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APRIL 2006

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PHOTO BY ALEX LUMELSKY<br />

taking a stand<br />

Judge Diane Dickow D’ Agostini fights the early release of prisoners<br />

Diane Dickow D’Agostini wasn’t fishing around<br />

for attention. But her stance against a proposed<br />

plan to reduce jail overcrowding has given her<br />

the limelight, whether she likes it or not.<br />

The plan, a joint local administrative order from<br />

Oakland County Chief Circuit Judge Wendy Potts, would<br />

give local judges more control over which prisoners are<br />

released early when the Oakland County Jail is overcrowded.<br />

The Bloomfield Hills-based 48th District Court, of<br />

which D’Agostini is chief justice, is the only district or circuit<br />

court in the county that has refused to participate.<br />

Under the current state statue, when overcrowding occurs<br />

at the jail it is up to the chief circuit judge — currently Potts<br />

— to decide whose sentences should be reduced, and thus<br />

released early. Under the proposed change, Potts would send<br />

a list of prisoners proposed for early release to Oakland<br />

County’s 55 judges, who would have veto power. The proposal<br />

is now before the state Supreme Court, which will<br />

decide if it is enacted.<br />

“Crisis” overcrowding occurred last summer and fall,<br />

which meant that about 200 prisoners were released early<br />

each time, Potts said.<br />

“I got some calls from judges saying, ‘I wish you wouldn’t<br />

have let so-and-so out,’” said Potts. “This gives the<br />

judges more control and poses less of a risk to the public.”<br />

DIFFERENT VIEW<br />

D’Agostini sees it differently. For one thing, she believes<br />

judges do not and should not have a say in jail matters.<br />

Administrative orders are not meant to supersede laws, she<br />

said. “Since when are judges given the authority to give an<br />

order that’s in conflict with a state statute? If I start changing<br />

decisions I made a week or two ago, that is compromising<br />

my duty to the public,” she said. “Once we agree to this,<br />

there will never be a solution to jail overcrowding.”<br />

D’Agostini compares the plan to telling police officers to<br />

stop making arrests or prosecutors to dismiss criminal cases<br />

when the jail is overcrowded. She offers no opinion of what<br />

should be done to alleviate overcrowding, saying that is the<br />

BY JOYCE WISWELL<br />

job of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners. “If I<br />

start worrying about overcrowding, I’m not doing my job,”<br />

she said.<br />

The judge also takes issue with the proposal’s plan for<br />

bonds. Inmates with bonds of less than $500 would be given<br />

personal bonds (no fee) and bonds would be cut in half for<br />

those whose offenses are not violent, a felony or involve<br />

drunk driving.<br />

“I set the bond for a reason, including a criminal record<br />

and flight risk,” D’Agostini said.<br />

D’Agostini was an assistant prosecutor before becoming<br />

a judge in 2001. Her duties included arguing against the<br />

parole of numerous prisoners. “I know the reality — people<br />

do re-offend,” she said.<br />

NOT ALONE<br />

Though hers is the only court refusing to participate in the<br />

plan, D’Agostini is not the only judge who opposes it. (The<br />

48th District’s three judges voted 2-1 to not participate;<br />

D’Agostini said she doesn’t know what she would have done<br />

had the vote gone the other way.) Five of the 11 judges in<br />

the Troy-based 52nd District Court also voted against the<br />

plan, said Chief Justice William Bolle, who has gone along<br />

with the majority’s wishes. Though he declined to say how<br />

he voted, it is clear that Bolle has some issues with the plan.<br />

“She makes some pretty valid points,” he said of D’Agostini.<br />

“This is an attempt to provide a solution to a very bad,<br />

serious problem that will not go away,” Bolle said. “We need<br />

more jail space and the reality is we aren’t going to get it<br />

because of the county’s economic situation.”<br />

D’Agostini said store owners will be greatly affected by<br />

the new plan. “Merchants will be very much impacted<br />

because those persons [such as who commit theft] are considered<br />

low-risk,” she said.<br />

The judge seems a bit surprised over the reaction to the<br />

stand she has taken. “I did not expect that this would<br />

receive this much attention,” D’Agostini said. “But it<br />

should — it’s about public safety and the law. I will stand up<br />

for what I believe in.”<br />

A CHALDEAN-<br />

AMERICAN<br />

JUDGE<br />

Diane Dickow D’ Agostini was<br />

named chief justice of the<br />

48th District Court in<br />

December 2005. She plans<br />

to run for reelection to the<br />

bench in November, and said<br />

she loves her work.<br />

“ It is so rewarding when<br />

people give you their vote, trusting<br />

your judgment,” she said.<br />

She keeps a thick file stuffed<br />

with letters from defendants she<br />

has convicted and sentenced, in<br />

which they thank her for treating<br />

them with respect and dignity.<br />

“ This is a rewarding position<br />

because you can really help<br />

people,” she said. “ You can<br />

address their problems, place<br />

them into an alcohol or drug<br />

program — even order them to<br />

go back to school.”<br />

D’ Agostini spends a lot of<br />

time in the schools of the<br />

cities the court serves —<br />

West Bloomfield, Bloomfield<br />

Hills, Birmingham, Keego<br />

Harbor, Sylvan Lake and<br />

Orchard Lake — speaking to<br />

students on laws and their<br />

penalties. She sometimes<br />

metes out sentences to drug,<br />

drunk-driving or theft offenders<br />

right in the middle and<br />

high schools so students can<br />

see the consequences.<br />

“ I really advocate teaching<br />

kids about the law at an early<br />

age, she said. “ I see a rooted<br />

lack of respect for the law, especially<br />

with underage drinking.”<br />

She also has created Order<br />

in the Court, a program where<br />

fourth-grades classes watch<br />

actual cases, then hold their<br />

own mock trials.<br />

Remembering those victimized<br />

by crime is important to<br />

D’ Agostini, whose father, Salim<br />

Dickow, was murdered at his<br />

store when she was 7 years<br />

old. “ I don’ t think my father’ s<br />

death shaped my judicial philosophy,”<br />

she said, “ but my<br />

personal experience opened a<br />

window for me to look into a<br />

victim’ s life and know what<br />

they are feeling.”<br />

<strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2006</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 31

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