By MSC Public Information Office
“Take it one step at a time.” This age-old advice rings true in
many circumstances.
In particular, it could describe the longtime collaboration
between the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Tribal Court, headed by
Chief Judge Allie Greenleaf Maldonado, and Emmet County Probate Court, which
was run by Judge Frederick Mulhauser until his recent retirement.
When Michigan’s judiciary initially embraced the model of problem-
solving courts, the mentality was that of a careful process of building strong
and effective programs to provide nonviolent offenders an alternative to
incarceration. Almost 20 years later, Michigan’s problem-solving courts have
become national leaders and emblematic of the importance of collaboration and
community effort.
Similarly, the emphasis on building— rather than jumping—to
success, combined with a commitment to collaboration, applies to the
partnership of these two courts. During their 20-year collaboration on juvenile
drug court and court school initiatives, specifically, their small steps have
turned into big leaps of progress.
Collaboration between Chief Judge Maldonado’s court and Judge
Mulhauser’s court came out of community-based thinking, as well as
understanding the unique aspects of both the Native community there, and
Northern Michigan’s unique community as a whole.
“I live here, I raised my kids here, and I know that
statistically, the other kids who live here are going to stay here,” said Judge
Mulhauser. “It’s in our best interest that we all function as cooperatively and
helpfully as possible.”
Taking shape in the early 2000s, Judge Mulhauser’s court became
one of the first courts in Michigan to embrace a juvenile drug court program
model and a court school. As an effort to not only administrate justice, but
also to help participants build successful lives, Judge Mulhauser’s innovative
court programs have allowed young participants to enter back into the community
with tools to succeed and thrive, using techniques similar to the peacemaking
strategies used in tribal courts across the state.
Being familiar with Judge Mulhauser’s programs and the peacemaking
approach, Chief Judge Maldonado saw potential for their application in her own
court.
“Because the number of Little Traverse Bay Bands Tribal citizens
is so small in our area, we can’t afford to discount anyone. When people come
through the criminal justice system, the typical ‘winner-takes-all’ scenarios
are really ‘loser’ scenarios because the impact bleeds into the community very
quickly.”
But now in the courts, she said, “There’s a real effort to help
people not just be accountable for their actions, but to look at how they got
where they are, and help them not become a repeat offender. I think that
everybody’s coming around to the tribal view that rehabilitation is really
important, too.”
Developing the tailored programming and initiatives these programs
utilize today took time and a bit of trial and error—no pun intended.
“I started my job in 1989, when there was no tribal court to speak
of. I’ve worked with several tribal judges during my time in the court,
attending meetings with their court personnel, probation staffs, and child care
staffs, in order to share our goal for these kids to recover, become
productive, and have a meaningful life,” explained Judge Mulhauser.
“Progress came from a series of baby steps; it wasn’t a grand vision.
It was what didn’t work, what might’ve worked, and what we could put on top of
that.”
As time progressed, collaboration between these two courts
flourished, with Judge Mulhauser’s court utilizing the Little Traverse Bay
Bands’ successful sobriety court programs and Chief Judge Maldonado’s court
using Emmet County’s well-developed court school program.
“Once they are in our court, we have worked to utilize the
resources Judge Mulhauser put in place in Emmet County—the number one thing
being his court school. His court school is innovative, it’s groundbreaking,
and it’s a model that the rest of the state, if not the country, should look
to,” remarked Chief Judge Maldonado.
The court school and juvenile drug treatment court programs focus
on adolescent brain development and developing treatment plans that improve the
youth’s functioning while addressing educational and vocational skills
deficits. These plans take into account personal, emotional, and family
problems.
Through social activities and supportive environments, the kids
who enter and exit the drug treatment court are provided with a variety of
tools to deal with their issues. The programs try
to cater much of their programming to each individual child, which
often comes in the form of Native American cultural activities for many of
Chief Judge Maldonado’s cases.
“They often do basket making. There’s an opportunity to pick sweet
grass in the summertime, and they can harvest birch bark for traditional basket
making. We also have ghost suppers, where the kids might serve or are in charge
of making sure the fire is lit,” she shared. “If you can pull them back into
their community and give them a role and help them understand who they are and
what their place is in the world, that sense of identity and pride helps them
feel better and achieve more.”
It is the smaller steps such as these that have helped build up
their shared community through restorative justice. Judge Mulhauser and Chief
Judge Maldonado note that they have often been seen as both judges and social
workers, as a result.
“Most judges do not enter their work with a social worker’s
mentality, which I find is still missing in our court system. If you are going
to be effective, you have to start wondering about how you can create effective solutions,” said
Judge Mulhauser.
Chief Judge Maldonado recalled, “I had a probation officer who
used to call me the ‘chief social worker,’ because I was always looking for
accountability, but more importantly, for solutions to problems.”
“I want to change the entire child welfare system in this
country,” she continued. “I would like us to look at child welfare through a
problem-solving lens. Seeing what Judge Mulhauser has built has made me braver,
and it has made me think outside the box.”
Judge Mulhauser shared, “I’ve had many instances where judges from
around the state have wanted to come and see our court school. Often times,
they say, ‘Wow! How do you do what you are doing? I don’t think that we could
do it.’ They are defeated by the concept of not being able to pull it off. And
I always say to them, ‘Don’t start here; start with what you can do and then do
a little more. Whatever you do is going to be better than what you’ve already
got.’”
Both courts continue to work together to build success stories and
impact their community, as a whole—one step and one child at a time.
Chief Judge Maldonado encapsulates why this collaboration has been
successful by sharing an Odawa quote: “Do not condemn the person with a
problem, but show them friendship and compassion. If we only look at the person
and the problem with anger or hate, nothing will ever be accomplished.”
Read more in “Michigan’s
Judiciary Success Stories: How Tribal, State, and Federal Courts Are
Collaborating to Benefit Michigan Families.”