The Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast Episode 48 with Guest, Honorable Judge Alison Breaux

Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast

sponsored by Redwood Living

thank you for joining us today I am

Justin Alan Hayes founder and executive

director of Voices for Voices host and

humanitarian

you can also learn more about Voices for

Voices on our Instagram and Facebook and

YouTube at @VoicesforVoices and our

website voicesforvoices.org.

Voices for Voices is a 501c3 non-profit

charity organization that survives

solely on donations so if you're able to

please consider a heading over to voices

for voices.org to help us continue our

mission and the goal and the dream of

mine to help three billion people over

the course of my lifetime and Beyond

or you can also send a donation to the

mailing address of Voices for Voices at

2388 Becket Circle Stow Ohio 44224

or you can also donate on the cash app

at Voices for Voices

are you or somebody you know looking for

a volunteer opportunity

if so, you can reach out to us today via

email at president voicesforvoices.org

I founded Voices for Voices to provide a

platform for folks that share their

stories with others as we work to break

the stigma around mental health

accessibility and disabilities helping

people get the help they need while also

helping them prepare and or transition

into the workforce with the voices for

voices career center where we connect

Talent with opportunity for both job

Seekers and employers from coast to

coast and in every industry and job

level

and who can forget about merchandise

the voices her voices merchandise shop

is finally up and running at

voicesforvoices.org forward slash shop

where shipping is always free and again

all donations are 100 percent tax

deductible

today's guest is a presiding judge in

the Summit County Court of Common Pleas

she is the founder of Hope Court for

felonies

and she will also be presented with the

2023 Voices for Voices ambassador of the

Year award at our annual a brand-new day

charity gala and fundraiser in October

13th at the Leona Ferris Lodge in Stow

Ohio

so please join me in welcoming to the

show today Judge Allison Breaux

welcome and thank you for joining us you

bet thank you thanks for having me

absolutely so for our listeners our

viewers will be on TV as well as all

audio platforms can you share a little

but maybe about your background and

how you became interested in the legal

profession

sure

um so move to Summit County just before

high school and went to high school in

Summit County at Hudson High School

um I we had moved around a lot as when I

grew up and so I was bound and

determined to never live in Ohio because

I just you know it just it was it wasn't

cool enough for me when I was you know a

14-year-old so after graduating from

high school I moved to Texas, and I went

to TCU for one year but honestly, I

couldn't escape the fact that I had I

had somewhere along the line I'd turn

into a Midwest girl I found my way back

to Ohio and then started transferred to

Kent State University where I graduated

from and then after Kent State I went to

the University of Akron for law school

um you know when I was in high school

when I was in college I was always

really interested in social justice I

was always interested in law but I don't

know if I'd really considered it

seriously as a career until I was

nearing the end of my college career and

um you know my dad made the suggestion

you know you're really arguing have you

ever thought about going to law school

and you know it just kind of struck

stuck with me and so I said well I have

I haven't not necessarily terribly

seriously so I decided that I was going

to take the LSAT which is the entrance

exam for law school and I was going to

kind of say hey if I do well on this and

I get accepted to law school based on

those scores then maybe it's something I

should pursue and so that kind of just

how things organically happened and then

I went to law school

so what was the hardest thing about Law

School

oh of everything it was

really tough

um

all the beginning all of the

assignments you know just the vast

amount of cases and case law that we had

to study every night it was very

different from undergrad for me it

required a lot of my time a lot of my

attention it didn't come easy to me

um so I really, I really had a hard time

in law school it wasn't you know I

didn't just Breeze through

um so but I did I still loved every bit

of it just was really tough

so the public speaking part of being a

judge and going through in the law

school up until this point I know

there are some viewers and listeners

that maybe more of an introvert and

might have also have that interest of

illegal profession are there any maybe

tips or tricks of how somebody can

practice to be comfortable speaking in

front of people speaking and interviews

so you know the law is so versatile

there's so many things that you can do

with a law degree just because you have

a lot of degree doesn't mean that you're

