The Tennesean | 12/26/2009 | Kate Howard

Sometimes, probation and a little community service just doesn’t cut it.

That’s why Judge Dan Eisenstein gets a little creative when first offenders walk into his courtroom. He’s among the judges who believe something that hits closer to home will be a better rehabilitator than simply imposing community service.

So if 19-year-olds, still teenagers, come in on a shoplifting charge, he makes them come back with a parent and talk about why they did it. First-timer on drug possession? An essay on all the innocent people killed by drug lords in Mexico ought to make ‘em think.

"If you’re going to give someone probation, or a diversionary sentence, you have to actually change something," said Eisenstein, who is the presiding judge in Davidson County General Sessions Court. "You can’t just have them do public service if they’re charged with theft or simple possession because it doesn’t change their thought processes and behaviors."

Eisenstein often has morning dockets with a dozen people coming in to complete their plea deal and turn in their essay. He and his staff choose the best essays and ask the offenders to read them aloud at the podium.

Occasionally, someone who isn’t chosen still asks to read.

"I had one, a young man who had been using marijuana, who wanted to read his essay," Eisenstein said. "He read it to me and told me he had used marijuana for a number of years and never thought much about it. When he started to research, it finally dawned on him that he was hurting other people. He told me he stopped. I believed him."

This type of creative alternative doesn’t apply to anyone with a long criminal history or a serious charge. And though the idea is often thought provoking, it doesn’t always work.

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Mark Fishburn was so disturbed by the messages on Austin Bean’s MySpace page — derogatory language about police officers — that he proposed in January 2008 that Bean stand on the corner outside the police station with a sign reading, "Respect the police. They are not pigs as stated on my MySpace page."

His attorney appealed, saying it wasn’t rehabilitative, but simply punishment for exercising his right to free speech. It became moot when Bean was charged with an armed robbery and sent to serve a two-year prison term.

‘Take another direction’

"You hope through what you tell them in court, you can keep them on the straight and narrow at least long enough for probation to kick in," Fishburn said. "You want to give them the opportunity to see a different life, take another direction. I’m not sure it would’ve worked with him looking back on it, but unfortunately, I don’t have a crystal ball."

Fishburn, the presiding judge in Davidson County’s criminal trial courts, says when jail time really isn’t appropriate and he knows the person is unlikely to reoffend, he looks for a way he can ease the pain for the victim’s families.

He once presided over a case of a man who flicked a cigarette down an alley and, unbeknownst to him, caught a homeless man on fire.

The defendant had no criminal history and was unlikely to ever commit such a crime again, Fishburn believed.

The man suffered serious burns, Fishburn remembered, and moved to Memphis to be cared for by family. He ordered the man to go to Memphis and meet with the family and find ways he could help that weren’t monetary.

Though this arrangement was made several years ago, Fishburn said, the two men are still in touch.

(Although much is admirable about this I can’t help but think that forcing someone to write an essay full of propaganda is necessarily the best way to go :rolleyes:~ GG)