April 18, 2025 • 23 mins
The importance of mentorships...the truancy issue and what it leads to...is "locking them up and throwing away the key" the answer, and what is something Jenny Richardson Fore would like to see changed currently in the 21st JDC Juvenile court division.
Jenny Richardson Fore for Juvenile Judge sits down with Jim Chapman OF Local Leaders the Podcast Louisiana as we discuss these topics and much more.
Early voting for this election is April 19 to April 26 with Election Day on May 3rd!
Jenny Richardson Fore for Juvenile Judge sits down with Jim Chapman OF Local Leaders the Podcast Louisiana as we discuss these topics and much more.
Early voting for this election is April 19 to April 26 with Election Day on May 3rd!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Local Leaders the podcast
and we are in a part three with Jenny four
who is sitting across from me. She is a candidate
for twenty first Judicial District Juvenile Court Judge. That's a
lot and uh, we're here today to talk about some
(00:21):
things that we didn't go really into detail on the
last podcast that we put out, and we're going to
give you a little bit of information on that. But Jenny,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, thank you so much. Like you said, my name's
Jenny Richardson for and I'm running for Juvenile Court judge
and the twenty first JDC and that's going to be
the parishes of Livingston, Tangeba and Saint Alena.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
There you go, and you got that out a lot
better than idea just now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I've been saying it for a long time.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
That's right. And you mentioned that of course, you are
in the runoff now for this election, and.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I want to thank everybody for going out and voting
for me, and I will love for you go out
one more time and vote for me one more time
so we can get this done.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That's right. And so before we go any further, let's
just mention that early voting is coming up.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It is. It's April nineteenth through the twenty six so
it doesn't start this coming Saturday, but next Saturday. And
election day.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Is May third, May third, And look, I usually vote
on election day, or I always have. And the last
podcast I did with Jenny Ford, she said no early
vote because you never know what can happen, and she's right,
and I did.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And how bad was the rain? Oh, in March twenty ninth.
It was terrible. So it's terrible and we're getting into
baseball season, crawfish boils, everything else, and there's just other
stuff that people want to do. So you have a
week to early vote, and I think that that's just
the best way to do it to make sure your
votes heard.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
That's right. And look, we want the turnout to just
keep going up and going up in the tri Parish area,
So make sure you're early vote. You don't have to
worry about any thing occurring, bad weather, what have you
on election day. So let's get into talking about some
of the things that you deal with that you're going
(02:09):
to be dealing with. And the first subject I want
to talk about is foster care. Big subject in I
guess your industry. So let's talk about that real quick.
The last episode that we did, you had mentioned that
there's kind of an issue with foster families relative to
the amount of foster kids.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yes, well, we definitely have the biggest, are the most
kids in foster care and living some parish and even
in our tri parish area in the state.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
So, and we have I think in living Some Parish
the least number of foster homes. Yeah. So even if
our children go into foster home, we want to keep
them around because our main goal of foster care under
the law is reunification and if we aren't, if our
kids aren't close to their bio parents, it's hard to
keep that relationship alive.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, very good. And let me ask you a question.
Of course, ten plus years in the juvenile court system
and you've seen a lot of things. One question from
someone who doesn't live that life is what are you
seeing as far as these children. Is it a younger
generation of parents out there now versus what there used
(03:18):
to be?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yes, I mean that's one of the things. But we
have drug exposure to these children. There is no family
unit at anymore. So sometimes these parents weren't even taught
to parents. Yeah, and so now we have grandparents raising children,
which and they're older and they shouldn't be running after
kids either, so yeah, I mean it's in systematic poverty.
(03:44):
So yeah, we have all kinds of issues. So I
feel like sometimes when our families in foster care get
back on their feet, then something happens, like the flood
of sixteen or Ida or something, and then they're back
in the spot that they were before, after all of
the hard work they put in.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, and as a juvenile court judge, what role would
you play in that?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So we would have court hearings to determine if the
parents are working their case plans in order to get
their children.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Back, right, So very good, and that's the goal, right always.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So under state law, the goal, the first goal is reunification, sure,
and that is not always the best goal. And sometimes
when these kids keep coming back into the system, dcfs
can decide not to work a case plan with these
parents and go straight determination. Or if it's sexual abuse
or if it's something that has to do with a felony,
(04:41):
and these parents could be in jail for years and
years and years. We need to have stability for these children.
