Post by Jim on Mar 14, 2009 8:52:08 GMT -5
Northern District of Georgia's New Chief Judge Reflects on Her Career
Judge Julie Carnes said she planned to become an English professor before impulsively taking the LSAT
Fulton County Daily Report
R. Robin McDonald
March 16, 2009
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Julie E. Carnes of the Northern District of Georgia recently tried an experiment.
She came down from the bench and, in her judicial robes, sat down at the defense table next to a defendant on supervised release.
She said she asked him how he was doing, if he was working, and told him he could make it. She said she wanted to let him know that she appreciated his efforts to follow the rules, and "that someone is paying attention."
The probationer, she said, "was startled, very startled."
Carnes said she is thinking about meeting once a month in the same way with a probationer she has sentenced. She called it an experiment in tackling recidivism rates. In inaugurating the experiment, "I decided to be my own guinea pig," she said.
When felons are released from prison, Carnes said they often have little or no family support, no housing and lack even basic job skills. Directing them to find a place to live and get a job may not be enough, she suggested. But encouragement from the judge who sentenced them just might offer them a rare incentive to believe they can make it.
On Jan. 1, Carnes, 58, became the chief judge of the Northern District of Georgia. Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, Carnes has been a federal judge for 16 years. She came to the bench as a career prosecutor in Atlanta who had served as appellate chief under three U.S. Attorneys and as one of seven members of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a post to which Bush had also appointed her and that she held for six years, until 1996.
Carnes grew up in southeast Atlanta. She remembers, as a child, going door-to-door campaigning for her father, Charles L. Carnes -- a former Georgia legislator and, for years, the chief judge of the Fulton County State Court. The Charles L. Carnes Justice Center Building, part of the county courthouse complex in downtown Atlanta, is named for him.
Full Article:
www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202429072171
Judge Julie Carnes said she planned to become an English professor before impulsively taking the LSAT
Fulton County Daily Report
R. Robin McDonald
March 16, 2009
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Julie E. Carnes of the Northern District of Georgia recently tried an experiment.
She came down from the bench and, in her judicial robes, sat down at the defense table next to a defendant on supervised release.
She said she asked him how he was doing, if he was working, and told him he could make it. She said she wanted to let him know that she appreciated his efforts to follow the rules, and "that someone is paying attention."
The probationer, she said, "was startled, very startled."
Carnes said she is thinking about meeting once a month in the same way with a probationer she has sentenced. She called it an experiment in tackling recidivism rates. In inaugurating the experiment, "I decided to be my own guinea pig," she said.
When felons are released from prison, Carnes said they often have little or no family support, no housing and lack even basic job skills. Directing them to find a place to live and get a job may not be enough, she suggested. But encouragement from the judge who sentenced them just might offer them a rare incentive to believe they can make it.
On Jan. 1, Carnes, 58, became the chief judge of the Northern District of Georgia. Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, Carnes has been a federal judge for 16 years. She came to the bench as a career prosecutor in Atlanta who had served as appellate chief under three U.S. Attorneys and as one of seven members of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a post to which Bush had also appointed her and that she held for six years, until 1996.
Carnes grew up in southeast Atlanta. She remembers, as a child, going door-to-door campaigning for her father, Charles L. Carnes -- a former Georgia legislator and, for years, the chief judge of the Fulton County State Court. The Charles L. Carnes Justice Center Building, part of the county courthouse complex in downtown Atlanta, is named for him.
Full Article:
www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202429072171