going to be in the courtroom trying

cases and doing that trial work

there are millions of other

opportunities to you and then you don't

even have to practice so just having a

law degree is a really great

degree to have it makes you

um very marketable so you can go

into a lot of different areas and also

you could definitely then also pursue

going into practicing and then you know

representing clients so there's

there's just a number of things you can

do if you're interested in social

justice if you're interested in politics

if you're interested in entertainment

into sports into litigation I mean you

name it you can do anything with a law

degree and you can have any degree

prior to going to law school okay so you

know my daughter is in college right now

and she's a freshman and she's you know

kind of waffling she doesn't really know

what she wants to do and a lot of the

majors that they offer and there's so

many different options now than

certainly when I was in college and but

it's very individualized so if

you're going to go into this bracket

then these are the classes you have to

take and then you know you feel like

you're kind of pigeonholed well I

wouldn't say that's true with law so you

can be an English degree you can get a

zoology degree you can do a million

different things and still go into law

school so it's really versatile

so maybe so I just have a personal

interest you know the

Society there's so many different shows

about law and trials and all the

just all the facets of the

proceedings what do you think may

be the biggest misnomer about somebody

who sees a television show that might be

a half hour an hour versus

how things really go for maybe a Time

perspective and how involved it is it's

not just something to make a few phone

calls and go through that process right

I mean it's for entertainment purposes

right so are there bits and pieces that

are probably true yes for sure for sure

but you know the longevity of a case

definitely takes a lot longer there's

lots of ins and outs that happen along

behind the scenes there's evidentiary

issues that come up those things all

happen behind the scenes so it's not

it's not the sexy TV show that

everybody's tuning into those things

highlight the most exciting parts of any

sort of trial or any sort of case so

that's definitely true but it's like you

know same thing with medical shows

so it's not always like that it's not

always like you know a really exciting

ER visit there's stuff that goes

on behind the scenes that's not as

interesting and definitely takes a lot

longer great

so hope core how did that come about

and how did your interest in social

justice Law School

turn into mental health advocacy and

then the hope court

so when I took so I ran for my

current position in 2016 I was elected

in November of that year and so I took a

bench in 2017 I was very eager to

start things and make some changes I had a wonderful Mentor he actually

now sits on the house Supreme Court

Judge Donnelly and we met early in 2017

and I said I really want to start a

mental health court it's not something

we have in Summit County we have

Municipal Court level mental health

courts but we don't have anything for

the felony level and I have all these

ideas and he said hold on you just got

here take some time you know do some

research and just work towards

that if you want to do that that's great

but maybe just get your feet wet a

little bit first and so I took his

advice and that was early in seventeen so it by

2018 by the spring of that year I had

already planned to meet with a number of

different agencies in Summit County that

um service individuals with mental

health issues and you know we had this

big meeting in March of 2018 and I said

this is my this is my vision this is

what I want to do you think that we

have a need for this and if so, would you

be willing to partner with us and if so

in what degree and you know everybody in

the room said yes, we need this please do

this and we will back you however we can

um so I had a lot of support from the

very beginning so that was great and you

know in that year of 2017 I was

definitely taking a look at my cases and

realizing that there was a huge

cross-section of mental health and some

in in criminal justice so many people

found themselves in front of a judge

because of their mental illness and

whether it was you know whether it was

like a first psychotic break for the

individual who was maybe very young or

whether it was something they were

struggling with for years and years and

years

um or if it was a result of trauma or

tragedy or things that had happened in

their lives you know it was very

very prominent in most cases that that I

was

um that I was seeing so I knew that

there was a need and so I just set out

to do it and then by the fall of 2018 we

had our first hope court status call

with our first participant so it took us

about six months to put all the

documents into place and get

everything started for it