So In some circumstances, dcfs can go straight determination, but
the main goal, the first goal would be reunification for
these children.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Very good and stability, very stability.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We have to have stabilities. So if reunification is not
working and they're not working their case plan, then the
goal gets changed to adoption. Guardianship different a custody of
a grandparent to a grandparent. So yeah, there's other options.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Let's talk about truancy real quick. Obviously the glaring one
of the glaring issues not only in this Triparish area
where you're involved, but also throughout the state. I mean,
it's an issue. You're a big believer and I'm also
a big believer in that truancy creates another issue, which
(05:36):
is crime.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yes, and I have talked about that my whole time
on the campaign trail. So we have first and second
graders that are missing thirty and forty days of school.
If we see that, we know something is going on
in that home, and we need to get into that home,
and we need to be proactive and not reactive. And
I'll tell you why. If they are not reading. These
children are not reading by the time they're in fourth grade,
(05:59):
they're more then likely going to drop out of school. Well,
what happens when they drop out of school? They wind
up in the system. And we only pay around ten
thousand dollars a year to educate our kids, but we're
paying over one hundred thousand dollars a year to incarcerate
one child. Yeah, and that just doesn't make sense to me.
So we need to put some of that money in
on the front end and figure out why these children
(06:22):
aren't going to school and get them in school, so
we are not paying for them for the rest of
their lives.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
In regards to truancy. So there's parents out there where,
especially if you're a single parent, you're a single mother,
maybe you've got to work and you can't keep eyes
on your kids twenty four to seven. Do you take
that into consideration? Is that something that you Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But at the end of the day, a child needs
to go to school. So if we're talking about a
parent that are a kid that's in first and second grade,
we know is the parent's fault that they're not going
to school, So that parent does need to be held accountable,
and under our Family and Needs of Services Statute, we
can hold a parent accountable. And really that probably needs
to be looked into by the Department of Children and
(07:08):
Family Services because like I said, it could be anything,
and that drugs can be in that home. The mom's
not getting up to take these kids to school. Maybe
she doesn't have a car to take these kids to school,
she's not getting up to put them on the bus.
It could be a number of things. But then if
we're talking about a sixteen or fifteen, sixteen year old
that's not going to school, well that's probably that child's.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, the parent probably, yes.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And sometimes these kids just don't want to get out
of bed. Like we have the Sheriff's department that goes
and tries to get these children out of bed. So
at that point that child needs to be held accountable. Yeah,
so we can put them on fends probation and if
they're missing school. Every day they miss of school, they
can spend seven days in the detention center. And that
does happen.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And does the schools themselves communicate with Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, So we work with Spencer Harris hand in hand.
He is our the truancy at Central Office. So yes,
I talk to him probably every other day because if
I have a kid that is in our system, they
have to have an educational plan. That is one of
the things that they have to have. So even in
(08:17):
our drug courts, if they're in our drug court, they
have to have the option of going to a public school,
even if that's an alternative school. So if they get
kicked out while they're in drug court, that's a different story.
But yes, so a lot of our kids, especially in
Livingston Parish, would be in pine Ridge even if they're
in our drug court. So and Spencer comes in Staff's
(08:38):
drug court with us once a week. So once a week. Yes,
Oh my gosh, she's amazing, so very good. He does
what's best for the kids for sure, but he also
has to see what's best for their school system.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And it's it really is all about education. I mean,
if they're not there, if they're not in, they're going
to lase opportunities later on.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yep. And he's also been working with Jennifer Duay at
the Sheriff's apartment. I'm not sure if her title captain,
I don't know. She's high up. She's the head of
the juvenile system at the Sheriff's office. Yeah, so they
have been working together and going out to find these kids,
knocking on doors to see why they're not in school,
and then if they can't make contact with it with them,
(09:24):
then it gets sent to our court system. So they're
doing some pre stuff in living In parish to get
these children in school. And sometimes it's just a knock
on the doors. What it takes, yea, And that scares
the parents enough to make sure that these kids are
in school.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, because they know somebody's holding gonna hold them accountable.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Very good. Let's talk about endorsements real quick. Okay, You've
got some pretty good endorsements coming out of Livingston Parish.
As a matter of fact, all eight mayors.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
All eight mayors or some of them are mayor lets. Yeah,
so we have that all of that, we have the
sheriff assessor, parish President Representative Roger Wilder, and I also
recently picked up the tangiba Hoe Republican Parish Executive Committee endorsement.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Wow. Very good. I want to talk next about mentorships. Okay,
So the last episode that we did we discuss the
importance of trades and learning these trades. There's some great
trade programs that high schools put out, welding programs, et cetera.
That these kids can get involved in. Not everybody's getting
(10:31):
necessarily made for college, and some people don't want to
go to they've had enough of school after high school.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
All of these children don't fit in one box. Yeah,
and not all of them need to go to college.
Some of them need to go to trade route and
are very successful doing the trade route, especially these days.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
We talked a lot about it, a lot about that,
but mentorships is something that's kind of dear to me
as well. From experience can tell you that when you
meet a mentor early in life, someone you look up to,
it makes difference because you don't want to disappoint that person.
