Court

I lost most of last week at work. That sounds weird, especially because I did not miss a day of work, but I was in court. I am a probation and parole officer. In this state parole and probation are combined into one board. Other states may have the functions separate. In case anyone has ever wondered, probation is an alternative form of corrections. Instead of locking someone up, you monitor them and place restrictions on them, but leave them in the community and hope they are productive citizens. Parole is a similar thing, but it is available only after someone has served time in prison and convinced the parole board that they are ready to return to society. I have about 100 people on my caseload. Only about 15 are parole, most are some form of probation. There are many forms of probation and several different types of probation officers. There are 7 types of probation officers in my area. There are 3 types of misdemeanor probation officers: juvenile, general sessions, and criminal. Misdemeanor crime is handled by the county, or an agency appointed by the county and agreed to by the judge. There are 4 felony probation officer types: Federal, house arrest handled by an agency under the provision of the Board of Probation, felony handled by the board of probation and parole, and juvenile handled by a branch of the Children Services Agency. I am a felony probation officer.

You can divide most court systems into 2 parts, civil and criminal. I deal of course with the criminal side. This is also split in two. The General Sessions court is run by the county and handles most of the misdemeanor stuff. It is also where preliminary hearings come from. It is where 90% of all criminal cases come from. There are other ways to get cases to the grand jury, but it gets complicated. The other part of the system is the state part, criminal court. All felony cases end up in criminal court as well as some misdemeanors. Incidently, all crimes are classified according to the maximum punishment allowed by law. If the punishment is no more than 11 months and 29 days in jail, then it is a misdemeanor. Anything with a year or more is a felony. In my district, the judges like the probation officers to be in court on new term days, readout days, negotiation deadline days and non-jury trial days. These are the days we are most likely to pick up new cases. They are also usually the days are violation reports will be heard and we will be called to testify on any reports we might have done for the court. Anyway, Tuesday was a negotiation deadline day and I had to be in court all day. We didn't finish, so the judge called court for Wednesday, a day I had set up for field reports. I was in court most of Wednesday and had to phostphone the reporting to this week.

I only have regular court duties in my county, however there are two cases where I might have to go to court outside of my county. Suppose a resident of my county goes into another county and gets caught selling drugs or committing a burglary. When he is convicted in that county, if he gets probation, then he will be transferred to me. If I have to take him back to court later for any reason, it will be in the county of conviction. Also, if someone is convicted of a crime in another county, then moves to my county, their supervision will be transferred. Fortunately, in these rural counties, the Criminal Court Judge is a circuit judge. My 2 judges handle 7 counties so this accounts for 95 percent of my cases. It is when we get into another judicial district and I have to deal with strange judges, that I get nervous. No two judges do things the same way.

Anyway, court is usually interesting and I will try to relay some good stories later, since anything in court is an open record, I think I am safe. Unfortunately I have to be careful what I tell you about other aspects of work, because I deal with some confidential information. Anyway, I had 1 case before another county court and it wasn't heard until 5:00 PM Thurdsay, so I lost 3/5 th's of my week. Man am I behind. I have to go to yet another county court Monday for 1 case. Yippeee!!!

Anyway, so tips for surviving if you ever have to appear before a criminal court judge in the state of Tennessee:

1. Dress up, preferably in clean clothes. No shorts, no untucked t-shirts, no miniskirts, no belly shirts, no trailer-trash, disco queen, night club makeup.

2. No chewing gum.

3. No chewing tabacco.

4. No intoxication bevorages or mind-altering drugs before court, you might want your wits about you.

5. Please use the following appropriate phrases when addressing the judge, Your Honor, Sir or Ma'am, thank you and please.

6. Do not laugh, smile, smirk, act cocky, ect.

7. Do not act bored.

8. Remember, this person is going to control what happens to your butt for the next installment of your life, he deserves respect, attention, and you taking him seriously, or at least appearing to. If you piss him off, he does not have to accept any deal your lawyer and the da worked out. He is the ultimate earthly authority, there aren't too many places you can go to complain if he tosses your butt in the clink.