What is Justice Court and why might you find yourself there?

Missoula County Justice Court Judges Landee Holloway and Alex Beal share their journeys to the bench and how they’ve aligned their offices as a unified resource to guide people on what can be one of the worst days of their lives. 

They share what it is like to be judges and describe the programs they’ve implemented to reduce recidivism and seek restorative justice,  as well as how they balance the desire to help people in the system succeed with the safety of county residents and the overall well-being of our community. 

Both forward-thinking, they outline innovative ideas of how to continually improve court services and the experience of navigating a day in Justice Court, with the end goal of positive outcomes.

Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Transcript

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Ok, welcome back, everybody, to another edition of Tip of the Spear with your Missoula County commissioners, I'm Josh Slotnick, joined today by Dave Strohmaier. Our friend Juan is in deep space central Montana, hurrying back. And today we have, as our special guests, judges Alex Beal and Landee Holloway. So to get this started, would you guys mind describing to us why you decided to become a justice of the peace? Sure. Thank you, Josh. And thank you, Commissioner Strohmaier, for being here and asking us to be a part of this. I was working as a probation and parole officer for the state of Montana, and I had been doing that for about 21 years and I was trying to figure out what's going to be my next step. Feeling that I had committed my career to public service and what did I want to do next? That would have some meaning. And having worked kind of at the tail end of community corrections, people coming out of the prison or after they've committed felonies, I then started considering what it would be to be a justice of the peace. Somebody had approached me and said, You should consider this, and at that moment I was like, Oh my gosh, no, I don't think so. And I put a little more thought into it. And I thought about with my experience in the courts, my experience working with defendants prior to sentencing on felonies, writing investigations and then supervising them when they came out of the community. Like, I could bring that knowledge and hopefully have some meaningful interactions with people in the beginning as they enter into the criminal justice system and and bringing my experience with community resources and along with those supervisions and understanding some of those barriers that people have out there. Great. Thanks, Alex. I always try to find something interesting and exciting to do. And I'll be honest, when I got out of college here at the U, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, and I was pretty sure the only thing I knew I didn't want to do was go to law school. And so a few years later, I ended up at law school because that's how these things work and went through that and practiced was a prosecutor for a little while. Did some criminal defense work, honestly, did more real estate transactional stuff than anything else. And kind of out of the blue. I had the opportunity to fill in at Municipal Court here in town. I did that for for a few years, I ended up once a week filling in for them and then ended up doing that about half time in three quarter time. And before you know it, you're basically a judge. A few years ago, the opportunity came to run for Justice of the Peace, and I felt like I could make some beneficial changes and work with Judge Holloway, who was already there. And that is how I got here. All right. Well, let's talk about the role of Justice of the Peace and Justice Court. I would hazard a guess that as with county government, which is probably one of the most obscure and ill understood types of government in the state of Montana, similarly, I bet a lot of folks don't understand what Justice Court is. There's Municipal Court, there's District Court, which a lot of folks are probably familiar with. But then there's this thing Justice Court. Talk a little bit about what role this court serves, how it relates to county government, how it's different from these other courts. Sure. So coming out of municipal court, that's the city version essentially of Justice Court. There's a whole lot more overlap between the two than than you would think. There are some differences by convention. But in terms of what their legal authority is, they're almost identical. Municipal Court has jurisdiction over misdemeanors that occur anywhere within the County, though, you know, by by practice, they really only hear things that occur within city limits, and Justice Court has that same territorial jurisdiction of anything within the county. Generally speaking, we get those tickets that were misdemeanors written by a sheriff's deputy or highway patrol or motor carrier or folks like that. Pretty much anyone other than the city police and those city police citations go into municipal court, but otherwise it's to handle misdemeanor offenses. The felony ones go up to District Court, although many of those start with us in Justice Court people who are arrested, they make their initial appearance in front of us and we handle informing them of their rights, letting them know what the charges are and setting bail conditions and if there was monetary bond set. Otherwise, District Court has that bigger jurisdiction. They handle felony offenses all the way through and then in civil cases were limited to$15,000. That's our cap about the amount people are fighting about, whereas District Court doesn't have any cap on that. So when does a case start with you and then go to District Court? It's those felony offenses where someone got arrested. And so if it's, say, a first, second or third DUI, they're going to come through Justice Court, they're going to stay in Justice Court. But if it's a fourth, fifth, sixth DUI, those are felonies, just, for example. Those will start with us. We'll see them for their initial appearance that conditions on them. And then that case will be resolved in district court. But otherwise, the bigger offenses, you know, rape, robbery, murder, things like that. Those are all felonies, whereas more of the smaller scale things are misdemeanors. So you mentioned DUIs, which is a great segue way to this next next question. I want to ask you about road court, which you guys have really been pioneers, and it's something we're all really proud of. You mind talking a bit about what it is for people who don't know. Thanks, Josh. When I took the bench, I knew that Judge Orzech prior to me had run a hybrid DUI court and a DUI treatment court. And one of the things that I was very much interested in is how to get to the root of certain issues and knowing that substance abuse issues are significant in the criminal justice system. And a lot of people struggle with that. And so I wrote a grant to get some funding through the Montana Department of