We have some great programs in the pair in Livingston Parish.
(11:07):
I'm sure it's the same in Tanji Saint Helena where
we have JRTC program.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yes, Sergeant Gunny, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Sergeant Gunny are amazing and he's been.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Doing great things. He's a good mentor. He's a good
mentor for some of our drug court kids.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
So, and I've talked about how when our kids are
released from the secure facility Florida parishes, a lot of
them are seventeen and they don't have a mentor. So
we're putting them back in their same environment. So that
was one of the things I wanted to focus on
to get these kids mentors, to keep them on the
right track until they can go get their TWIT card,
until they can go offshore in the plants. If they
(11:47):
don't have somebody to look up to and keep them
on the right track, they're going to go back and
commit a crime. Well, and you know, we have that
Youth Challenge program for kids, and they talk about that. Yes, okay,
so some of the kids that are troubled. You can
start the Youth Challenge program at sixteen years old. So
if all's a international guard, there's three different places that
they have it and they rotate. It's like a four
(12:09):
month program. And so the first two weeks of this
program it's like boot camp all the stuff. People hate it,
but then once they get into it, they do really well.
So if you make it the first two weeks, you'll
be fine. And so I think that there's two courses
right now. You can get your high school diploma or
you can still get your high set there. But when
(12:31):
you get out of there, there's also a mentor program connected.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
To that that's a beautiful So.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Exactly and so those kids, a lot of those kids
that go there just need structure, just.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Like our Pine Ridge, Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Our alternative school and living some parish. I have kids
that thrive in there because they have structure, because they're
coming from a non family unit. They may just have
a mom who's working three or four jobs, or grandparents
are raising them. They have no father figure. So we
need to get back to mentoring our children.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, and sometimes in structure, structure huge thing. One of
the most important things in life, and that's what you're
going to get out of the.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Military is not raising our child, No, not at all.
That is what a lot of parents think that these days.
And some of these like I said before, some of
these parents weren't parented, so they don't know how to parent.
I agree, and I really do think our churches need
to get involved to Yeah, even with a foster care thing.
We've been doing a big push around the state to
(13:32):
get families in churches to sign up for foster care.
Because you know, there's like four thousand churches in the
state of Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It's just one.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Adopted one child. There would be no children in foster.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Care, no children in foster care, and that's a big
thing for you, something that you can tell you all
that close to your heart and it's important to you.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Let's talk a little bit about things that you do
outside of everything you do in the juvenile court system.
So you you belonged to a lot of clubs.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I did. I do, and my children belong to a
lot of things as well. So I was team mom
this year for my little girls competitive cheer. She does
live okreg Yeah, she's been doing that since she was
three years old. So for the last three years she's
done that.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, which means you do that, which.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And then both of them have been in competitive swim
since they were three. So as soon as cheer finished,
I wanted to get her prep for summer swim.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
So she's been doing Tac Tiger Aquatics at parts. But
so that's their their schedule for the most part. And
casted kid strong. But I am a member of Kawana's Club,
Pilot Club, Republican Women, the Liberty Bells. I think that's it.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, that's a lot. That's enough.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's a lot. Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So you give a lot outside of outside of yourself,
that's always a good thing. Let's get into acronyms. So
we discussed on the last podcast. Look, the juvenile court
system is the cats me out of acronyms. Everything's an acronym,
but there's one called QPI that kind of struck me.
What is that? What does it stand for?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Reality Parenting Initiative? And it's something that DCFS tried to
start rolling out between biological parents and foster parents. And
it's where they work together for reunification because back to
some of these bioparents do not know how to parent,
so a foster parent can help them with that. There's
all kinds of other stuff like sometimes they just need respite,
(15:39):
they have zero help from family. They may not have
family here. So it's them working together and it's to
just have them have a relationship together. Yeah, so for
the goal of reunification.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
That's it, which is a beautiful thing. What's something if
you were in when you are in the your we're
all as the juvenile court judge, that you would maybe
streamline change, make better something you've seen that you can
contribute with changing.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
So I know one thing that I hear a lot
of times is so I don't know for each case
that goes into juvenile court it's confidential, so we all
have to go into court separate, we all put our
names on the record, hear the case, and it goes
back outside. Yeah, but all of these people are in
a waiting room together, and sometimes that's not a good
(16:30):
thing because there's victims with perpetrators. Sometimes, like the foster
parents and the bio parents don't get along and they're
all in the same room, and sometimes that's a good thing.
