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Federal judges and court staff in Manhattan recently celebrated two dozen individuals’ successful transition back into the community after prison, thanks to a specialized program to help high-risk former offenders maintain crime-free lives.  

The yearlong journey for those under supervision in the Reentry through Intensive Supervision and Employment Court (RISE Court) program culminated in a special graduation ceremony in June. Speakers noted that the graduates fulfilled their obligations during the height of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Throughout this trying year, our graduates exhibited admirable courage, commitment, and perseverance – the courage to reconnect with their families and friends, the commitment to improve themselves, and the perseverance to find jobs, housing, and health programs during a worldwide pandemic,” said Judge Raymond Lohier, Jr., of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, who presided over a RISE Court during much of the pandemic. “We commend them for succeeding despite the many unusual obstacles and hardships they faced. I personally couldn’t be prouder of their achievement.” 

Graduates were joined by family, friends, members of the RISE Court initiative ­– and even some of their sentencing judges – to finally celebrate their achievements with a proper gathering.

The RISE Court, launched in January 2019, has three cohorts each presided over by federal judges. It is part of an effort to reduce recidivism among people on supervised release through initiatives that encourage employment and self-awareness.

“The RISE Court is a way for our district to more deeply engage with its supervised release population and to provide resources and support that will help reduce recidivism,” said Michael Fitzpatrick, chief probation officer for the Southern District of New York. “By reducing recidivism, we will keep families together, and we will keep our communities safer.”

According to the probation office, roughly 20 percent of moderate and high-risk individuals on supervised release are unemployed, and 70 percent of the supervisees with the greatest risk of recidivism end up with their terms of supervised release revoked, often from rearrest.

Participants in the RISE Court are offered several services to help them succeed, including cognitive behavioral therapy, mentorships, a financial literacy program, and pro bono legal assistance. Upon completion of the program, probation officers typically recommend that a participant’s sentencing judge reduce the term of supervised release. 

To graduate, participants must appear before a RISE Court judge every two weeks for approximately a year to discuss their living and employment situations, legal and financial issues, and their progress on completing a behavioral wellness program. Before each session, the judge meets with the participant’s probation officer, a coordinator, and representatives of service providers to discuss the participant’s progress. Members of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Federal Defenders Office also attend the sessions.

“Obtaining and maintaining employment is an essential part of re-entering society after imprisonment. We hope to help participants develop meaningful ties to the community,” said Judge Denny Chin of Second Circuit Court of Appeals, who presided over the first RISE Court.

Other federal court districts have introduced similar programs to help people stay out of prison. The program in Southern New York was largely inspired by a successful reentry court program in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Related Topics: Probation and Pretrial Services

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Since the death of Judge Jack B. Weinstein on June 15 at age 99, his legendary life and legal career have been celebrated by fellow judges, who hailed him as a role model and champion of justice, and others of more humble standing who remember him as an “incredibly thoughtful” gentleman who stood up for “little guys.”

By any measure, Weinstein was a giant in the legal profession. A member of Thurgood Marshall’s legal team that prepared the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the Eastern District of New York in 1967. In 53 years, until his retirement in 2020, he reinvented how courts handle mass tort litigation, greatly upgraded the role of U.S. magistrate judges, and conducted himself in an egalitarian manner, wearing business suits instead of a robe in the courtroom and often sitting at a table with defendants as he sentenced them.

“The Judiciary has lost a national treasure,” said Chief Judge Margo K. Brodie in a statement. She added that during his tenure as chief judge of the Eastern District, Weinstein “helped transform the Court into what it is today — a court that has served and continues to serve as a model of innovation in the administration of justice for the federal courts nationally.”

In a tribute in the New York Law Journal, lawyer Darryl M. Vernon recalled visiting a mob trial in Weinstein’s courtroom while attending law school. Weinstein recognized that Vernon and a friend were law students and invited them up to the bench, even permitting them to listen to sidebar conversations during the trial.

“It was an incredible experience and Judge Weinstein made it so,” said Vernon, who received his law degree from Yeshiva University in 1981. “He went out of his way to treat two law students that he didn’t know with the utmost dignity, consideration and thoughtfulness about how we might learn more before we became lawyers.”

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Weinstein moved with his family to Brooklyn as a child. He appeared as a young actor in a Broadway play and helped pay his way through Brooklyn College by working on the docks. In 1943, he joined the Navy and served in the Pacific on a submarine. Even in wartime, his sense of justice was evident.

