Vote Gutter-Parker on May 21, 2024!
Vote Gutter-Parker on May 21, 2024!
I have a 20 Point Safer Gwinnett Plan. Yes, judges can help decrease crime.
As our next Gwinnett County, Division 5, Superior Court Judge, I will continue to be a “Servant Leader for Justice who is Bridging the Gap between the Community and the Court”! My 20 Point Safer Gwinnett Plan helps our community.
Why am I running? To continue the work I have already started. It is one thing to say the system is broken, and only give it "lip service", but it is another to take action to fix it via Criminal Justice Reform. Hence, I have been a pioneer in developing and facilitating programs which reduce recidivism (crime); an advocate for our children; and a champion for community safety. I am a Trailblazer for Reform, and a Servant Leader for Justice.
If you want a judge who has a proven record of helping to create a Safer Gwinnett and is passionately committed to our Community, then I ask for your vote.
I have been a champion for:
A portion of my 20 Point Safer Gwinnett Plan has been implemented in Gwinnett County!!! Yet, we have more work to do.
I am proud to say that I championed for a second-chance Program for non-violent and non-sexual offenders. We now have this in Gwinnett County! We are changing the trajectory of people’s lives! The Program needs to be expanded so that others can be rehabilitated and become successful-contributing members in our community.
I am also proud to say that I am a Board Member of the Council of Youth Anti-Drug, Inc. (COYAD). We operate in Gwinnett high schools and teach our children to do more than just “say no to drugs”. The expansion of COYAD, in collaboration with the Georgia Advocates for Crime Prevention, Inc., will include a criminal justice component so that our children are well versed in the laws that affect them as juveniles.
And, of course, I still have the goal of implementing the other Safer Gwinnett Plans, for instance, like creating a Judicial Efficiency Committee. Did you know that divorces, for instance, are more streamlined in Fulton County (Atlanta) than in Gwinnett County? That is many times because Judicial Officers (retired judges) facilitate a Temporary Mediation at the beginning of the case. Creative solutions like this within our backlogged courts will effectuate justice more promptly.
Some Safer Gwinnett objectives have been achieved because I am passionate about Gwinnett County. I have not been paid to effectuate these changes, but I have helped to implement by using my personal time, resources and talent as a Servant Leader who is committed and inspired to make the changes I want to see.
Again, why am I running for Superior Court Judge? To continue the work I have already started and to ensure a Safer Gwinnett for your family, and “Justice for All” who enter my courtroom.
To learn more about my experience and service to Gwinnett, please go to “Journey to Judge”.
Because I have my feet on the ground and my ear to the heartbeat of the citizens of Gwinnett, I have been Bridging the Gap between the Community and the Court.
I am uniquely qualified to be our next Superior Court Judge. I will continue to be a “Servant Leader for Justice who Bridges the Gap between the Community and the Court.”
If you support the campaign and our mission, I humbly ask for your vote, your talent and/or your donation. Everyone can contribute in one way or another!
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos: 5:24
How can we work to Build a Safer Gwinnett? As it turns out, in lots of ways.
My 20 Point Safer Gwinnett Plan From Almost 30 years of Legal Experience:
1. Increase our use of our “Second-Chance Program”
I am incredibly proud to have helped create our Second Chance Program. Our non-violent and non-sexual felony offenders (for example, those possessing more than an ounce of marijuana), needed a Treatment/Accountability Program that would give them a “Second-Chance.” This has enabled offenders to become productive members in our community by assisting them with education, employment, and purpose. Studies have shown that offenders who are rehabilitated are far less likely to reoffend (recidivism), thus decreasing crime. This Treatment Program also decreases the impact of the mental health crisis and court backlog. And, investing in offenders’ rehabilitation (as opposed to putting resources in the prison system), costs far less to taxpayers.
2. Increasing our usage of the ‘Scared Straight’ Concept for Middle and High Schoolers
I am also incredibly proud to have helped found another Gwinnett County program which is a “Project-Prison-Prevention” Program. Through the Council of Youth Anti-Drug, Inc., of which I am a Board Member, and in cooperation with the Georgia Advocates for Crime Prevention, Inc., our middle schoolers and high schoolers will meet those who have been involved in the Criminal Justice System. This program is designed to break the school-to-prison pipeline.
3. Creating a “Judicial Efficiency Committee”
Our Gwinnett County court system is overwhelmed, partly due to population growth. There are numerous ways in which cases can be adjudicated faster. As a Gwinnett County family attorney with experience in most of our legal areas and experience practicing in most of Georgia’s counties, I will bring my varied and deep experiences regarding best practices to our courtroom to decrease the backlog. Justice delayed is justice denied.