But I think that we need to do better, maybe
scheduling these cases out at different times so people are
showing up at different times. Also, like if we need
a victim, just calling a victim to get there at
(16:53):
that time and not have to sit there all day
because they shouldn't have to do that or have a
place for them to go.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
So very good.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, I think that's something that we can work on
for sure, is lock.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Them up and throw away the key to answer no.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So there will be some crimes that these children have
to go and under the law there have to go
and it's lock them up. But even if they're locked up,
they still need resources because if not.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
They're going to give out.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, they get out at some point. So juvenile life
is just until you're twenty one, So you can only
hold them so long. But if they don't have resources
and stuff that they can do, when they get out,
they're going to be back in the same place, yes,
state prisons. So then there's some things that we can't
just lock them up for, So there's crimes. We have
(17:42):
something called a predispositional investigation and it's our disposition. Our
sitting scene in juvenile court is called the disposition, so
OJJ Office of Juvenile Justice, our probation goes into a
deep dive about everything that has happened into this case
and they do a recommendation, and we in juvenile court
(18:03):
are supposed to go with the least restrictive means, so
that usually is probation. So under the law, we can't
just lock up these kids, so yes, and then when
they're on probation, there is numerous resources that we are
giving them for them to stay out of trouble.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
So it's huge, And yeah, you're going to get out someday.
Juvenile life, y'all, y'all is only to your twenty one,
twenty one. Yeah, so they're going to get out into
society if they don't have resources, go yep, they're gonna
go back.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
And if kids are on probation, they are held accountable
to the Office of Juvenile Justice, will file rules if
they aren't abided by the conditions of their probation. And
so if they're on delinquency probation for every rule the
first time, for every time that they did something that
they weren't supposed to do, they can spend seven days
in Florida parishes. And so if another rule's filed, it
(18:59):
goes to ten, and then the third rules filed it
goes to fourteen.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Gotcha. So you've had two hundred and fifty plus cases
last year that you dealt with. The question here is
what would you do in a case where a juvenile
that maybe you represented in the past appears before you
as a judge?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So I have to accuse myself. I won't hear those anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, very good.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
So all of those cases I will not be able
to hear.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
And is that your option or is that like.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Through the Supreme Court? I gotcha?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Okay, very good. One last question for you. So in
the March twenty third election, you go under fifty two
percent of the vote in Livingston Parish, thirty five percent
of the vote in Tangi and twenty four percent of
the vote in Saint Helena. The third person in this race,
Rebecca Davis Lee, garnered eighty seven hundred and twenty seven votes,
(19:56):
which are now up for grabs, essentially assuming that the
same people vote in the runoff the way they did
the first time. What would you say to the supporters
that supported Rebecca Davis Lee? What would you say to
them as to why they should vote for you.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Well, I am the best candidate and most qualified candidate
by far. So I am the only candidate that works
and represents juveniles. My opponent represents their parents in DCFS cases.
I am. I have I think taken over two thousand
delinquency cases over the last ten years, fifteen hundred of
(20:35):
them being detention cases. She does not have those numbers.
I am the only candidate that works with the school
system on the regular basis. She does not. I'm the
only candidate to staff weekly, staff drunk court weekly. She
does not. So there's a lot of a difference between us.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, I would say so. And if it experience is
something you see, it's going to be hard to beat
Jenny Forth's experience.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I'm the only one that works with these governmental agencies
that we have only or on a weekly basis, on
a daily basis, not just the school talking about the
Office of Juvenile Justice, our Fends program, our Truancy Court.
I'm the only one that works with Florida Paris's Juvenile's
Detention Center on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
What would you say to voters right now as an
exit to leaving this podcast, ask.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Them for their support and vote in the May third election.
And I would ask them to please go out and vote,
and please bring their family and friends out to vote,
because this is going to be a low voter turnout.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, so one more time. The dates on the.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Boat is April nineteenth through the twenty six that's early
voting election days May third. I'm number five on the ballot,
high five.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
For fully, five for four. That's my favorite.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Hi, five for four And yes, please go out. So
Tangrabajoe and Saint Helena have nothing on the ballot except
the juvenile judges race. Yeah, Living Sin is going to
have a tax renewal. I think that deals with the
school board and the town of Killion is going to
have an Alderman runoff. But other than that, that that's it.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
That's us.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
So we have to get the people out to vote.
And it's very important. This seat is very important. If
we don't have the right person in there, with the
right experience, our children are going to suffer.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And I've been saying it since the beginning, in my opinion,
one of the most important races of the year, if
not the most. This is our children's future and us
as adults. Yes, you know it's our future too, because it.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Could be a victim of juvenile crime as well, that's right.
Or your grandparents could wind up in the system. I mean,
grandchildren could wind up in this system. You just never know,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
So that's right. Well, thank you so much for coming
on three times.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yes, oh, I enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It is fun for all of you out there again,
go vote. I'm going to put in the description of
this podcast Jenny For's website so you can learn more.
