STARKVILLE — Michelle Easterling is the first to admit that being a judge isn’t an easy job.
Just two and a half years into her role as one of three judges in the 16th Circuit Court, the work has already started to take its toll, Easterling told the Starkville Rotary Club on Monday. But she compensates for that by remembering to focus on the good parts as well.
“I received an email that said, ‘I hope it’s ok that I’m reaching out to you, but I just wanted to say thank you for giving me another chance. … I’m going to stay sober and hopefully be able to start helping the community. Thank you for this opportunity for a different life,’” Easterling said. “Whenever I have a really bad day and hear some people who really didn’t agree with what I said, which is generally half (of them), I go back and read things like that.”
Easterling maintained a legal practice for 25 years and served as Clay County’s prosecutor for a decade prior to taking the district’s Clay County seat in the 2023 election. Presiding over Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties, she hears civil and criminal appeals from lower courts in addition to felonies and any civil cases surpassing $200,000.
“They’re all tough. Each case stands on its own merit,” she said. “Sentencing, in particular sentencing young people or people with no prior felonies but have been convicted of something incredibly dangerous to the community or an individual – those are difficult.”
But Easterling said the area has a couple factors that make the job easier.
Oktibbeha County established its own dedicated county court in 2022, which she said takes some cases that would otherwise end up in circuit court. Easterling also praised the work that Judges Lee Howard and Jim Kitchens – the other two 16th Circuit Court judges – are doing with intervention courts, a separate court sometimes known colloquially as “drug court.”
That special court system is an alternate legal path for people on charges related to drugs or drug addictions. It is a more rehabilitative approach meant for light offenders, excluding those accused of violent crimes or most levels of distribution.
People taking that route plead guilty, and the court typically declines to immediately accept that plea. Instead, participants enter an in-patient drug treatment facility for roughly a month, followed by sober living for up to a year. They also get help with things like getting a driver’s license or their GED, along with a restitution payment plan for any harm they did.
Easterling said she often refers those she sees in her courtroom to intervention courts or to treatment programs like The Mission in West Point. Neither is a particularly easy path, and she said it is common for people to opt for the criminal sentence outright or try and fail to recover. If they do fail, they’ve already got a guilty plea waiting to be accepted.
“Unfortunately a lot of people don’t make it through the program,” she said. “It’s a three to five year program. A lot of people say, ‘You know what, I’d rather just plead guilty and take the time.’ … Sometimes it takes a lot for people to get to the point where they’re willing to do the work to get sober, get clean, get back to being a contributing member of the community.”
Rotarians commented during the question and answer segment that they’d support further courts for specific issues like mental health. Easterling said courts for other subgroups like veterans do exist, but actually implementing them is a matter of having enough resources and staff.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
