I have ben a part of the criminal justice system as public defender, private attorney, court commissioner, and trial judge for almost forty years. But my career did not really begin until I was asked to take over the “Drug Court” Calendar then existing in Oakland in 1990.
For the past twenty-five years i have been a trial judge (when not in Washington D.C. or traveling around the nation and the world as founding president and President Emeritusn of NADCP). My great passion has been the development of Community-Based court rehabilitation systems.
My experience is long and wide. I created, implemented and presided over the Oakland Drug Court in 1990 and the San Francisco Reentry Court in 2010. I was founding President of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) in 1994, (moving in 1996 to D.C. to be the on-site leader of the field), created the National Drug Court Institute (NDCI was formally initiated in the Rosevelt Room at the White House on December 10, 1997), and prsided over the International Association of Drug Court Professionals, begun in 1998.
Since returning from Washington D.C.in 2001, I have sat in over fifty courthouses in California, and in over twenty (20) Community Based Courts (and consulted with) more than two dozen Community Based or Problem-Solving Courts throughout California.
I have had an extraordinarily diverse experience as a problem-solving bench officer and have written extensive on the subject of Commuity-Based Courts (on a theoretical, practical and personal levels; see Website Archives). I continue to sit as a trail judge in the California Courts.
The video below is a snapshot of what Commmunity Based Courts aspire to, and specifically what the San Frncisco Reentry Court often was like. It is part of a 28 part tutorial I have created for my YouTube channel, Jeff Tauber (also found at reentrycourtsolutions)
