Contributing Authors: Kirsten Pabst, NDAA Well-being Task Force Chair with Andrew Laue, L.C.S.W.

Do you ever come home after a long day at the office and just feel a little heavy, kind of off? Your day wasn’t particularly bad on the prosecutor scale, so you mentally run through your line-up of victim meetings, interviews and hearings. You can’t quite pinpoint what is causing the pit in your stomach and, even though you are home and supposed to feel joy, this disquietude is weighing you down like an invisible radiation blanket.

The Resiliency Toolbox

Transition rituals are one of the many tools we keep in our resiliency toolbox. Like transmission fluid in the engine of your car, this tool facilitates gears shifts between work and home, and is a great way to practice keeping work where it belongs — at work. …

Contributing Author: John Hollway, Senior Fellow (Positive Psychology Center) & Associate Dean and Executive Director (Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice)

The latest version of this article was written on November 2, 2020.

One night in late 2008, my son and I were watching TV, and one of those little news blurbs came on during a commercial. “Drought in Marin, news at 10.” I was getting a glass of water and didn’t pay much attention to it, but when I sat down next to my son, he looked a little ashen.

“Hey bud, you OK?”

He was not particularly OK. “Dad, do you even WATCH the news? There’s a drought in Marin. The economy is going terribly, thousands of people are losing their jobs.” He paused. “And then there’s the nuclear threat.” …

Contributing Author: Mary Ashley, NDAA Well-being Task Force Vice Chair

Boy Dies in Own Filth in Locked Room; Dad and Fiancée Charged

- Headline from the Associated Press, September 14, 2020 from Anneville, Pennsylvania

These are the headlines that still get me. They are the ones, no matter what state they take place in, that compel me to keep reading. I know what they are going to say but I read them anyway. These cases cause a physical reaction inside of me as I am reading them, with heat rising up my neck and to my face. …

Contributing Author: Jennifer Webb-McRae, County Prosecutor, Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

-Samuel Beckett

As a person who has spent 25 years practicing within the field of criminal justice (as a defense attorney and now as a County Prosecutor), I don’t watch crime shows. …

Contributing Authors: Brittany Scordo, MSW, Director of Victim Services, Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office & Lou Anna Red Corn, Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney, Task Force Member

He beat her, he strangled her, he smeared excrement on her face, and told her he would kill her. She played dead and lived. You just negotiated a very good resolution in this attempted murder/kidnapping case that will result in a long prison term for the offender. The survivor spoke directly to the court and the offender during the on-line video sentencing hearing. Afterwards, she told the advocate and you how empowering it was for her.

You should feel good too — but instead you’re exhausted. …

Contributing Author: Tracy M. Prior, San Diego County Chief Deputy District Attorney, San Diego (CA)

Simply put, discouraging warrants to compel domestic violence victims to court is the best practice for providing the best trauma-informed treatment of victims. Even further, prosecutorial agencies should adopt protocols and policies that address the compulsion of victims to court and think through the scenario that may happen when warrants are issued for domestic violence victims. Prosecutor offices are strongly encouraged to require approval from the elected District Attorney or a high supervisory level employee prior to requesting a warrant for a domestic violence victim.

There are many things prosecutors can do short of asking that a warrant be issued for a domestic violence victim’s failure to…

Contributing Author: Kirsten H. Pabst, NDAA Well-being Task Force Chair

Find your calm in 5 easy steps

Ever wonder why some lawyers always seem so in control, so chill, so . . . crushing life? They walk into court, making eye contact with the court reporter, smiling at the bailiff, impressing the judge. Have you ever thought,

“She must not work child abuse cases, or you’d see the weight of that on her face. Lucky.”

“He must have well-behaved kids who never puke at daycare, zero-balance on his student loans, and parents not negotiating the Medicare maze.”

“I’d be that happy too if I didn’t have to respond to these asinine briefs by 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. The judge just doesn’t get that I have other cases.” …

Contributing Author: Tracy M. Prior, San Diego County Chief Deputy District Attorney, San Diego (CA)

Imagine a domestic violence victim who has survived abuse at the hands of a lifelong partner. Children witnessed the abuse for years, and the victim finally had the courage to report the abuse; yet as many victims do, pulled back once the system took hold. …