fantastic can you talk a little bit

about the goal setting process how you

set goals and how you go about achieving

them you talked a little bit about that

with the hope court where you came

in and had a vision and then it took

sometime the old documents repaired

until it got implemented but even

outside of that just as an individual

that might be looking to do some

career and so they have a goal and start

a business go to law school the

different processes that they come with

it and then maybe the reality of I

want to do this today versus I want to

do is today and I still have the

interest today but it may take six

months it may take a year or two years

just to maybe give some courage to some

individuals to keep out what they're

what they're going after yeah you

know it's great to have goals it's

great to have dreams absolutely they

need to be realistic so I would

say you know I'll take a look at them

and be you know be honest with yourself

are those goals achievable and then

the best thing I think is to set some

time frames so set your expectations

make them reasonable but give yourself

deadlines for doing certain

parts like if I if I'm if I'm setting

out to do something you know, and I need

I need to complete five things in order

to do that well what's realistically how

am I going to do those things is it

gonna take me six months is it gonna

take me one year and then have and work

toward that deadline

um because I think a lot of times people

don't pick stuff up unless they're in

preparing for something that's coming up

you know we set pre-trials in all of our

cases and I know as a practicing lawyer

when I was doing litigation well oh I

have a pre-trial coming up I've got to

prepare have I checked I have to check

in with my clients is everything done

well where's my to-do list I do all of

those things so it's good to have those

deadlines to kind of keep you on task

great how important do you think

geography where somebody lives or

might have an interest outside the this

data of Ohio you mentioned it being a

brief time in Texas at TCU but maybe

somebody is going through their

coursework and they've grown up in North

Canton or Hudson or Stowe and they're

like I want to live in this city because

of this thing are there any maybe

cautionary tales before somebody makes

that leap of maybe not knowing anybody

in that particular City or maybe chasing

a title to too early maybe not having an

emotional tie to the job when they

get up in the morning that it's not just

all about that the paycheck that they

feel validated at the end of the day

yeah, you know I think it's great to be

brave and have courage and to take risks

I think that's

that's really

um admirable to be that way but it you

know it also goes on along the same

lines as having goals like make sure

that those things are realistic like you

know if you're gonna if you want to make

a move okay but you still have to you

know just jump on a plane you need to

consider certain things like what's the

cost of living if I'm going to move what

are the things I'm gonna have access to

what kinds of other you know will I have

family close by if I need them will I be

able to you know do they have a program

that is that's near and dear to my heart

or am I going to just move there because

the weather's great but then find myself

not necessarily pursuing the career that

I want because those resources are

closer to where I am now

um and just remember like not

everything is forever so you know a lot

of things you can make a decision and

you can oftentimes change that decision

or you can go back on it, and you know

sort of like my I'm staying I'm getting

out of Ohio and I don't want to live

here anymore and I'm going to go and I'm

going to be a Texan and then going well

you know what I'm not sure Texas is

really that's not really my thing so you

know just being open to you know life is

organic so you have to kind of pick up

what your what life is giving to

you and then you know mold your next

steps based on that but always be

realistic and don't be afraid to take

chances right the role of politics uh

just in general in in your life it'll be

in like getting on the ballot getting

elected did that come when you're in

law school okay this is the route I

want to take was that part of the

process and just knowing okay there

might be some things

uh maybe some administrative type of

tasks that need to happen to get to that

that goal and what would be maybe the

first step if somebody has an interest

of whether it's working towards being

a judge a another elected official a

mayor a governor

involved in politics I didn't grow up in

a super political family so when I

decided to run for a judge based on some

conversations that I had had with my

mentors it was really foreign to me so I

didn't really know what to expect I

didn't even I didn't really even

understand you know how local

government was made up I didn't know the

people that I needed to be talking to

and so that I was a really sharp

learning curve that I that I had to go