Transportation. And back in 2019, we began what's called ROAD Court: 5:39

responsibility, opportunity and accountability for drivers. It is kind of handy. That's good. That's good. There are many meetings to come up with that perfect name. So it is a misdemeanor DUI treatment court. There's incentives. We want to understand that people struggle with substance abuse, and I think we know that. We know that from our community, there's lots of drugs and alcohol. But drinking is almost a it's very acceptable in a lot of places. And I think for a long time, people thought a DUI was a rite of passage to a certain degree and needing to address that. I mean, our roads are becoming, you know, fairly unsafe when it comes to impaired drivers out there. And so ROAD Court is a way to hold people accountable, but yet still have a continuity of care and making sure that there's opportunities for people to get to the root of the issue, address their substance abuse issues, deal with their fines and be accountable to their sentence. The incentives behind ROAD Court is that up to 70 percent of your fines could be waived in all of your jail time, and that's significant when you're talking a third misdemeanor DUI. There's mandatory sentencing for 30 days in jail, and we all talk nationally about, you know, incarceration and how many people are in our jails and what can we do to alleviate some of that pressure on the County and the jails? And I know his commissioners, you guys have to deal with that with the funding, but we still have to hold people accountable. Part of ROAD Court is that you come in. We work with it's a holistic approach. We have a team. I have a great team. Many of the team members have been there since. At the beginning there was a road court coordinator. We have a defense attorney, a prosecutor from the County Attorney's Office who sits on the team. Abigail Rogers is our defense attorney who is contracted to assist with upholding defendant's rights as they go through the process. Misdemeanor probation officer through Missoula Correctional Services. And then we have a treatment provider. John Donald and then myself as the judge and we have law enforcement representation. We have highway patrol or Sergeant Finley and then also a sheriff's deputy deputy Terrell who sit on our team. And so staffing client participants, seeing how they're progressing in the program or their struggles or their people staying sober, are they attending treatment? Those are all requirements of the commitment for treatment court. And I have to say that after running the program for three years, we've had great success. I also have recently obtained a federal grant in the amount of $450,000 to go for three years to continue and open up the treatment court to municipal court participants. You know, we've had three people who haven't completed the program. They needed a higher level of care and they didn't want to be there. But other than that, really had some pretty impressive outcomes and successes from the program. How many people do you think have gone through it and graduated? And I believe we're up to 17 graduates at this time, and we currently have 14 participants in the program, and we're due to have another graduate here in a couple of weeks and just some of the outcomes, you know, when somebody comes into a treatment court, there's a lot of resistance in the beginning. They don't want really want to be there. Maybe they are only wanting to do it to avoid the jail time while its treatment courts take a lot of work, but they're evidence based. There's national best practices and if you're following those things, you're really we're having an impact on those individuals. When somebody gets to a fourth DUI in Montana, that becomes a felony and they could be going off for, you know, off to prison or to treatment for six months. So if we can, if we can get those individuals into our treatment court and really make a difference and have them address their substance abuse, we're having healthier families, more productive citizens. We're saving taxpayers money and we're making our road safer. And I think those are some things that really support the reason why we do this. And honestly, the whole team, it's amazing when you see somebody make progress. I brought a quote from somebody, if I could. Yeah, lay it on. It's great. There was a graduate who had been in the program and this individual struggled quite a while and we give them an opportunity to make a statement and their evaluation after