If you'd like to learn more about this candidate. You
can also go back and listen to prior episodes that
she did with local leaders of podcasts and until next time,
(23:19):
I'm your host, Jim Chapman with local leaders reminding you
love your community, support local business, and keep leading thank
you very much,
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Local Leaders the podcast
and we are in a part three with Jenny four
who is sitting across from me. She is a candidate
for twenty first Judicial District Juvenile Court Judge. That's a
lot and uh, we're here today to talk about some
(00:21):
things that we didn't go really into detail on the
last podcast that we put out, and we're going to
give you a little bit of information on that. But Jenny,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, thank you so much. Like you said, my name's
Jenny Richardson for and I'm running for Juvenile Court judge
and the twenty first JDC and that's going to be
the parishes of Livingston, Tangeba and Saint Alena.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
There you go, and you got that out a lot
better than idea just now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I've been saying it for a long time.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
That's right. And you mentioned that of course, you are
in the runoff now for this election, and.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I want to thank everybody for going out and voting
for me, and I will love for you go out
one more time and vote for me one more time
so we can get this done.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That's right. And so before we go any further, let's
just mention that early voting is coming up.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It is. It's April nineteenth through the twenty six so
it doesn't start this coming Saturday, but next Saturday. And
election day.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Is May third, May third, And look, I usually vote
on election day, or I always have. And the last
podcast I did with Jenny Ford, she said no early
vote because you never know what can happen, and she's right,
and I did.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And how bad was the rain? Oh, in March twenty ninth.
It was terrible. So it's terrible and we're getting into
baseball season, crawfish boils, everything else, and there's just other
stuff that people want to do. So you have a
week to early vote, and I think that that's just
the best way to do it to make sure your
votes heard.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
That's right. And look, we want the turnout to just
keep going up and going up in the tri Parish area,
So make sure you're early vote. You don't have to
worry about any thing occurring, bad weather, what have you
on election day. So let's get into talking about some
of the things that you deal with that you're going
(02:09):
to be dealing with. And the first subject I want
to talk about is foster care. Big subject in I
guess your industry. So let's talk about that real quick.
The last episode that we did, you had mentioned that
there's kind of an issue with foster families relative to
the amount of foster kids.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yes, well, we definitely have the biggest, are the most
kids in foster care and living some parish and even
in our tri parish area in the state.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
So, and we have I think in living Some Parish
the least number of foster homes. Yeah. So even if
our children go into foster home, we want to keep
them around because our main goal of foster care under
the law is reunification and if we aren't, if our
kids aren't close to their bio parents, it's hard to
keep that relationship alive.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yeah, very good. And let me ask you a question.
Of course, ten plus years in the juvenile court system
and you've seen a lot of things. One question from
someone who doesn't live that life is what are you
seeing as far as these children. Is it a younger
generation of parents out there now versus what there used
(03:18):
to be?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yes, I mean that's one of the things. But we
have drug exposure to these children. There is no family
unit at anymore. So sometimes these parents weren't even taught
to parents. Yeah, and so now we have grandparents raising children,
which and they're older and they shouldn't be running after
kids either, so yeah, I mean it's in systematic poverty.
(03:44):
So yeah, we have all kinds of issues. So I
feel like sometimes when our families in foster care get
back on their feet, then something happens, like the flood
of sixteen or Ida or something, and then they're back
in the spot that they were before, after all of
the hard work they put in.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, and as a juvenile court judge, what role would
you play in that?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So we would have court hearings to determine if the
parents are working their case plans in order to get
their children.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Back, right, So very good, and that's the goal, right always.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
So under state law, the goal, the first goal is reunification, sure,
and that is not always the best goal. And sometimes
when these kids keep coming back into the system, dcfs
can decide not to work a case plan with these
parents and go straight determination. Or if it's sexual abuse
or if it's something that has to do with a felony,
(04:41):
and these parents could be in jail for years and
years and years. We need to have stability for these children.
So In some circumstances, dcfs can go straight determination, but
the main goal, the first goal would be reunification for
these children.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Very good and stability, very stability.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We have to have stabilities. So if reunification is not
working and they're not working their case plan, then the
goal gets changed to adoption. Guardianship different a custody of
a grandparent to a grandparent. So yeah, there's other options.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Let's talk about truancy real quick. Obviously the glaring one
of the glaring issues not only in this Triparish area
where you're involved, but also throughout the state. I mean,
it's an issue. You're a big believer and I'm also
a big believer in that truancy creates another issue, which
(05:36):
is crime.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yes, and I have talked about that my whole time
on the campaign trail. So we have first and second
graders that are missing thirty and forty days of school.