through in 2016 you know judges were

although we do belong to parties at

least in Ohio we try not to be overly

politicized because you know our job is

to look at cases

um and decide them based on facts based

on the law you know apply these facts to

the law and come to a fair and just

outcome so it should not

be influenced in any way by any sort of

politics it shouldn't be influenced by

you know just because somebody belongs

to one party or the other party we all

have personal views right but those

things should not come into our work on

the bench and so we should be able to

put all of that aside so you know it

it's an it's kind of it's

difficult for judges because we try very

hard not to be political even though we

still belong to parties right what

does maybe at a high level what does

maybe I know there's probably not an

average day for you but somebody

that has an interest like I wonder you

know how many cases or how much reading

a judge does on a on a daily basis just

to have an idea of okay I go through the

coursework and what's real life like

because I know going through my

marketing degree and coming out

I did one aspect of marketing that I was

like oh I want to do all these things

and then it's like oh wait I'm gonna do

this little sliver of that so it was

just a learning curve for me in in that

respect and then being an entrepreneur

and start an organization but maybe uh

you know what's a day in the life of a

judge like yeah so it varies a lot

from geographically just depending on

where you are certainly what state you

live in and also what county you live in

so Ohio is made up of eighty-eight counties well

some of our counties are very large

somebody County is one of the larger

counties in population we have about five hundred

almost 550 000 people living in Summit

County compare that to a very small

County like I think Holmes County maybe

has like 33 000 people so your docket is

going to very much be impacted by that

those numbers

um but a day in the life of the

Common Pleas Court so we so I'm in the

general division which means I have

civil cases and I have criminal cases

the criminal cases are all felonies

um so we carry a docket you know covet

has impacted our dockets

um but we typically would carry maybe

175 to 250 cases on our criminal docket

and then our civil docket is usually

about the same numbers

um but we're all trying to get you know

around four hundred cases right now but anyways

um so the civil cases are anything where

money damages are at stake so any

litigation that could be personal injury

like a car accident all the way up to

wrongful death medical malpractice cases

um and anything in between business

litigation you name it whenever people

are fighting over money

um we get those cases

um and then our criminal cases is all of

our felonies so we have low-level

felonies like drug offenses theft

offenses fraud and then all the way

up to the more serious level first

degree second degree felonies including

murder rape trafficking in drugs robbery

burglary all of those things

um so we all have a docket where we set

things for trial so but most of our

cases don't go to trial

um that's just based on I think it's

almost like trending

um but so if we have a trial then

it'll go forward and then we're in trial

for those days and those are jury trials

um but when we're not in trial we have

um we call them call days at least in

Summit County where we are checking in

with all of our criminal cases we

have a prosecutor assigned to our court

and then we have criminal defense

attorneys who come in represent the

individuals who have been charged with

crimes and just work through the cases

are we close to resolution is there a

diversionary program that we can that

we can steer this individual into is

this going to go to trial and so things

like that and then you know our civil

and our criminal cases all involve a lot

of research and writing reading cases

finding case law that's applicable to

our cases we have a staff that supports

us that does a lot of that research and

writing for us but we are like the final

say in a lot of that so it's a lot of

paperwork it's a lot of research it's

writing it's sort of interacting with

the public so a lot of those things

book work and learning terms and

processes is one thing but being able to

network is another being able to get

that information and apply it in

whatever manner that is how important it

is networking have you found over the

course of your career for yourself

and somebody that's like okay I have

this book knowledge I did this

internship what do I want to do and like

oh I didn't need I need I need to talk

to this person or I need to reach out

and those types of things so that if you

want to speak on the networking aspect

yeah, I think networking is really

important it's part it's one of the best

things that happens as you campaign so

when you're campaigning, you're in the

community you're really learning more

about your community engaging with

