Justice Speaks Podcast Episode #46

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 Melanie G. May representing the Florida Association of Drug Court Professionals (FADCP).

In the Beginning

Judge May is the Acting Chair of the FADCP and a former Chair of the National Association  of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP).  She was appointed to the bench in 1991 in Fort Lauderdale Florida.  After four year on the bench, in 1995, she was asked to take on the Drug Court docket which is how she became involved in Treatment Courts.  Her court was the second or third created in the country and she was the second judge to serve on that court.  During that time she helped to create FADCP.

Judge May explains that after that she was appointed to the Florida Court of Appeals in 2001 and that her only regret from the appointment was giving up presiding over her Drug Court.  Judge May, also discusses how large her Drug Court was, starting with 400 participants and ending up with the largest treatment court in the country at 1,800.

Leadership in FADCP  

Judge May then discusses how she and Judge Evans from Tampa started the Florida Association in the late 1990s.  In 2008, the downturn in the economy hurt the Association and so the they held their conferences with the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association. In 2019, FADCP began doing conference on their own again.

Judge May mentions how they got a grant to put on a conference in 2019, however, after that came COVID, which of course created significant issues on holding a conference. During that time,  Judge Jeri Beth Cohen, a NADCP Stanley Goldstein award winner, retired from the bench and as FADCP’s president.  So Judge May once again became the Chair of the Association.

FADCP has started to do networking sessions and virtual presentations and has regrown the Association to several hundred members. With COVID now in the past, they have started planning for an in person conference in the spring of 2024.  FADCP’s focus is to grow the membership and improve training.

Legislative Support for Treatment Courts

Judge May then talks about how the legislature gave twenty million dollars to fund Florida Drug Courts.  As a result, Florida created post-adjudication Drug Treatment Courts. The Legislature then funded a study to determine the effectiveness of those courts. The study concluded that they were very successful. Given their success, the Legislature continues to fund these courts.  One of FADCP’s goals is to have one of these courts in every jurisdiction in the state. FADCP is also working on expanding re-entry courts and training all judges in Florida on Problem Solving Court techniques.  

We wish to thank Judge May for sharing her  unique experiences with FADCP and how it is changing criminal justice in Florida.  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.