court. And this was a quote this participants made: 9:35

"This program has changed my entire life for the better. I was merely existing on a daily basis before entering the program. On top of the sobriety I've achieved with the help of ROAD Court, I've learned to be my own advocate. I have learned that I will be OK, even if I'm not feeling okay in the moment I finally believe in myself and my future. My once shattered life now consists of a box full of tools for the tough times self-love, confidence and self-respect. I no longer have to say tomorrow I'll do better because now every day is better than I could ever have imagined." Jeez. It's pretty powerful. It is powerful. Yeah. Yeah, and I think giving people an opportunity, having a meaningful interaction and supporting those folks to really make those changes, I think we're having an impact on our community and it really is, it's rewarding. I feel honored to be able to be in this role and to do this. So good to hear. Great for us to have a piece of the criminal justice system where someone who enters into it comes out better. This isn't just about removing somebody and kind of a big time out, so they don't harm others. They actually themselves make some big steps forward. You got it. Super great to hear. Thanks. ROAD Court is a great example of some innovations that you both have brought to our justice court system. But are there other examples that either of you can mention and highlight as ways in which Justice Court has changed and evolved over time? Yeah, I think so. That idea of reformative justice, of trying to take someone who comes in not in the best shape of their life, not on the best day of their life and help them to find a better path forward is really important to us. That doesn't work for everyone. There are some folks who come through who, you know, they do know that that big time out. Some of them are forever time out. But for the folks who are, you know, earlier, hopefully in that process or with smaller problems, we have found ways to work with other agencies, other departments to kind of collaboratively view this process, is how do we help these folks out? One of the things that I think I'm most proud of is small pilot project that we worked on with the County Attorney's Office here for dealing with folks ticketed for a suspended license and historically suspending people's driver's licenses was one of the main tools available to courts to collect money to ensure that people show up or otherwise. And so there are still thousands and thousands and thousands of people on the roads in Montana who have suspended licenses. And a few years ago, the Legislature kind of unusual partnership of a whole lot of different interests came together and said, "No, let's take that away. Let's get people their their driver's licenses back." And we've, I think, piggybacked on that idea and said, so when you come in, if you're cited for that based on this partnership with the County Attorney's Office, let's just give you some time. Let's help you with some resources to to get that back to figure out why you have a suspension to get you on track, to get it back. And if you do that, they've authorized us just to dismiss those charges, given a sort of blanket authorization to do that. And so folks will come out of this process sometimes as little as a couple of weeks. Sometimes it takes a few months, depending on what all those holds are, and they come out of the court system in a better shape, literally in better shape than than when they went in. We've tried to do something similar with with no insurance tickets. That's a big one for people out there and to separate out who are the people who don't have insurance because they can't afford it, because it's difficult for them from the folks who just don't care. So we're giving opportunities to people saying, "Go get insurance, bring that in and show us proof of that and then keep insurance over the next six months." Because we can keep jurisdiction over people for that time period and say, "Well, we'll give you some credit off your fines every month. If you keep doing that, we may waive all your fines or waive most of your fines." But we can ensure that you know folks are actually being law abiding over the course of that time and safer for everybody out there. They've got a driver's license, they've got insurance. So if you're a motorist, you know that the folks out there have that stuff. I think it's part of how we hold people accountable. You know, we've always heard it, you've heard about it and actually debtor's prison and people get into this revolving door of these fines. And so if somebody can't afford insurance and we find them a whole bunch, what are we accomplishing, right? I mean, if I'm a driver out there and I get hit by an uninsured motorist and I hear that they had to pay court fines and I'm having to pay my deductible. So like, how do we do this? And that's where our thought process comes from. How do we make our roads safer? How do we still hold people accountable, not just waiving fines, but we need those people to have valid driver's licenses and car insurance? I mean, good people make mistakes. It's not you're not a bad person because you ended up in Justice Court with a citation. How do we rectify those things that those people are, you know, a person ends up with in front of the court? For sure. You're looking for outcomes, positive outcomes at the end of the day. Yeah, right. There are offenses out there that society needs something more than just hoping that you're slightly better off on the other end of it. But honestly, most of the stuff that we see doesn't fall into that category. Most of the offenses we see in Justice Court are an opportunity for change and opportunity for betterment. And so we we want to be supportive of that process. Not everyone takes this up and that kind of offer, And some people come back and see us more often than others. More often than we would like. I always say to people, "You know, you can just come by and say, hi, it's all right. If you like