Justice Speaks Podcast Episode #50

In this episode, Justice Speaks continues a series about State Treatment Court Associations.  This episode is sponsored by Reconnect.  In this episode, we interview Judge Andrew Gill and Ms. Janet Hawley representing the Arkansas Drug Court Professionals Association (ADCPA).

Leadership in ADCPA  

Judge Gill is the current president of ADCPA and Ms. Hawley is the Drug Court Coordinator for the State of Arkansas.  

Judge Gill has been a Circuit Court (general jurisdiction) judge for three years and he presides over Perry and Pulaski counties which encompasses the city of Little Rock as well as one of smallest counties in Arkansas.  As a result, his docket is a mix of urban and rural cases.  Prior to that, he spent eight years as a District Court (limited Jurisdiction) judge in Perry County where he grew up.  Before becoming a judge, he was an assistant prosecutor in Saline County  where as part of his duties he was assigned to the Treatment Court cases.  He did not start out to be a lawyer, but discovered there not a wide range of job opportunities for individuals with philosophy degrees. 

Ms. Hawley is the state Drug Court coordinator at the Administrative Office of the Court for Specialty Courts (AOC). She has worked in and for Specialty Courts for twelve years.   Like Judge Gill she started working with Specialty Courts in Pulaski county for four years.  From there she moved to the Specialty Court in Saline County.  After working in Saline County she took a position with the AOC where she has been for the last five years.    

Judge Gill started working with Specialty Courts when he was a prosecutor and when he became a general jurisdiction judge he became the backup judge for the Specialty Court in Pulaski County.  He became a board member of ADCPA when he was a prosecutor and remained on the board as a Judge.   The Association has a view that the president should be a judge as it helps with the legislature and encouraging other judges to be involved.  He recently stepped forward to become the president.

The ADCPA Annual Conference

Ms. Hawley then discuss how the AOC partners with ADCPA.  Her office supports the Association’s events, particularly the annual conference.   She describes how the ADCPA started in 2007 and the current Chief Justice John Dan Kemp was one of the early board members.   

Judge Gill then discusses how an individual becomes a member of the association by attending the conference. He noted that the ADCPA had their largest conference ever in the week prior to our interview.  He mentions how they missed two years dues to COVID and goes on to describe how they restarted in-person attendance in 2022. 

Ms. Hawley then explains how the two day conference works.  To start each day, they have a plenary session and then for the afternoon, they have breakout tracks for veterans, juvenile, adult and DWI/Drug Courts.  She says the most moving part of the conference is the Parade of Graduates.  She describes the success of several of the graduates.

Judge Gill explains that most of the information about the conference is shared internally, but that they do have a Facebook page and the AOC has a dedicated page about the conference and Specialty Courts. He goes on to discuss how the ADCPA is working on expanding services for its members, including new forms for specialty courts and creating mentor courts to assist newly forming courts.  Arkansas now has Drug Courts in fifty of the seventy-five counties with a total of one hundred and five Specialty Courts.

Successes and Challenges 

Judge Gill says the greatest accomplishment of the Association is the expansion of their membership.  He goes on to explain that their greatest challenge is funding for the courts, particularly for the public defenders.  

Ms. Hawley agrees that funding is a challenge and goes on to explain another challenge is keeping up with the continuing evolution of Treatment Courts.  New research and best practices continue to move the courts forward.  However, she believes the number one issue is that they are not able to provide the necessary education to keep up with the research on best practices.  The AOC has evaluated twenty-five of the Arkansas Specialty Courts in the last year.  

Finally, Judge Gill expects the ADCPA to continue to grow and for the Specialty Courts to become more uniform in their practices.  Ms. Hawley too is excited about the growth of specialty courts, mentioning how the Chief Justice supports the expansion.  She see the rural courts as a growth area.

We wish to thank Judge Gill and Ms. Hawley for sharing their unique experiences with ADCPA and Arkansas Specialty Courts.  We also wish to thank Reconnect for sponsoring this podcast episode.

Additional Resource

You can also watch this interview by going to the Justice Speakers Institutes’ YouTube Channel or by clicking here.