[Corrupt judge is kind of like a really boring Batman.]

At the gas station today, I discovered that someone had peed in the squeegee bucket! (basin? reservoir?) And that's just horrible. But other than, you know, accidental exposure to someone's waste, it could be worse:

I could be accused of a drug-related crime in Glynn County, Georgia. 

Please excuse me while I stop talking about myself for five seconds.

A recent episode of This American Life had some honest-to-goodness investigative journalism in it. The hour was all about the misconduct of Chief Judge Amanda Williams. While Ira's coverage was fairly objective, and while it'd be easy to make all sorts of judgments about her character, there's one major point that's hard to deny: she is violating the basic human rights of many who come before her.

Drug users or not, these people still have basic human rights. Furthermore, even if these rights could be signed away by entering her drug court program, there is strong evidence that she is coercing these offenders into entering it. Once the accused are coerced into entering the drug court program--or, more precisely, entering into the total control of Williams--they can be held accountable for any offense, with or without evidence, and punished as disproportionately (and as cruelly) as suits her fancy.

The point of drug court is to keep offenders out of the costly prison system when they can be rehabilitated outside of the hoosegow. Not only do her methods ignore the guidelines of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, but her highly punitive prison sentences (occasionally for "indefinite" periods!) do little to curb the cost of incarceration.

Her rulings are abusive, biased, and arguably capricious. She is violating the basic human rights of many Georgians. Get this woman thrown out.


* Oh, and it's a family thing. Here's a man who has been victimized by her son. Keep in mind, when this guy says he hasn't paid child support, it's not what you would usually think. It's because his wife abandoned the children and he raised them himself.