Jim Kitchens, a circuit judge in the 16th Judicial District, spoke to the Columbus Exchange Club at Lion Hills on Thursday about why he would make a good state Supreme Court justice.
For the last 20 years, Kitchens has worked as a prosecutor and judge in Lowndes County. Prior to that, from 1994-1996, he worked for the chief justice on the state Supreme Court. This has given him the experience he needs to sit on the Supreme Court, he told the club.
Kitchens is running for a seat on the state’s high court. He looks to replace Ann Lamar, who is retiring.
The election is in November.
Kitchens said he’s been a part of more than 200 trials counting both his time as an assistant district attorney and as a judge. That’s important, he said, because most of what the state Supreme Court does is decide whether criminal or civil trials were tried correctly or not. It’s important to have trial judges like him sitting on the court.
Currently there are only two justices who are trial judges, he said.
More broadly, Kitchens spoke about some of the cases he’s tried and what he believes are the reasons so many people turn to crime. He coined his own term “the three 90s” — 90 percent of felons come from single-parent families; 90 percent of them quit school before the ninth grade; and 90 percent of them are addicted to a narcotic, he said. Nearly 90 percent of them do not have a regular job, he added.
“Those are things that as a society and as citizens of the community, we’ve got to address somehow,” he said.
Kitchens said he has worked to make sure many of the defendants in his court room end up getting their GEDs.
“Even if we have to create schools that are for kids who are problem children, you know, almost like a boot camp school, but they’re getting their education,” he said. “But you make them stay in school. I am probably responsible these last 13 years for more people getting their GED than anybody else around because if you’re in front of me and you plead guilty or you’re found guilty by jury and you don’t have a high school diploma, one of my requirements on you is you get your GED.”
He also talked about the importance of the state have long-term — and by long-term, he means a year — residential treatment for people addicted to drugs. He has been sending defendants to Teen Challenge, a program which, despite its name, works with teenagers and adults to help them kick drug addiction. He has sent around 200 people to the program over the last 13 years, he said, and maybe 10 of those people didn’t graduate the program.
But those three problems need to be solved through the executive and legislative branches of government, he said.
“We can’t fix things on the back end in court,” Kitchens said.
“What we have to do is try to implement some things to stop those factors that I think cause crime and that’s through the legislative and that’s the executive branch,” Kitchens said. “That’s the branch of government that’s charged with trying to fix those problems. The court can help a little bit but not so much.”
Columbus attorney John Brady is also running for Lamar’s seat on the state Supreme Court.
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