Judge Rochester's Creative Sentencing Program
Judge Rochester's Creative Sentencing receives media attention
Judge Rochester's Creative Sentencing Program
In 1989, Rochester caught the eye of the national press with a new sentencing project that he was trying out in his court. Rochester believed that education was a key component to a successful probation. As a condition of probation, he ordered a defendant, a minister, who had been found guilty of theft, to read the Bible and write about what he had learned from the experience. Rochester was one of the first in the nation to require reading and writing about literary works as part of probation. Rochester says of the experience, "I have been shaped by the literature that I have read. It was my hope that mandatory participation in such activities might have the same impact on someone facing criminal penalties as it did me. Education is the best hope we have for the restoration and rehabilitation of the person who has entered into the criminal justice system."
Judge Rochester has continued to pursue his interest in alternative sentencing over the years, both in the courtroom and through continuing education. Rochester has attended the Yale Law School's Alabama / Yale Sentencing Workshop, the Sentencing Institute's Sentencing Alternatives Symposium, and has served on the Alabama Supreme Court's Task Force on Sentencing Alternatives. He was also chosen to participate in the Alabama Humanities Foundation's Judging Life Through Literature program. Rochester says, "Prisons cannot keep up with demand. Twenty years ago, when I first began thinking about alternative sentencing, overcrowding in prisons was just becoming a serious concern. Today our resources are stretched to the point that we must find alternates to prison that still protect the public. However, we must keep in mind that alternative programs cannot be used for those who keep repeating the same crimes or who commit violent crimes."
