Roderick T. Kennedy
This is in response to Heath Haussamen’s Aug. 10 column, “The way to a better judiciary.”
The judicial branch has a few things available to try to help judges in trouble. The lawyer assistance program through the state bar that’s available to lawyers is also there to help judges with alcohol/substance problems and psychological difficulties. We’re told frequently and up front that if we have a problem we should take care of it. Such self-referral (and occasionally referrals from those around us are made, too) is treated confidentially, as is any counseling or other treatment that’s received, so long as a problem has not already gotten outside attention.
To the extent such problems or treatment might interfere with one’s judicial duties, leaves of absence to receive this sort of health care can be arranged. If related behavior has already occurred constituting misconduct in office, that’s a different matter.
Unfortunately, not every DWI is a priori the result of a problem with alcohol that’s of longer duration than the unfortunate day something happened. Some might just be a horrible mistake, and even judges can make those in their private lives. Getting a handle on one problem before it relates to another (the phenomenon of “alcohol-assisted getting caught problems” is real) is a true issue for any professional.
Granted, a DWI is something to look at as an indicator of a more broad problem (I used to supervise a large screening program for DWI offenders), but some offenders are one-timers. Those are hard to predict.
Another factor that I’ve seen contributing to latent problems suddenly becoming blatant is how hard many of us work to keep a grip on our professional lives to avoid mistakes of any sort there at the expense of personal well-being. We are all aware to a significant degree of the effect a bad personal decision or incident can have on our public lives. The difference between how a judge exists balancing personal and professional aspects of his/her life and a regular person can be pretty stark.
The degree of social isolation inherent to being a judge is significant. Between the work and personal lives, there’s a degree of compartmentalization that can make judges prone to ignore personal concerns to protect the professional side of their lives – putting more and more energy into hanging on at work while things at home slide (an issue common to many professions).
Kennedy is a judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals.