OPD's Leah Morris to receive Leadership New Jersey award

NEW BRUNSWICK - New Jersey Assistant Public Defender Leah Morris will be honored on Thursday, December 6, with a Fifteenth Anniversary Leadership Award in the field of Justice from Leadership New Jersey, a non-profit seminar series for emerging leaders that brings together successful professionals who also are active in their communities.

Following graduation from the year-long program, fellows in each year's "class" join an expanding network of state leaders and work on projects to bring about positive change in New Jersey.

Ms. Morris, a Haddonfield resident and 25-year veteran of the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, has been a leading advocate for the Drug Court system in the state. Through Drug Courts, non-violent drug offenders have the opportunity to receive treatment, counseling and life-building skills to help prevent them from re-offending. They are intensely supervised and can be removed from the program for not following its guidelines.

With the Drug Court program since its inception in New Jersey in 1995, Ms. Morris took a strong role in ensuring the success of the Camden County pilot Drug Court while she was the First Assistant Deputy Public Defender in that region. She was promoted to her current position in January 2001.

The Leadership New Jersey Award was bestowed upon her for her role as leader of the fellowship's Class of 1998 graduate project, in which her team successfully advocated for the expansion of Drug Courts beyond their pilot-project counties. Legislation was signed into law in September 2001 to expand the courts into six more counties.

"This acknowledgment by my distinguished peers in Leadership New Jersey is especially gratifying, particularly because it recognizes our efforts on behalf of the Drug Court system," Ms. Morris said.

"I firmly believe that Drug Courts are a no-lose proposition. Non-violent offenders get a better chance than that provided by the traditional criminal justice system to straighten out their lives. Society gets a chance to attack the drug problem in the most effective way, by ensuring participation in treatment which eliminates the demand that drives much criminal behavior. Taxpayers realize a financial savings because it costs far less to treat and counsel these offenders for a year than it does to keep them in prison for a year. The community as a whole benefits from an enhanced quality of life."

Ms. Morris was principal author of "Drug Courts in New Jersey: Past, Present and Future," published in 2000 on behalf of Leadership New Jersey. She has had several articles about Drug Courts published and has appeared on public-affairs television shows to discuss the concept. Her strong convictions regarding Drug Courts stemmed from years of experience as a public defender attorney in Camden County, she said.

"Through my work in Camden, I came to realize that most drug-driven offenses are really a symptom of the hopelessness and lack of access to resources and constructive intervention that are endemic to people who have few job prospects and the overwhelming family and social problems that are the result," she said. "Doing what we can to fix those underlying causes of the drug problem is ultimately much more effective than simply warehousing people for a given time and not giving them the tools to change the course they're on."

In her capacity as Assistant Public Defender, Ms. Morris oversees the eight Southern New Jersey regional offices, as well as the Office of Dispute Settlement, Parental Representation Unit and Office of Juvenile Services, all of which are based in the headquarters office in Trenton. She also supervises attorney training for the agency.

In the past, Leadership New Jersey has typically given three awards annually to outstanding alumni, but added 15 additional awards this year to mark its 15th anniversary. The awards banquet is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 6, at the Hyatt Hotel in New Brunswick.