While Weinstein remained proud of serving in “a great war for freedom,” he also harbored guilt, seven decades after the fact, for his submarine’s role in torpedoing and sinking a Japanese cruiser. “It had about a thousand Japanese sailors aboard. I’ve since thought about those men and their deaths, and regretted it, as I regret war generally,” Weinstein said in a 2014 video interview.

Weinstein graduated from Columbia Law School in 1948 and became a law professor there in the 1950s. Future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was among his students, and a New York Times obituary of Weinstein noted that at a 2015 event, she “approvingly referred to him as ‘indomitable.’”

While teaching at Columbia, Weinstein assisted in researching and drafting the NAACP’s legal brief in Brown v. Board of Education. “My role was of the most minor degree,” he recalled with characteristic humility.

Serving in the Eastern District of New York’s Brooklyn courthouse, Weinstein became a recognized author in courtroom procedure. Starting in 1979, while presiding over a class-action lawsuit filed by Vietnam veterans exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange, he essentially rewrote the book on how federal courts manage mass litigation.

As recalled in a 2017 Moments in History video, Weinstein traveled around the country gathering testimony on the impact of Agent Orange, and then pioneered the use of court-appointed special masters to hear testimony from litigants. In 1984, as the case was nearing trial, the chemical companies settled by creating a $180 million reparations fund.

“The veterans were treated dreadfully at that time,” Weinstein said in an interview. “I as a veteran had a great deal of empathy for them.” 

While some critics painted Weinstein as overreaching in his approach to mass tort litigation, his process was replicated in federal courts around the country. Weinstein personally presided over mass torts cases involving manufacturers of asbestos, the anti-miscarriage drug DES (diethylstilbestrol), tobacco products, and handguns.

“The things that Judge Weinstein has done in the world of mass torts has had implications far beyond his courtroom,” said Les Fagen, who served as a law clerk for Weinstein. “He developed a body of law for how to settle and resolve mass torts which other courts and other litigants are following.”

Weinstein’s management of the Agent Orange case had a more personal impact for Phillip Case, a Vietnam veteran. “Thank God for people like Judge Weinstein,” he said in 2017, “because little guys like us didn’t stand a chance.”

A statement from the Eastern District of New York, where Weinstein served as chief judge from 1980 to 1988, provided a long list of his innovations.

“He transformed the way in which magistrate judges were utilized in case management, raising their experience, profile, and visibility in ways that attracted increasingly qualified individuals, a trend replicated nationally,” Chief Judge Brodie wrote.

“He oversaw the implementation of a court-annexed arbitration and mediation program, a novelty at the time that has become a model for the rest of the country and, indeed, the world; he created the Eastern District Pro Bono Panel and the Eastern District Civil Litigation Fund to support pro bono representation of civil litigants, another innovation that was soon copied in other federal and state courts; and, in keeping with his concern that indigent persons be properly represented, he created the Criminal Justice Act Committee to ensure that the Constitutional guarantee of a right to representation in criminal cases is meaningfully afforded to indigent defendants.”

Weinstein also was a prolific scholar who wrote several books, including such legal profession standards as the multivolume New York Civil Practice and Weinstein’s Federal Evidence.

In and out of court, Weinstein embraced an everyman informality aimed at putting people at ease in a courtroom. He wore a suit into court and sometimes stepped away from the bench so that he could see proceedings from the viewpoints of others.

At a June 18 memorial service, Weinstein’s oldest son, Seth, recalled that “he sentenced people sitting not from the high bench but across the table. Explaining to them what the sentence was, what it was for, and how they could redeem their lives.”

In 2017, the Eastern District dedicated its ceremonial courtroom in Brooklyn in Weinstein’s name, and in 2020, at the age of 98, he retired as a judge.

“I would like to be remembered for trying to work with individuals to help them avoid the life-killing environment of prisons,” he told the New York Times, “and to save them for a life with relatives and friends, with a job, and with the opportunity to lead a lawful life.”

Weinstein’s wife of 66 years, the former Evelyn Horowitz, died in 2012. Two years later, he married Susan Berk. In addition to his wife, survivors include three sons from his first marriage, Seth, Michael, and Howard Weinstein; two stepchildren, Ronnie Rosenberg and Stephanie Berlin; and two grandchildren.

Related Topics: A Lifetime of Service, Judges & Judgeships, Judicial History

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Federal judges are working to make highly sought-after law clerkships and judicial internships more accessible to a diverse pool of law students.

Among the hiring tools are a digital hiring platform, partnerships with legal organizations, and outreach events for potential applicants.

“Diversity on the bench and among our courtroom and chambers staff is critical to serving a diverse population,” said Judge Raymond A. Jackson, of the Eastern District of Virginia. “It’s important that the court is reflective of the community it serves.”

Judiciary clerkships and internships are highly coveted positions in which law school students and recent graduates gain valuable career experience and directly assist judges in legal work, such as drafting memoranda, orders, and opinions.

“Taking steps to broaden the range of applicants that we receive for clerkships helps make the process more equitable for people of different backgrounds and gives more people a pathway into a career in the legal field that may not otherwise be available to them,” said Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain, of the Southern District of New York.

“My clerkship with Judge Constance Baker Motley, the first African American woman to serve on the federal bench, shaped my understanding of the intersection of law and life, and of how service to the federal Judiciary as a law clerk can open doors to professional opportunities for people from all backgrounds,” she said. 

Many judges are using the recently updated Online System for Clerkship Application and Review (OSCAR), an online database that enables candidates to upload applications and send them to all judges with open clerkship positions. OSCAR’s improved user-friendly interface makes the application and selection process easier than ever for judges and prospective clerks.

“OSCAR makes the hiring process more accessible and transparent, giving judges the opportunity to view applicants of all backgrounds from law schools across the country,” Swain said. “The service effectively broadens the applicant pool beyond a posting to the court’s website or through word of mouth, making it more likely to attract a diverse group of highly qualified candidates.” 

Chief Judge Juan R. Sánchez, of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, is mindful not to limit his clerkship hiring criteria to certain law schools, class rankings, or general experiences.

“There are many qualifications that make a great law clerk, and by keeping an open mind, I am able to find talented law clerks with a variety of different backgrounds and experiences,” Sánchez said. “I’ve been able to select for these interviews bright people with excellent academic records, compelling personal stories, and unique experiences from a broad spectrum of candidates. The key is to invest the time to look through all of the applications. I choose not to overlook candidates, and because of this, I’ve been successful in hiring law clerks who reflect the many communities the Judiciary serves.”

To make the judicial clerkship hiring process more transparent and uniform, some judges are also participating in the Judiciary’s Federal Law Clerk Hiring Pilot Plan. The voluntary plan, extended through June 2022, ensures that all judges receive applications on the same day and gives them a 24-hour window to review applications before they can begin the interview process. The plan also delays the hiring of students for clerkships until after their second year of law school.

“Law school deans have told me that the plan has led to a more diverse pool of applicants and has helped level the playing field, especially as to those law students who enter law school without any background in the law and really shine in their second year of law school,” said Judge Robert A. Katzmann, of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, who sits on the Ad Hoc Committee on Law Clerk Hiring, which works to make the hiring process more transparent and uniform.

Remote interviewing prompted by the pandemic helped eliminate travel costs of in-person interviewing, and many judges look to continue the option beyond the pandemic to help alleviate the financial burdens that travel may impose on applicants.

Judges also regularly attend events geared to getting people interested in the law, often partnering with law schools, local bar associations, and pipeline organizations to generate a pool of qualified applicants from different backgrounds.

“Exposing students to the law early on through outreach, internships, and collaboration with bar associations and pipeline organizations is key to building a more diverse Judiciary and diverse group of legal professionals,” said Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Bailey, of the District of Massachusetts. “I enjoy participating in these events and showing young people that a career in the law or as a judge is attainable. I like to tell students that ‘judges put their pants on one leg at a time too.’”

Pipeline organizations, like Just the Beginning (JTB), encourage students from underrepresented groups to pursue careers and leadership opportunities in the law. For the past 10 years, the Judiciary has partnered with JTB to expand the pool of qualified applicants for judges to consider for judicial internships. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the 92 students selected for internships last summer were transitioned to virtual work with judges across the country.

Some judges also participate in JTB’s Share the Wealth Clerkship Program, which acts as a selection and referral program to help judges attract diverse candidates for clerkships. Judge Jackson, who has worked with JTB for the last 15 years, currently serves as the clerkship program coordinator helping to arrange interviews for candidates with interested judges.

“Having people from different cultural backgrounds working alongside you changes perceptions and broadens your understanding of the world around you,” Bailey said. “The National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges has had an excellent experience partnering with groups like Just the Beginning to help us diversify the pipeline of applicants applying for opportunities in the courts.”

Some judges say that a more diverse workplace makes them better judges in the long run.

“Each of us are shaped by our own unique life experiences, and those life experiences shape our decision-making,” Jackson said. “Working with people of different life experiences better shapes our understanding of the unique circumstances facing the many different people that appear before the court.”

Related Topics: Judges & Judgeships