U.S. District Court Chief Magistrate Judge Deborah Smith speaks to Dr. Lepage's class about reentry courts

Chief Magistrate Judge Deborah Smith of the U.S. District Court for Alaska spoke to Dr. Cory Lepage's JUST 490 Alternative Methods of Adjudication students on March 10. Chief  Magistrate Judge Smith discussed the federal reentry court, the Alaska Hope Court, which was established in 2015.

Alaska Hope Court participants are selected and invited to join the program; these individuals are federal offenders who are on supervised release from prison, many of whom have substance abuse problems. Reentry courts offer assistance to released offenders and have been shown to impact recidivism.

The launch of this first federal reentry court in Alaska was spearheaded by Chief Magistrate Judge Smith; Rich Curtner, Federal Defender; Karen Loeffler, U.S. Attorney; and Matthew Jedrosko, Chief of the U.S. Probation Office.

U.S. District Court Chief Magistrate Judge Deborah Smith speaks to students about reentry courts.