This Michigan judge shamed a cancer patient. What would a healing-centered community do?

<<<Editors note: Judge says she 'made a mistake' berating an elderly cancer patient over weeds.>>>

This is the first of an irregular series called "What Would You Do?"

Many of you probably saw the story, including the courtroom video, about the Michigan judge who yelled at a 72-year-old cancer patient for not maintaining his yard.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" 31st District Judge Alexis G. Krot (yelled...or spoke loudly and sternly, depending on your definition) at 72-year-old Burhan Chowdhury in a virtual hearing on Jan. 10. "If I could give you jail time for this I would!"

Since he was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, Chowdhury relied on his son to attend to chores he can no longer do. When his son traveled to their native Bangladesh for three months, the weeds took over Chowdhury's yard. At the hearing, the judge didn't listen, was rude and abusive, and issued a $100 fine.

The story has gone viral. As you might expect, most of the comments are not healing-centered. Here are three of the nearly 4,000 comments on the Washington Post version of the story:

So, what would a healing-centered (trauma-informed) community do? A community that's integrated practices and policies based on the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences?

My wish list, working backwards from the courtroom to the city to the neighborhood to the family:

• The judge and all members of the Michigan justice are educated about the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences, and administer trauma-informed judgments. In this case, she'd listen to Burhan Chowdhury and his son and dismiss the case. She'd put the Chowdhury family in touch with community services in case the son needs to travel again.
• The town of Hamtramck, MI, has a community services team that roams the neighborhood looking for people who need help. They spot the overgrown lot of the Chowdhury home, knock on the door and provide assistance.
• The neighborhood has a "Help Watch" service to assist neighbors when it's obvious they need assistance.
• Because the Chowdhury family has been informed about the "Help Watch" service, they call when their son travels to arrange assistance.

I'd very much like y'all, our members, to add any other ideas you have. Please add any comments or ideas you have in the comments section, below. In the meantime, I contacted Lynn Tepper, a retired judge who's a member of PACEs Connection, and called on her expertise as someone who teaches judges and others involved in the justice system in how to be trauma-informed. Here's what she says:

Understand that my first day on the job as a County Court Judge in 1985, I was photographed wagging my finger at a litigant. Fast forward a few years to the General Jurisdiction bench and a brave litigant wrote me to point out that I had humiliated her in front of others in the Courtroom. She was right, I was wrong. I later apologized.

Sadly, it was decades later before I learned about being “trauma-informed” and how much more effective it is. I discovered I could be both kind and just. Faced with circumstances similar to those described, perhaps the Judge, in finding a resolution, could balance the needs of the neighbors [impact on the neighborhood environment & assure this does not recur]; the needs of the city to maintain quality neighborhoods; and of course, the capacity of the very ill 72-year-old to do what the others expected and apparently, the law required.

Some Courts in the country have created panels that work in a trauma-informed manner such as a Citizens Dispute Settlement program. Imagine, patiently and routinely, when a Judge sees a neighborhood case, usually involvingself-represented individuals, and neighbors with whom there will be ongoing contact and potential for further conflict, the Judge refers them to the Settlement program where each is given a voice [respect & opportunity to be heard]. Then a mutually agreeable resolution is reached.

Imagine now that the neighbors [who, sadly, apparently did not know their neighbor to even know he was ill, let alone very ill and without his son to assist him], exchange phone numbers or other contacts and say, “Hey next time, please call me. I can send my son or grandson over to help you before it gets so bad”; or one of the neighbors says, “I know a Boy Scout troop or high school seniors who must get community service hours. They could come regularly and take care of these yard issues”; or if a city worker says, “You know some of us are happy to volunteer in our spare time, to help you keep up with these weeds and over growth. Here’s a number to call if you need us.”  And they bring it back to court with a signed agreement and ask the court to suspend any fine for say 90 days or 6 months. THAT type of program would be trauma-informed.

Concerning well-meaning Judges, I have learned that sometimes the best way to get Judges on board if they say “Trauma-informed? Not my Job. I call balls & strikes. I don’t have time to handle in that way”….is by referring in my presentations to the state Judicial Code of Ethics. Here is the gist of the Michigan Judicial Code [which is similar in other states I have checked out]:

MICHIGAN CODE OF JUDICIAL CONDUCT
CANON 3. A. (3) A judge should be patient, dignified, and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom the judge deals in an official capacity, and should require similar conduct of lawyers, and of staff, court officials, and others subject to the judge’s direction and control.

Judge Tepper also sent SAMHSA's key principles of a trauma-informed court approach:

• Safety
• Trustworthiness & Transparency
• Peer Support
• Collaboration & Mutuality
• Empowerment, Voice & Choice
• Cultural, Historical, & Gender Issues

I bet quite a few people dissed the Michigan judge after they saw the story. I sure muttered some unkind words. But, as this PACEs Connection community knows all too well, that approach won't change people's hearts, minds or solve our problems. Our knee-jerk reaction to people like Krot should be understanding, nurturing and healing...not  blaming, shaming and punishing. Because, as Krot and our entire justice system demonstrates so well, that approach has failed people, communities and systems abysmally for generations. Abysmally!! It may take us a while to get there—we've got the skin of nearly our whole harming-centered human history to shed—but in the meantime, for situations like this, I've evolved to getting pissed off privately first, and then doing the work we know works!

[Attached is a presentation that Judge Tepper made on Sept. 3, 2021 for the Annual Indiana Judges Meeting, on “Recognizing and Responding to Traumatized Children, Adolescents and Adults: What Courts CAN do and Why.”]