If we see that, we know something is going on
in that home, and we need to get into that home,
and we need to be proactive and not reactive. And
I'll tell you why. If they are not reading. These
children are not reading by the time they're in fourth grade,
(05:59):
they're more then likely going to drop out of school. Well,
what happens when they drop out of school? They wind
up in the system. And we only pay around ten
thousand dollars a year to educate our kids, but we're
paying over one hundred thousand dollars a year to incarcerate
one child. Yeah, and that just doesn't make sense to me.
So we need to put some of that money in
on the front end and figure out why these children
(06:22):
aren't going to school and get them in school, so
we are not paying for them for the rest of
their lives.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
In regards to truancy. So there's parents out there where,
especially if you're a single parent, you're a single mother,
maybe you've got to work and you can't keep eyes
on your kids twenty four to seven. Do you take
that into consideration? Is that something that you Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But at the end of the day, a child needs
to go to school. So if we're talking about a
parent that are a kid that's in first and second grade,
we know is the parent's fault that they're not going
to school, So that parent does need to be held accountable,
and under our Family and Needs of Services Statute, we
can hold a parent accountable. And really that probably needs
to be looked into by the Department of Children and
(07:08):
Family Services because like I said, it could be anything,
and that drugs can be in that home. The mom's
not getting up to take these kids to school. Maybe
she doesn't have a car to take these kids to school,
she's not getting up to put them on the bus.
It could be a number of things. But then if
we're talking about a sixteen or fifteen, sixteen year old
that's not going to school, well that's probably that child's.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, the parent probably, yes.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And sometimes these kids just don't want to get out
of bed. Like we have the Sheriff's department that goes
and tries to get these children out of bed. So
at that point that child needs to be held accountable. Yeah,
so we can put them on fends probation and if
they're missing school. Every day they miss of school, they
can spend seven days in the detention center. And that
does happen.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And does the schools themselves communicate with Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, So we work with Spencer Harris hand in hand.
He is our the truancy at Central Office. So yes,
I talk to him probably every other day because if
I have a kid that is in our system, they
have to have an educational plan. That is one of
the things that they have to have. So even in
(08:17):
our drug courts, if they're in our drug court, they
have to have the option of going to a public school,
even if that's an alternative school. So if they get
kicked out while they're in drug court, that's a different story.
But yes, so a lot of our kids, especially in
Livingston Parish, would be in pine Ridge even if they're
in our drug court. So and Spencer comes in Staff's
(08:38):
drug court with us once a week. So once a week. Yes,
Oh my gosh, she's amazing, so very good. He does
what's best for the kids for sure, but he also
has to see what's best for their school system.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And it's it really is all about education. I mean,
if they're not there, if they're not in, they're going
to lase opportunities later on.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yep. And he's also been working with Jennifer Duay at
the Sheriff's apartment. I'm not sure if her title captain,
I don't know. She's high up. She's the head of
the juvenile system at the Sheriff's office. Yeah, so they
have been working together and going out to find these kids,
knocking on doors to see why they're not in school,
and then if they can't make contact with it with them,
(09:24):
then it gets sent to our court system. So they're
doing some pre stuff in living In parish to get
these children in school. And sometimes it's just a knock
on the doors. What it takes, yea, And that scares
the parents enough to make sure that these kids are
in school.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, because they know somebody's holding gonna hold them accountable.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Very good. Let's talk about endorsements real quick. Okay, You've
got some pretty good endorsements coming out of Livingston Parish.
As a matter of fact, all eight mayors.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
All eight mayors or some of them are mayor lets. Yeah,
so we have that all of that, we have the
sheriff assessor, parish President Representative Roger Wilder, and I also
recently picked up the tangiba Hoe Republican Parish Executive Committee endorsement.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Wow. Very good. I want to talk next about mentorships. Okay,
So the last episode that we did we discuss the
importance of trades and learning these trades. There's some great
trade programs that high schools put out, welding programs, et cetera.
That these kids can get involved in. Not everybody's getting
(10:31):
necessarily made for college, and some people don't want to
go to they've had enough of school after high school.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
All of these children don't fit in one box. Yeah,
and not all of them need to go to college.
Some of them need to go to trade route and
are very successful doing the trade route, especially these days.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
We talked a lot about it, a lot about that,
but mentorships is something that's kind of dear to me
as well. From experience can tell you that when you
meet a mentor early in life, someone you look up to,
it makes difference because you don't want to disappoint that person.
We have some great programs in the pair in Livingston Parish.