individuals community members but

also you know people that run

organizations and agencies and just

kind of learning a lot of what's going

on more so than you would if you didn't

have to have if you didn't have to have

voters who are going to vote for you

um so I think that's a really huge

benefit of campaigning for this position

because you are learning what's going on

in your community what are people's

concerns and also what's going on that's

working what's going on that's not

working and just talking to people

so I think networking is really

important and I think that we just we

really, I think we as humans we find out

so much valuable information by accident

not necessarily seeking it out but just

you know when we when you sit down and

talk to somebody and you learn their

story or you learn what's important to

them you really can learn about oh

you know so and so oh I would love to

meet that person maybe they could

partner with me maybe we could do

something here we would work together

here maybe you know we can be a resource

for each other in some way

um so I think all of that's really

really important right how did and this

might be on Parallel pass but

being involved with Nami in a board

member just in the organization was that

just a natural fit with the work that

you

the interest and the work that you were

going kind of the social justice the

mental the mental health side yeah

definitely I love the work that Nami

does we have a pretty robust Nami in

Summit County

um Leslie Stoyer is the

executive director she does a wonderful

job and so I've been on the board for

almost maybe it's two years I don't know

I think I might be nearing the end of my

first term

um yeah, it's really great work and you

know it's almost like I know people who

know about Nami know about who Nami but

there's so many people who don't and the

fact that it really is a resource for

individuals who are touched by mental

health not just necessarily diagnosed

with a mental illness but for families

the support that they offer to families

is really important and it's

just it's so important to

understanding what that plight is like

um the so many pitfalls involved in

struggling with mental illness and Nami

gives so many resources for those

individuals who are touched by it so

it's a really great organization

absolutely I when I came out of my

five-day impatient stay in the psych

ward of Akron General and I learned

about Nami I wish I would have known

about them

prior to them but once I found out

about them and the tie-in to the family

which trying to explain how I'm feeling

to a counselor or therapist versus my

wife and in-laws and my parents and

people I interact with and might judge

based off of like oh okay well he has

major depression and anxiety so he we

can't trust him or whatever those the

stigma kind of goes along with it and so

I learned that Nami is one of one of the

best organizations and especially in

Summit County

speaking with other

leaders of other nominee chapters across

the country that the summit chapters

been recognized many times over the

years in the net in the National sense

and that makes me feel good being that I

live in Summit County to have an

organization in the branching out the

you're doing with more maybe

monthly webinars and those types of

things I think are also helpful too just

bring in experts that are already

involved with the organization it's like

hey why don't we just

set something up and chat about this

topic or a couple topics and I think

that's fascinating the evolution

I think that's occurring with Nami I

totally agree yeah, it's an enormous

asset that we have absolutely

great well that's all the questions that

I had

um is there anything branding wise

that you wanted to share I know the

election already happened from that that

standpoint but if somebody

wants to follow what you're may not you

individually but the office or the core

is their social media the Summit County

Court of Common Pleas has

yeah so, we have a Facebook presence

and we certainly have a website

um you know Summit County we are

sort of parallel to how great the Nami

organization is in Summit County also

too is

um the amount of resources that we have

in some way County when I talk to other

judges from other areas in Ohio the fact

that we have so many mental health

agencies is we are very lucky

um that we have access to resources that

we can steer people toward now

but it's not perfect and we there's

still so many needs that have not yet

been made and another great thing about

Summit County is that we have these we

have these specialized dockets that are

so great so I run the mental health

court as you know it's called hope and

it is for folks who are diagnosed with a

severe and persistent mental illness who

really just want to get their life back

and whose mental health has impacted

them in a negative way and force them to

be involved in the criminal justice

system so we want to change that path we

want to change that direction for these

