More prison doggies

From tonight's CBS news:

Nine Colorado prisons have enacted a program which allows inmates to train dogs... (T)hese canines have helped in the rehabilitation of the prisoners...

Hvala lepa, kraljica Sara!

One thing I'll say for Sarah Palin: she's introduced a whole new generation to Tito the Builder:Good old Tito. Governor Palin on the other hand is reminding me a bit of Ceca:(inspired by Charles Mudede at Slog)

(Bonus link goes to Cafe Turco and the stray dogs of Belgrade - like the stray cats of Sarajevo, I miss those mutts.)

Bridge to somewhere

From the International Bridges to Justice blog:

Faces of IBJ: ISLP Volunteer Leslie Rosenberg

This September, I took a leave from my job as an assistant state public defender in the Office of the Minnesota State Public Defender to volunteer with IBJ in China...

October Cambodia Training

The IBJ Fellow in Cambodia, Ouk Vandeth, recently conducted a training session for criminal defenders...

New blog: Incorrigible Dicta

Via Mostly Plants, welcome Incorrigible Dicta, with "Platitudes and Diatribes from the Best Defense Money Can’t Buy."

It's a new blog to me at least. With three posts in its first month, it's calling out for more members of the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services’ Public Defender Division to become contributors. Any volunteers?

"We few, we happy few"

A cool mental image of the job we do, from this tribute to Ross Alderman and the Public Defender’s Office, in the Nashville City Paper:

(W)e do give out one real award that we call the Order of St. Crispin. This award is presented to someone who, like the English at Agincourt, has fought difficult and battles but is too often overlooked for the work they have done...

Don't know where he gets it from

First attempt at posting from a mobile phone using Google Android:

I've come out of court, and I'm listening to a mom berate her son for not doing anger management classes. "F*ck you, you're a bad son," she explains. As he's walking away, she adds, "Assh*le."

This is what we call The Muppet Show

From Song of the Soul:

For those of you who wonder how a muppety, giggly girl like myself can be an attorney, check out this video... Things to note: - me shushing my client like a school teacher - my muppet-like facial expressions - my bond argument being cut off...

Best friends

After that last post about an inanimate object, these two wanted me to remember who my real friends are:(from a Sunday drive to the new Centralia dog park)

Say hello to my little friend!

I'm not what you'd call an early adapter - I only got my first cellphone in 2005. But as for my second cellphone, now that's something I've coveted (or conveted). Here it is:T-Mobile G1 Google Android web-surfing MP3 anti-boredom-waiting-around-the-courthouse device, welcome.

Cipher in the snow

Sarah Palin and I graduated from the University of Idaho on the same day in 1987. According to this nifty article from the LA Times...

Sarah Palin's college years left no lasting impression - In the five years of her collegiate career, spanning four universities in three states, Palin left behind few traces. Not many professors or students even remember her

... she was about as marked for greatness back then as I was. Difference is, only one of us has delusions about being fit to lead the free world.

Welcome Olyblog readers!

Hi, neighbors! I've never felt so conveted!

If you're curious, I like this judicial candidate
(he's the one on the right):
I've watched Sam at work and in court since I moved to Thurston County. I know that he will be a thoughtful and respectful judge.

ID: say amen, somebody

From the Bonner County Daily Bee:

Public defender an outspoken advocate for 'sacred rights'

Izzy Robertson... has served as the county's public defender for about a year, continuing in a field of law that she has practiced since 1997. "This is my calling – and I say that in a very spiritual manner," she said. "This is where my joy meets the world."

Her comment, coupled with a soft voice and gentle demeanor, might make the casual observer think that Robertson could be a pushover in the courtroom... There is no mistaking that, behind the calm exterior, the attorney sees herself as a warrior on the front lines of a battle for the rights of the accused. "Our 14th Amendment rights are sacred," she said...

Above Lawyer's Canyon

Back from Lawyer Creek

The story of the original Lawyer is here.

WA: “drug court saved my life”

From the New York Times:

Courts Give Addicts a Chance to Straighten Out

It was not your usual courtroom scene. For one thing, the judge choked up as he described one woman’s struggle with opiate addiction after her arrest for forging prescriptions...

Now she was graduating — along with 23 other addicts who entered drug court instead of prison. Prosecutors and public defenders applauded when she was handed her certificate; a policewoman hugged her, and a child shouted triumphantly, “Yeah, Mamma!”

New haircut boy

Today in a Puget Sound courtroom -

Prosecutor: "Nice haircut"

Me: "Yeah, I'm going back to Idaho"

Prosecutor: "Then you should've got a mullet"

CA: an old joke

From the Bakersfield Californian:

Felony trials down, hung juries up

“When a DA gets a dog, he can take it to the pound,” the saying goes. “When a public defender gets a dog, he can only smile and say, ‘Nice doggie, nice doggie.’”

"Take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy"

Just finished watching the US debut of "Life on Mars", and pleasantly, it didn't suck. And I remembered most of the soundtrack from the first time around. 1973 - what a time to be impressionable. Check it out, Thursdays at 9 on ABC.

CA: cut therapeutic courts now, pay later

From the Sacramento Bee:

Mental Health Court makes strides, but funds drying up

Sacramento County's Mental Health Court is diverting mentally ill, habitual, nonviolent offenders away from a cycle that spins them through jail and back on the street... Mental health court is saving millions in criminal justice costs, as it has in Santa Clara County, supporters say. And it could save much more.

"We're taking people who, through no fault of their own, can't function as a regular part of society and we're helping them," said Siena Riffia, a Sacramento County public defender who works in Mental Health Court. But just as the new court is hitting stride with stable graduates in school and on the job, the new state budget has virtually gutted the whole effort...

WA: clean your lint filter!

Why I met with my clients outside today, from the Olympian:

Fire closes family, juvenile courts for day

Thurston County family and juvenile courts are closed after a dryer fire filled the building with smoke this morning...

CA: the man in the white hat

From the Bakersfield Californian:

Retirement not an adjournment for ‘top gun’ attorney

His boss calls him the “Top Gun” attorney at the Kern County Public Defender’s office... Veteran trial attorney Michael Lukehart gave his last closing argument as a Kern County deputy public defender Monday. Known for his soft-spoken, no-frills style in court, Lukehart retired Friday, six days short of his 55th birthday and nearly 27 years after joining the office...

ID: nothing pretextual to see here, move along

From the Times-News:

Man arrested for littering in Twin Falls

Twin Falls police arrested a homeless man for littering after he allegedly shucked the plastic wrapper from a pack of cigarettes to the ground...

And they all moved away from him there on the Group W bench...

FL: Scop goes to juvy

Scoplaw may feel like he's being sent down to the minors, but really, I think it's going to be a good move:

(T)his really should be an egoless job, or, more properly, your ego should be made to serve good ends. You fight for your clients on so many different levels, trying to redeem something for them; even if the legal case is hopeless, the people who are accused never are...

ID: whoredom in Moscow

My l-school alma mater has named a leadership award after Sarah Palin.