(11:07):
I'm sure it's the same in Tanji Saint Helena where
we have JRTC program.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yes, Sergeant Gunny, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Sergeant Gunny are amazing and he's been.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Doing great things. He's a good mentor. He's a good
mentor for some of our drug court kids.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
So, and I've talked about how when our kids are
released from the secure facility Florida parishes, a lot of
them are seventeen and they don't have a mentor. So
we're putting them back in their same environment. So that
was one of the things I wanted to focus on
to get these kids mentors, to keep them on the
right track until they can go get their TWIT card,
until they can go offshore in the plants. If they
(11:47):
don't have somebody to look up to and keep them
on the right track, they're going to go back and
commit a crime. Well, and you know, we have that
Youth Challenge program for kids, and they talk about that. Yes, okay,
so some of the kids that are troubled. You can
start the Youth Challenge program at sixteen years old. So
if all's a international guard, there's three different places that
they have it and they rotate. It's like a four
(12:09):
month program. And so the first two weeks of this
program it's like boot camp all the stuff. People hate it,
but then once they get into it, they do really well.
So if you make it the first two weeks, you'll
be fine. And so I think that there's two courses
right now. You can get your high school diploma or
you can still get your high set there. But when
(12:31):
you get out of there, there's also a mentor program connected.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
To that that's a beautiful So.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Exactly and so those kids, a lot of those kids
that go there just need structure, just.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Like our Pine Ridge, Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Our alternative school and living some parish. I have kids
that thrive in there because they have structure, because they're
coming from a non family unit. They may just have
a mom who's working three or four jobs, or grandparents
are raising them. They have no father figure. So we
need to get back to mentoring our children.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, and sometimes in structure, structure huge thing. One of
the most important things in life, and that's what you're
going to get out of the.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Military is not raising our child, No, not at all.
That is what a lot of parents think that these days.
And some of these like I said before, some of
these parents weren't parented, so they don't know how to parent.
I agree, and I really do think our churches need
to get involved to Yeah, even with a foster care thing.
We've been doing a big push around the state to
(13:32):
get families in churches to sign up for foster care.
Because you know, there's like four thousand churches in the
state of Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It's just one.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Adopted one child. There would be no children in foster.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Care, no children in foster care, and that's a big
thing for you, something that you can tell you all
that close to your heart and it's important to you.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Let's talk a little bit about things that you do
outside of everything you do in the juvenile court system.
So you you belonged to a lot of clubs.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I did. I do, and my children belong to a
lot of things as well. So I was team mom
this year for my little girls competitive cheer. She does
live okreg Yeah, she's been doing that since she was
three years old. So for the last three years she's
done that.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, which means you do that, which.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And then both of them have been in competitive swim
since they were three. So as soon as cheer finished,
I wanted to get her prep for summer swim.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
So she's been doing Tac Tiger Aquatics at parts. But
so that's their their schedule for the most part. And
casted kid strong. But I am a member of Kawana's Club,
Pilot Club, Republican Women, the Liberty Bells. I think that's it.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, that's a lot. That's enough.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's a lot. Uh.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So you give a lot outside of outside of yourself,
that's always a good thing. Let's get into acronyms. So
we discussed on the last podcast. Look, the juvenile court
system is the cats me out of acronyms. Everything's an acronym,
but there's one called QPI that kind of struck me.
What is that? What does it stand for?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Reality Parenting Initiative? And it's something that DCFS tried to
start rolling out between biological parents and foster parents. And
it's where they work together for reunification because back to
some of these bioparents do not know how to parent,
so a foster parent can help them with that. There's
all kinds of other stuff like sometimes they just need respite,
(15:39):
they have zero help from family. They may not have
family here. So it's them working together and it's to
just have them have a relationship together. Yeah, so for
the goal of reunification.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
That's it, which is a beautiful thing. What's something if
you were in when you are in the your we're
all as the juvenile court judge, that you would maybe
streamline change, make better something you've seen that you can
contribute with changing.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
So I know one thing that I hear a lot
of times is so I don't know for each case
that goes into juvenile court it's confidential, so we all
have to go into court separate, we all put our
names on the record, hear the case, and it goes
back outside. Yeah, but all of these people are in
a waiting room together, and sometimes that's not a good
(16:30):
thing because there's victims with perpetrators. Sometimes, like the foster
parents and the bio parents don't get along and they're
all in the same room, and sometimes that's a good thing.