4. Focus On Fixing Both Crime Magnets AND Crime Creators
Did you know that there is a very wide school of study within both architecture and criminal justice that shows that places poison people, more routinely than people poison places? Crime does not necessarily result from “areas” of the “inner city” being high risk, but rather from a few very small, very bad places. It is genuinely fascinating.
As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I will focus on where crimes before me happen, as much as the people allegedly committing the crimes. Community efforts improving these “crime creator” places, will allow us to together Build A Safer Gwinnett.
5. Help Make Crime Magnets Less Appealing To Criminals
We all know certain places seem to attract and generate both violent crimes and property crimes —abandoned houses, empty lots, bars, and schools being at the top of the list.
As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I know that careful planning and situational crime prevention within our community can reduce or eliminate these crime magnets that plague us. City managers, school administrators, law enforcement officers and neighborhood groups working together to address these existing problems now, will help prevent future crimes and create a brighter future for all Gwinnett residents.
6. Support Our Neighborhood Non-Profits
In case you have not already read ”Uneasy Peace,” by Professor Patrick Sharkey, he reports on a genuinely fascinating study that found that for every 10 non-profits in a given community, the violent crime rate was reduced by a staggering 14%.
As someone who has studied and practiced law for almost 30 years, it comes as no surprise to me that access to more and better services has positive effects. But I am buoyed by the scientific facts that each of us can directly drive down violent crime in Gwinnett by supporting non-profits. As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I will help the public utilize these non-profits and create a comprehensive guide so the public will know how to find these valuable resources. Many times we have resources available which are unknown to the public.
7. Use All Available Technology to Reduce Crime
Professor Graham Farrell (and a large percentage of our local law enforcement community) persuasively argue that increases in security technology (such as engine immobilizers and cameras) in the 1990s were the only universal explanation for the universal decline in crime.
There is so much more that can be done using current low-dollar technology without imposing on civil liberties, for instance, text message reminders for court and probation appearances.
As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I will help create a courtroom that uses all available technology to help those who appear in my courtroom be more successful in both their court experience and in returning to society afterwards.
8. Provide More Help To Those with Substance-Use Disorders
In the 1990s and 2000s, after decades of public pushing, I saw and participated in our justice system finally beginning to treat substance-use disorders as a disease rather than a crime. This made sense since many statistics clocked addiction-based crimes at nearly 50% of overall crimes committed in the U.S.
Political winds changed a decade ago and treatment programs largely dried up. Many extremely useful ideas were piloted — trauma-informed care, motivational interviewing, treating withdrawal in prison — but few were ever taken fully to scale. Those foundations still exist in Gwinnett County and to prevent future crimes we would be well-advised to be aware of them, utilize them AND build upon them.
As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I know that addiction is a disease that needs treatment. I know addiction is the root cause of a large portion of the crime our county is fighting, and I will use all of the resources available to my office to proactively treat addiction so as to prevent future crimes.
9. Helping Improve Job Markets
There is a direct correlation between jobs and our crime rate in Gwinnett. That is why as our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I realize the importance of employers integrating social and emotional skills training into employment training. Employment planning for people returning from prison, and transitional jobs for high-risk people returning to our community will yield more jobs. More jobs = less crime. Helping to employ citizens will decrease crime.
10. Using The Bench To Stop the Proliferation of Firearms in Gwinnett
As a proud wife, mother to two amazing daughters, a longtime Lawrenceville homeowner, and an almost 30-year attorney, I know that the proven link between firearms and violence is undeniable. The more guns a county has, the more crime that county has.
While I am personally a huge supporter of the Second Amendment and our right as American citizens to own guns, I am aware of the preponderance of evidence that shows our significantly higher gun ownership rate here in the United States explains much of the difference in rates of violence between us and peer nations. For instance, we have a higher rate of children bringing guns to schools.
Trying to curtail the crime problem in Gwinnett without talking about the proliferation of guns in our schools is embracing half-measures. We need to have a meaningful conversation amongst stakeholders - parents, specifically - about how we stem this tide of guns into our formerly peaceful communities.
11. Putting Proven Data To Use To Prevent Crime: Using The Law
As a long-time Gwinnett County lawyer who has practiced all over the state of Georgia in every area of the law, I have seen firsthand how data can be used to prevent crime. For example, financial disincentives that specifically target the overuse of criminogenic products like guns and alcohol have been shown to reduce excess demand for both.
12. Help Make Jails and Prison Less Criminogenic
We have unfortunately overwhelmingly designed our jails and prisons to prevent people from gaining the skills to work and maintain their sobriety when they go home, and cut them off from their most crime-reducing assets--their family and friends. In my experience in the criminal legal field here in Gwinnett, I have found that small investments in humanity yield large returns when jails and prisons are not designed to produce more crime, but help rehabilitate offenders.
As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I will work to keep families together when possible, keep inmates close to their support systems, when possible, and encourage and support visitation whenever possible. I will enthusiastically support continued and adult education classes, religious studies, and GED and college degree programs while incarcerated.
