Nancy White

Every year around Thanksgiving, I start to think about all of the families who have loved ones serving time in jail/prison during the holiday season. For these families it is not a time of joyous holiday festivities it is a significant time of sadness in their lives. Sadness that all of the family is not around the Thanksgiving table, celebrating the season.

It has been a long time since I have contributed to the ACA Blog. Corrections Behavioral Health is busy during the spring and early summer months.

As I sit at my desk, the day before Thanksgiving, the start of the holiday season, I think of all the things in my life that I am most thankful for. Included in my thoughts is the fact that I am not incarcerated. Not that I have ever done anything to be incarcerated for, but after working in the criminal justice system for over 30 years, the fact that I can go home to my own life after work, is something that I am very thankful for.

It seems like when the “day goes wrong” in the criminal justice system, it really goes wrong. I have been spending a great deal of time thinking about just how to write this blog. Then I realized I had been thinking about it for a month, and it is just time to write.

I have blogged in the past, about Mental Health Court and the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program. I recently had the honor to meet and hear speak a “true champion” for the cause, The Honorable Mark A. Speiser, Judge in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida.