30a.m. – 12:00p.m.
Families First
1105 W. Peachtree St. NE
Atlanta, GA 30357
Community Ambassador roles include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Host an awareness presentation in your community. AFNAP will help prepare material for your group and attend as a speaker (if schedule permits)
- Host quarterly ”Action Groups” with your own circle to keep others informed of the most recent news regarding stopping the prostitution of children
- Join AFNAP’s legislative efforts by contacting your legislators in support of legislation that protects children and provides needed services
- Spreading the word anywhere you can regarding victims and the buyers and sellers who seek to exploit our children
If you are interested in becoming a Community Ambassador, please email info@afuturenotapast.org with “Community Ambassador” in the subject line or call 404.224.4555.
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LOBBY DAY
The “We Urge You” Campaign (a partnership of A Future. Not A Past., StreetGRACE, and WellSpring Living to stop the prostitution of children) is requesting all supporters to join us on Tuesday, Feb. 1st at the State Capitol to represent victims of commercial sexual exploitation and show the Georgia State Legislature that our community demands their support for our children.
We would like to fill the Capitol with 2,000 supporters so WE URGE YOU to attend and spread the word!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Georgia State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30303
We welcome all supporters and if this is your first time at the Capitol, NO WORRIES!
You will need to register with StreetGRACE (www.streetgrace.org) and attend a briefing session on Jan. 7th to give you more direction regarding your visit to the Capitol.
Transportation and light breakfast will be available at designated locations.
If you are interested in attending Lobby Day, register at www.StreetGRACE.org or please email info@afuturenotapast.org with “Lobby Day” in the subject line.
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CNN Documentary Screening Party
CNN will air a documentary regarding the commercial sexual exploitation of children by CNN Reporter, Amber Lyons. You may remember a very powerful piece presented by Amber Lyons earlier this year where she confronted Craiglist CEO, Jim Buckmaster, regarding children being bought and sold on his website for sex. This documentary looks to offer an in depth look into the prostitution of children and A Future. Not A Past. wants to hear from you! Host a screening party and AFNAP will provide information and statistics regarding the prostitution of children here in Georgia to give to your guests. All we ask is that you have those watching complete a very short questionnaire and you return the results to AFNAP.
Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011
(Date/Time is subject to change but will be confirmed)
CNN Documentary
If you are interested in hosting a screening party, please email info@afuturenotapast.org with “CNN Screening Host” in the subject line or call 404.224.4555.
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AFNAP’s mission is to protect and inspire hope in our girls, the true victims of this illicit practice, as well as to disable demand and prosecute the pimps and johns who make the prostitution of children a gruesome reality in Georgia
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Check back with us on Wednesday, January 26th to find out the latest happenings at JJF, and discover what you can do to help make a difference. Visit our website at www.juvenilejusticefund.org.
Thanks for joining us.
Martha
Martha Turner is the Communications Officer for the
Juvenile Justice Fund