13. Formerly Incarcerated Persons Need A Plan Not A Wish
People returning from prison need short but very specific support to facilitate a successful transition – a staggering 82% of people released from prison are rearrested within 10 years. And the solutions are shockingly simple — leave correctional facilities with an ID, psychological or medical prescriptions you need to be stable, be ready for job interviews, have a place to stay, and a way to get started.
A goal without a plan is a wish — Gwinnett County formerly incarcerated persons should leave prison with a plan. As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I will help ensure that they are encouraged to create and implement that plan.
14. Genuinely Help Gwinnett’s Victims of Crime
There is far too little support for victims of crime in Gwinnett. Being the victim of a violent or property crime is the top predictor of a future crime. So supporting Gwinnett families, small businesses and visitors who have been victimized through ensuring they receive all possible social service support combined with easier court scheduling and a quiet, respectful demeanor in the courtroom has potential for positive change and driving down our crime rate.
15. Help Tackle the Causes and Consequences of Poverty
If you have done any extensive service in the legal field, you know first-hand that poverty drives crime and violence in hundreds of small ways - far beyond a simple lack of income.
As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, I think it is important to let the family, friends and neighbors who travel through our courtrooms on their best and worst days know up front that we recognize that addressing poverty can reduce crime and commit to work within our legal system to reduce crime through all avenues available to us.
16. Finally Tackle Gwinnett’s Long-Standing Problems
We have the best county in Georgia. But we can all admit that in campaign years small problems that are easily fixed rise to the top and bigger problems often persist because they have high costs, a lack of immediacy and declining political constituency.
We need to make sure we are tackling the big, long-term, expensive problems not only in an election year, but when the cameras get turned off as well. As someone with experience in every area of the legal field - I have seen too many times that these perpetual problems are often the key-risk condition causing violent and property crimes to persist.
Unhealthy homes, lead paint and pipes, and under-resourced foster care all promote crime, and we should stop being afraid to tell the truth just because we do not know where the money to fix it will come from. As a Foster Parent to a child, we later adopted, I know what a difference personal involvement can mean in changing the trajectory of an individual’s life. If we are sincere about wanting to fix the skyrocketing crime wave in Gwinnett - and I believe we all are - then we have to be willing to invest ourselves and our long-term attention on problems that might take a generation to fix.
17. Support Programs for High-Risk Young People and Families
For those of us with criminal justice experience, there is an extensive amount of information concerned with interrupting our predictable-criminal-justice-bell curve based on a defendant’s age.
As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, it is my goal to help keep adolescents from accelerating any alleged delinquency. My experience of being on Boards like the Boys & Girls Club and Council of Youth Anti-Drug, Inc., has allowed me to become a big supporter of community programs for high-risk adolescents so that they do not end up in front of me in Superior Court.
18. Investing In Our Kids’ Schools and Vocational Programs
Improving education is its own crime-reducing category, but after raising two amazing daughters in Gwinnett County public schools, I also know that our county-run institutions can decrease crime outside of the school’s concrete footprint.
Our community bringing awareness to (and verbally and financially supporting): 1.) reducing food insecurity (because hungry kids are desperate kids and are not open to learning), 2.) humanizing discipline, and 3.) making sure our kids get to school and home safely, helps all of us. These three things benefit everyone - not just our kids - and creates a safer and less crime-riddled community.
19. Tackling Our Giant Housing Problem
Like education, housing is its own category beyond the scope of just one County Superior Court judge. But as an attorney with almost thirty years of experience building a better Georgia for all of us, and as our next Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge, it is important that we as a community know, acknowledge, and talk about the fact that there are housing solutions with specific crime-reducing benefits. For instance, permanent, supportive housing prevents crimes; transitional housing for young people prevents crimes, leaving homelessness prevents crimes; and housing programs specifically for people who cycle through emergency services prevents crimes.
We cannot as a county just arrest our way out of a skyrocketing crime rate. We must collectively come together to create community consensus around ways we can prevent future crimes from happening. Our community leaders partnering with public and private leaders and stakeholders to help make that happen here is a win for all Gwinnettians.
20. Helping Reduce Demand On our Gwinnett Law Enforcement
We all know Gwinnett police, firefighters, EMTs and Sheriff’s deputies are too busy. They are called on by the public and politicians to be all things to all people in all circumstances. Not in my courtroom.
As someone who studies crime, the root causes of crime, and deals with the consequences of crime, I know firsthand that a reason why law enforcement do not prevent more crime or solve more crimes is that they are too busy doing other things - sometimes silly things and sometimes outright dumb things. That needs to end.
As our next Gwinnett County Superior Court judge, I will help create a legal environment that helps our law enforcement members be more efficient at taking on the real tasks they are charged with-- keeping our community safe.
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