me, that's fine. Just come and say, hi, you don't have to wait for the folks in blue to bring it in." But that's our goal to leave the County better than we found it. So, you mentioned opportunity. Has there been any opportunity out of COVID and any positive changes that you feel like we'd want to hold on to, even if COVID ever fully goes away? And what were some of the negatives and how did you guys work around them? You know, I'll tell you one one positive story. I remember campaigning a few years ago and you talked to the. Folks up in Seely Lake say, and they they'd they'd say, "Wow, you know, I got a I got a speeding ticket and I got to drive all the way down to Missoula to to deal with this. Couldn't we do video appearances?" And we'd say, well, you know, with the the video system that the courts had at that time, we didn't have Zoom. We didn't have that sort of simple process. It was this very big, bulky system. And so we. And we even had some conversations with the community center up in Seely Lake. Could we put one of these terminals there so that people could use and it was going to be tens of thousands of dollars to do this? And so that in my mind is maybe the one good thing of the pandemic for us is that it sort of forced some technological changes on on everybody and it forced them on the court video system that the state runs and it became compliant or, you know, part of the Zoom system. So now anybody, you know, with a cell phone can appear for court for these things. You know, we have that opportunity then to make the justice system more convenient to people. That's the upside. There is certainly a downside, though. I think it's an absolute upside. You know, people are appearing, they're not having to travel. How many people have called in and said that they, you know, are on quarantine and they couldn't come to court, but yet they're able to appear telephonically or via video so that that is an absolutely positive aspect of COVID. I think the negative list could go on. We still don't have a lot of people back in the courtroom. We've lost a little bit of what's called courtroom decorum. I hear a lot of things on those Zoom calls we shouldn't be hearing in the courtroom, but you know, we've been open. I mean, by statute, we had to be open, when you know, we've never closed down. The court still has to continue on and we've been able to maintain that with video appearances. And I think we're understanding too, the community is in a pandemic, there are certain situations where somebody can't come to court. Sure. Well, I guess apart from COVID-19 induced changes that you've had to make to enable the court to be more accessible to the public, are there are other things that you would like to accomplish going forward that I guess also open it up. It could include ways in which the court is more accessible to the public, whether it's different times of the day that folks can appear or anything else that you have in mind as far as visions of the future of Justice Court in Missoula County. I think I want to step back before we go to the future. I think there's some things that Alex and I have been able to accomplish in the last couple of years that I think is significant. I think the efficiency of the court has become a little bit more approachable. Previously, each independent judge had their own court clerks and so forth, and it made a little cumbersome to some of the folks coming into court. And now there's a one-stop where you go to Justice Court for the criminal citations or the civil. And so some of those things have really kind of become more efficient. Another thing is that we did become a court of record. What does that mean for the general public out there, exactly? Who may wonder, didn't you keep records in the past if some sort? They were handwritten records. Yeah, vinyl. Okay. Which is very retro, coming back. No, it means that we are now the court that I think people always assumed we were, which is that there is a record of the entire proceeding. And for us, it's a, you know, audio recording of everything that goes on there in the courtroom and that has a lot of benefits. Number one, for just accountability of everybody involved, if something comes up in court, you can go back and find out what it was, but also for purposes of appeals. If people don't think they got a fair shake in front of us, they have the right to appeal that up to District Court. And before it just started over from scratch from from square one. But as a court of record, what that District Court judge does is just review how we handled things and make sure we did it fairly. But that means that folks who came through it's a quicker process. And if we did something wrong, you know, we're going to find out about it for the future to correct that problem. Whereas before, not necessarily. But I think it was a great opportunity for us, and I think it's good for the community, for that degree of openness and transparency and accountability to know exactly what we're doing or to have the ability to do that. It's good Stuff. It's fantastic. So moving forward, Yeah, moving forward, you know, I think we have some of the things that we have done in the past. We'd like to carry them further. We've made it easier to appear, whether that's by streamlining the process of getting a hold of the clerks, whether that's by adding Zoom appearances or things like that. But we like to transfer some of the things we did on the criminal side and kind of expand them over to the civil side as well. It can be really confusing to go to court, and if you are charged with a crime, oftentimes you're entitled to an attorney. But if you're involved in a civil case, someone is suing you or you want to sue someone because you were wronged, you walk up to the door and there are some friendly faces, and that's about all it is. And so we want to expand that process. We have begun the process of making our forms better, working through the partnering with some folks at the state to do that. We want to make it easy. We want to make it so that when you come