Guest speaker Judge Anastasia Wiley opened the floor for questions at the August 25 Kiwanis club meeting. The biggest problem here is the drug problem.  The states and parishes have been given opioid money which the police jury has. Judge Wiley is working out how to use this money to help with our drug problems. We do have drug testing now.  

There are also faith-based programs and evidence-based programs but if a person doesn’t want to change, neither of these type programs will help. One way to use the money is to have a person come here once a week to do drug assessment and monitoring. That person can report to the judge the progress being made by the person addicted to drugs. We do not have a drug court in Winn Parish because we have no Assistant DA’s who live here and there are no local services here. She sends pregnant women to the Nest Center in Mandeville which is a facility which helps the babies to be born drug-free.

There are 42 judicial districts and only 8 of them have only 1 judge and 1 parish. Winn Parish is one of those. Only 2 of those of which one is Winn have a city judge which helps take the load off of the district judge. 

In answer to questions about illegal immigrants she does not have contact with them. They have immigration judges who see these people on Zoom and decide what happens to them. She does see those who are being extradited somewhere else because of a crime committed. We have an immigration facility but she has no knowledge of it.

Aleta Hoffman has been hired as the juvenile coordinator. Judge Wiley drew a diagram of the 3 aspects of children. They are FINS (children not acting right), Child in Need of Care (parents are not acting right) and Juvenile delinquents. The Department of Child and Family Services has a new head and they are trying to do right for our children. 

She reminded us that the legislative, judicial and executive branches of our government (she was talking about state) are separate. Judges cannot lobby but can only advocate. 

Kiwanis appreciates Judge Wiley coming and educating members about her role as district judge.