But I think that we need to do better, maybe
scheduling these cases out at different times so people are
showing up at different times. Also, like if we need
a victim, just calling a victim to get there at
(16:53):
that time and not have to sit there all day
because they shouldn't have to do that or have a
place for them to go.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
So very good.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, I think that's something that we can work on
for sure, is lock.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Them up and throw away the key to answer no.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
So there will be some crimes that these children have
to go and under the law there have to go
and it's lock them up. But even if they're locked up,
they still need resources because if not.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
They're going to give out.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, they get out at some point. So juvenile life
is just until you're twenty one, So you can only
hold them so long. But if they don't have resources
and stuff that they can do, when they get out,
they're going to be back in the same place, yes,
state prisons. So then there's some things that we can't
just lock them up for, So there's crimes. We have
(17:42):
something called a predispositional investigation and it's our disposition. Our
sitting scene in juvenile court is called the disposition, so
OJJ Office of Juvenile Justice, our probation goes into a
deep dive about everything that has happened into this case
and they do a recommendation, and we in juvenile court
(18:03):
are supposed to go with the least restrictive means, so
that usually is probation. So under the law, we can't
just lock up these kids, so yes, and then when
they're on probation, there is numerous resources that we are
giving them for them to stay out of trouble.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
So it's huge, And yeah, you're going to get out someday.
Juvenile life, y'all, y'all is only to your twenty one,
twenty one. Yeah, so they're going to get out into
society if they don't have resources, go yep, they're gonna
go back.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
And if kids are on probation, they are held accountable
to the Office of Juvenile Justice, will file rules if
they aren't abided by the conditions of their probation. And
so if they're on delinquency probation for every rule the
first time, for every time that they did something that
they weren't supposed to do, they can spend seven days
in Florida parishes. And so if another rule's filed, it
(18:59):
goes to ten, and then the third rules filed it
goes to fourteen.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Gotcha. So you've had two hundred and fifty plus cases
last year that you dealt with. The question here is
what would you do in a case where a juvenile
that maybe you represented in the past appears before you
as a judge?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So I have to accuse myself. I won't hear those anymore.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, very good.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
So all of those cases I will not be able
to hear.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
And is that your option or is that like.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Through the Supreme Court? I gotcha?
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Okay, very good. One last question for you. So in
the March twenty third election, you go under fifty two
percent of the vote in Livingston Parish, thirty five percent
of the vote in Tangi and twenty four percent of
the vote in Saint Helena. The third person in this race,
Rebecca Davis Lee, garnered eighty seven hundred and twenty seven votes,
(19:56):
which are now up for grabs, essentially assuming that the
same people vote in the runoff the way they did
the first time. What would you say to the supporters
that supported Rebecca Davis Lee? What would you say to
them as to why they should vote for you.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Well, I am the best candidate and most qualified candidate
by far. So I am the only candidate that works
and represents juveniles. My opponent represents their parents in DCFS cases.
I am. I have I think taken over two thousand
delinquency cases over the last ten years, fifteen hundred of
(20:35):
them being detention cases. She does not have those numbers.
I am the only candidate that works with the school
system on the regular basis. She does not. I'm the
only candidate to staff weekly, staff drunk court weekly. She
does not. So there's a lot of a difference between us.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, I would say so. And if it experience is
something you see, it's going to be hard to beat
Jenny Forth's experience.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I'm the only one that works with these governmental agencies
that we have only or on a weekly basis, on
a daily basis, not just the school talking about the
Office of Juvenile Justice, our Fends program, our Truancy Court.
I'm the only one that works with Florida Paris's Juvenile's
Detention Center on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
What would you say to voters right now as an
exit to leaving this podcast, ask.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Them for their support and vote in the May third election.
And I would ask them to please go out and vote,
and please bring their family and friends out to vote,
because this is going to be a low voter turnout.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, so one more time. The dates on the.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Boat is April nineteenth through the twenty six that's early
voting election days May third. I'm number five on the ballot,
high five.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
For fully, five for four. That's my favorite.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Hi, five for four And yes, please go out. So
Tangrabajoe and Saint Helena have nothing on the ballot except
the juvenile judges race. Yeah, Living Sin is going to
have a tax renewal. I think that deals with the
school board and the town of Killion is going to
have an Alderman runoff. But other than that, that that's it.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
That's us.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
So we have to get the people out to vote.
And it's very important. This seat is very important. If
we don't have the right person in there, with the
right experience, our children are going to suffer.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And I've been saying it since the beginning, in my opinion,
one of the most important races of the year, if
not the most. This is our children's future and us
as adults. Yes, you know it's our future too, because it.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Could be a victim of juvenile crime as well, that's right.
Or your grandparents could wind up in the system. I mean,
grandchildren could wind up in this system. You just never know,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
So that's right. Well, thank you so much for coming
on three times.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yes, oh, I enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It is fun for all of you out there again,
go vote. I'm going to put in the description of
this podcast Jenny For's website so you can learn more.
If you'd like to learn more about this candidate. You
can also go back and listen to prior episodes that
she did with local leaders of podcasts and until next time,
(23:19):
I'm your host, Jim Chapman with local leaders reminding you
love your community, support local business, and keep leading thank
you very much,
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