in, it sort of walks you through the process of what you need to do. We've expanded the mediation program to help people resolve their disputes outside of court and in a way that hopefully is more beneficial for all of them and expanded the review of civil cases to make sure that everything that happens in those civil cases is accurate and according to the law. Fortunately, or unfortunately, in the vast majority of those cases, the person being sued the defendant in that suit, they get, they get served with that and then they never, never contact the court, never appear. And the plaintiff, the one who is suing them, they get what they asked for by default. We still have a role in that to make sure that what was asked for is actually legal, that we have jurisdiction over that case, that the requests they're making fit the law. So we've sort of expanded that program to make sure we're doing a good job there. I think it's a unique spot. Justice Court, you don't have to have an attorney for a lot of cases. You can represent yourself, but that doesn't mean that any of the court clerks or the judges can give you any legal advice. And so we find people struggling and how can we better? And just what Judge Beal said, you know, how can we better make our website and our forms friendlier, more approachable process? Because I think if there's one message I would say to anybody appearing civil matter show up, you know, answer your summons, come to court, you may not. It may feel intimidating. You may not understand the process, but just show up. Yeah, I mean, because we we can't speak on your behalf, you know, even if we see this case, that may look a little questionable or we need more information. But you know, as a defendant, if you receive civil paperwork, come to court. And so hopefully we're going to be making that a little bit a better message from our website and just from walking into our courtroom doors For good advice in general for life. Just show up. One more question, then we'll be done, if I can, I just can't help but ask. On a personal level, it seems like they're a set of professions out there for the people going to work every day. It's another day at work, but for the folks that you're dealing with, it's a really big day. People like doctors or law enforcement or midwives are, you guys are in that same category where, you know, it's just a Tuesday, but for the person you're dealing with, this could be the biggest thing that's ever happened to them. And how do you navigate that? I think you always have to remember that, and I remember that when I went in my prior career and when somebody was telling me the sound of a handcuff was traumatizing. And so, you know, everybody has a different experience coming into court and we see this. We see defendants come into court and they're speechless or they're in tears and like, have to take a take a breath, explain the process. And I think we try very hard to explain the process in the courtroom and having meaningful interactions. Sometimes people want to enter pleas right away and they don't completely understand, and we're going to encourage them and explain the process of coming back later and really helping people go through that. We have, you know, victims who show up in the courtroom at different times. We need to be, you know, obviously respectful and hear. They have a huge say in what happens with the case and understanding where a defendant is coming from and, you know, being able to again, having that meaningful interaction. We're not going to make everybody happy, but it is a big deal for when somebody comes to court and I think we talk about that a lot. Yeah, I was shocked initially by some of this stuff. You you see a whole lot of people who come through court and it's easy to blur all together for lack of a better term. And just because it's one of 15 for me, it's it's one of one for somebody. And early on, I would see parents of younger kids and they'd come in because their kid got a speeding ticket or a ticket of drinking or something like that. And you'd have a conversation with the kid about, you know, what happened and what the outcome was going to be. And sort of how are we going to make better choices in life and all the rest of it? And you know, you'd sort of get a wink or something from the parents and you think great? And I understood that one. But the thing that gets me sometimes is you see someone who is, shall we say, very familiar with the criminal justice system. And you still, I try, to still have that meaningful interaction with them to say to them, you know, the past is the past, but every day going forward is another opportunity for you. And once in a while, you have someone who comes and sees you after that and they say, you know what? Like, thank you. It clicked this time, and those are the moments that make it worthwhile. Those little moments that make you feel like you're doing something meaningful, at least for me. It's a great, great spot to end. Thanks a lot. Alex, and thank you, Landee. I do have one more probing question. I know this is on lots of people's minds out there. We are sitting in the commissioner's conference room as we speak here in downtown Missoula, and Judge Beal is wearing his signature bow tie today! Yes, he's looking good. And I'm just wondering, I mean, I've got a bow tie from high school jazz band and a cummerbund. I rarely pull out. But is there any back story that folks should be aware of with that tie? I wish there was some great, you know, story that goes to this. Years ago, I got a seersucker suit for the summer, and it just seemed like it needed a bow tie to go with it. And, you know, once you learn to tie one, you think, Oh, this is kind of fun, and now I'm now, I'm the only one who's got a bow tie. It's actually, one you tie, I had a clip on. Oh, OK. You set the bar high for elected officials attempting to have any sense of style. We better get seersucker suits. What do you think, Josh? Yeah. All right. Thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you. All right. Thank you, guys.