individuals show them that in a lot of

ways they have lived in a place in

their world that they don't feel like

they are entitled to or should be

recipients of anything good right they

they've lived in a world of Shame

they've lived in trauma they've lived in

tragedy they've lived with voices in

their heads they've lived with

hallucinations they've lived with all of

this thing all of these negative things

for so many years and we want to show

them listen that's not that doesn't have

to be who you are and that doesn't have

to Define you or your future we want

folks to live independently get their

licenses back live stably financially

whether they're receiving benefits from

the government or they are working

part-time or doing a vocation and also

reuniting with their families and having

loving relationships and friends

and social

um you know access to social Arenas

where they feel safe and so that is like

the goal of some of our hope court

and I know that that's the same goal I

mean the mental health piece is a little

bit different with the other specialized

dockets that we have but we have a

turning point program that's a drug

court program we have a veterans Corps

we have re-entry core we have a domestic

violence court and a Valor Court that's

for veterans I think I've already

mentioned that but these specialized

dockets are there's such a gem for our

community because they only not only are

they saving lives but they're also

saving money because whenever somebody's

in the jail

the amount of money it costs to house an

individual into jail is astronomical

compared to letting them get Outpatient

Treatment Services and letting them live

in the community so that's my plug for

what we do no it's awesome it's

been a pleasure learning more about you

uh your background the work

that you're doing in the community

and I will get the information for the

October 13th event obviously over to

to your staff and get that and the

date and the time and location and in in

that just looking forward to just being

able to present an award to somebody

who's I think very important to the

to the community in in what you do

and wanting to

help people

regardless of kind of their background

that you know you apply the law but you

still have that emotional side it's like

okay let's look at the whole

person and I think that that's something

that is that distinguish you from

other people that were

kind of kind of interested in looking at

that the full breadth of what you

do and the interest and the Nami and the

mental health and the Outreach is

just awesome to have you in Summit

County as a as an elected official as

somebody the day in and day out Works to

the betterment of society thank you

thank you so much it's so kind of you

absolutely yeah so, I'll close out the

episode then we'll grab a couple

pictures leave with you on the screen uh

you know I'll send those over and then

uh we'll let you know in the episode is

going to air and be available and

and that and yeah, it's just been

awesome to be able to chat with you

day thank you so much Justin what a

pleasure absolutely and we want to thank

you for joining us our viewers our

listeners on this episode of the voices

for voices podcast and a huge thank you

to our guest judge Alison Breaux for

spending some time with us today

so until next time I'm Justin Alan

Hayes and I hope you have a great day

and be a voice for you or somebody in

need

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Please donate to Voices for Voices, a 501c3 nonprofit charity today at: https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/donate


#thankyou #justinalanhayes #501c3nonprofit #charity #charityfundraiser #organization #podcast #recoveryispossible #nonprofit #mentalhealthmatters #advocate #disabilityinclusion #stigmafree #erastour #taylorswift #taylor #youbelongwithme #maroon5 #memories #music #guitar #studio #singing #voices #sing #epic #alternative #recovery #accessibility #501c3nonprofit #501c3 #abrandnewday #sponsor #legacy #voicesforvoices #thanksbrain #podcast #faith #mentalhealth #mary #jesus #christmas #holidays #motherteresa #survivor #motherangelica #angels #ewtn #stjudes #donatetoday #givingtuesday #givetoday #donate #support #share #gift #human #goingviral #viral #news #media #mentalhealthishealth #theinterview #interview #art #expression #arttherapy #suicideawareness #depression #anxiety
#mentalillness #ronaldmcdonaldhouse #2023 #gala #substancefree
#sleep #nutrition #nontoxicpeople #foofighters #davegrohl #davidgrohl
#taylorhawkins #chesterbennington #linkinpark #recoveryjourney #mensmentalhealth #podcast #project #video #voicesforvoices #501c3 #501c3nonprofit #nonprofit #acceptingdonations #trendingnow #share #addiction #recovery #mentalhealth #addictionrecovery #love #sober #sobriety #soberlife #recoveryispossible #depression #anxiety #mentalhealthawareness #wedorecover #onedayatatime#healing #health #ukraine #standwithukraine

Previous
Previous

Episode 49 Celebrates World Voices for Voices Day 2023

Next
Next

Episode 47 with Guest, Gail McPeake