Wednesday Series II: EBP to Reduce Recidivism: Implications for State Judiciaries

Justice Christine Durham has been on the Utah Supreme Court since 1982, and has served as Chief Justice and Chair of the Utah Judicial Council since 2002. She previously served on the state trial court after a number of years in private practice. She received her A.B. with honors from Wellesley College and a J.D. from Duke University, where she is an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees. Currently she is President of the Conference of Chief Justices of the United States and chairs the Board of Directors for the National Center for State Courts. She also serves on the American Bar Association’s Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the entity that accredits American law schools. She is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Association. Past professional service includes the governing boards of the American Inns of Court Foundation, the Appellate Judges Conference of the ABA, the Rand Corporation’s Institute for Civil Justice, the ABA’s Commission on Women in the Profession, and the Federal Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure. She is also a past president of the National Association of Women Judges, and was that organization’s Honoree of the Year in 1997. Justice Durham has been active in judicial education, and was a founder of the Leadership Institute in Judicial Education. She helped create and lead the Utah Coalition for Civic Character and Service Education and serves on the Utah Commission on Civic Education. She was an adjunct professor for many years at the University of Utah College of Law, teaching state constitutional law, and served for twelve years on the Utah Constitutional Revision Commission. She has received honorary degrees from four Utah universities and has been recognized nationally for her work in judicial education and efforts to improve the administration of justice. In 2007 she received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence; and in 2008 she received the “Transparent Courthouse” Award for contributions to judicial accountability and administration from the Institute for the Advancement of the Legal System at the University of Denver.

Mr. Bouch is a professional court administrator with over 40 years of experience in limited and general jurisdiction trial courts. Prior to his appointment as the Executive Officer for the Superior Court of California, County of Napa, he has held virtually every type of court administrative post in the profession. In addition to being the chief executive officer for trial courts in California and Washington, he served as a regional trial court administrator in Idaho, and Deputy Administrative Director of the Alaska State Court System. For seven years he was a senior consultant with the National Center for State Courts where his project work focused on case-flow management and delay reduction, organizational development, and performance management for courts nationally and internationally. He has served on the faculty of the Institute for Court Management, the National Council for Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the National Judicial College and the adjunct faculty of Michigan State University. He received his mediation training from the Strauss School of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University, has a Bachelors of Arts degree from California State University - San Jose, and is a Graduate Fellow of the Institute for Court Management. For the past three years, he has been deeply involved in the implementation of evidence-based practices in the Criminal Justice System of Napa County, California. Focusing primarily on the operations of the Courts, Probation and Corrections.

Judge Maurer received her Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Berkeley in 1971, and her JD from the University of Santa Clara Law School in 1974. She began her legal career in 1974 as a prosecutor first in Marion County and then Multnomah County. She worked in that capacity until she entered private practice in 1979. In 1988, she returned to the Multnomah County District Attorney=s office, where she worked until being appointed to the bench in 1996. She has presided over a wide variety of civil and criminal cases. She began her tenure as the Presiding Judge for Multnomah County in January of 2008. She is the first woman to serve in that position.

Since being appointed to the bench, she has served as the President of the Oregon Circuit Judges Association and as the President of the Gus Solomon Inn of Court. Additionally, she has taught as an adjunct professor at Lewis and Clark Law School. She is a frequent speaker and has volunteered her time as a coach of high school mock trial teams. In 2003 she was the recipient of the Multnomah Bar Association Award of Merit. In 2010, she was named the Oregon Legal Citizen of the Year by the Classroom Law Project. She remains an active member of local and statewide bar and judicial committees and organizations.

Catherine C. McVey received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Law Enforcement and Corrections Administration from Penn State University in 1973 and her Master of Science Degree in Correctional Administration from Sam Houston State University in 1975. She was licensed as a Professional Counselor in Texas in 1983. Chairman McVey has over 37 years of experience working with incarcerated and paroled offenders in Texas and Pennsylvania.

In the first 25 years of her career, Chairman McVey worked in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in numerous positions including: as a Texas Correctional Officer, the Director of Texas Reentry Services, Special Needs Reentry Coordinator, Administrator for Classification and Treatment, Assistant Director of Treatment of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and Director of Institutional Parole and Field Parole Reentry Services, and also was a Probation and Parole Consultant/Trainer with the Sam Houston State University, Correctional Management Institute. Chairman McVey, upon retiring from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in June1998, returned to her home, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to continue her career in corrections with the PA Department of Corrections. Chairman McVey served as Director for Health and Mental Health Care Services from 1998 to 2005, and was subsequently appointed as Deputy Secretary for Administration with the PA Department of Corrections in 2003, serving in that capacity until 2005. In July 2005 she was confirmed by the Senate to serve a six-year term, as a Board Member of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole. She was subsequently appointed by Governor Rendell as Chairman of the PA Board of Probation and Parole.

During her career Chairman McVey has actively participated in professional associations, including the Association of Paroling Authorities International, serving as the Chair, Council of Chairs from 2006-2009, and the American Correctional Association in which she served in a number of positions: Legislative Affairs Committee, Correctional Health Care Committee, Commissioner, Commission on Accreditation, ACA. Other special areas of professional involvement include: Member of the Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Consultant National Institute of Justice Female Offenders, Director INS-TDCJ Criminal Alien Facility Project.