JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Friday, July 12, 2019

THE LIMITS OF POWER

UPDATE JUDGE SAYFIE RESPONDS:
Good afternoon, Sayfie here. 
Let me begin by making a clarification bc your post was missing some needed context. 1. You left out all the recipients in the email. I did not send that email just to my colleagues. I sent it to leaders at the PDO, the RC and FACDL 2. You posted only my email from last year, 2018. I have been sending a version of that email annually to everyone, most recently earlier this week. The purpose of that email is to make sure that judges & defense attorneys have a short cut and quick access to corrections to get their clients medical care as soon as possible, without having to litigate.  AND in the event that a court hearing is still necessary, to ensure that the attorneys can properly serve corrections so that the motion can be heard expeditiously.  In the event that any of your readers still have a concern, then as most REG lawyers know, my door is open. 
Please post this email in its entirety. 


Nushin G. Sayfie, Circuit Court Judge
Administrative Judge of the Criminal Division

Rumpole, duly chastised, meekly replies: 
First- Judge Sayfie is the messenger. Our post should not be taken as implying this is a policy she endorses. 
Second, we intentionally did not list the email recipients. Lord knows that if we did, there is probably some law against posting email addresses of state employees on popular blogs, and that would result in our arrest, prosecution, being held without bond, no access to medical treatment, and no recourse for help. Additionally- damned if we do, Judicially taken to the woodshed if we don't. We can envision legions of outraged individuals who received that email complaining to us about posting their email address if we did. So we made the call erring on the side of privacy. We did not even post the Chief Judge's email. We stand by our decision. The buck stops here. 

As to Judge Sayfie's reasons for the initial email, as she explains above...Res Ipsa Loquitor. 

The fact remains, if your client is sick and dying and corrections doesn't give a damn, what do you? We have no idea. The Judge Frank Johnson's of the world are long gone. 


Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. 
But there are limits to power and today we write about those limits and a favourite subject: those who wear black robes to work and sit a few feet above hoi polloi. 

A judge can take you into custody. They can adjudicate you a felon. They can take your children and sever your rights as a parent. A judge can incarcerate you for decades, or life, and a judge has the power of life and death and can sentence you to die. 

But the limits of that awesome power stop at the doorstep of the Dade County Jail. Like the neutral zone in Star Trek, DCJ and the Department of Corrections are where judge's fear to tread. 

While a judge can send you to jail, once there, if you're dying and need medical treatment, there is nothing a judge can do. "Es no my job" is the new refrain. If a loved one is in jail and dying of cancer or appendicitis, you are, to use a technical legal term, sh*t out of luck.  A judge can call balls and strikes. Federal judges took over school districts and state transportation agencies, and basically desegregated the south. But a judge cannot get a doctor to give you an aspirin if you are in a Miami jail. 

Witness this disheartening email from El Jefe Sayfie to all her minions who wear black robes: 

From: Sayfie, Nushin
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2018 3:58 PM
To.......



Good afternoon –



Please remember the we cannot order corrections to provide medical care to inmates.  And orders “recommending” specific medical care or an evaluation are also not the best practice.  They are time consuming and often do not achieve the desired result.



If you have an issue involving an inmate’s mental and/or medical health please use the contact list I am providing you in this email.  



Additionally, cc’d on this email are Dr. Patricia Junquera who is the head of psychiatry at CHS and Edith Wright who is the Acting Director of CHS.  Also, Ben Simon from the County Attorney’s Office who handles legal matters for corrections and who should be noticed on all motions BEFORE corrections is ordered to do anything.



All of these people are extremely accessible and would prefer an email directly from you or an attorney on the case rather than an order that is often not accurate and takes a long time to reach them. 



Please call me if you have any questions about this. 

Yes Judge, we have questions about this.

 If not you, who? 

Who do lawyers go to when corrections is killing their clients? Who do family members seek justice from when DOC leaves their loved ones in dark, damp, cells, without care, medication or concern? Who does a panicked  parent turn to, when their child is in jail, and having an appendicitis attack, and no one cares (which happened in Miami a few years ago)?

Why do judges have jurisdiction over all that is between The Keyes  and the evil empire north of the border....except the jail and corrections? 

Why does your email seem so troubling in an age when our government throws children into cages and government lawyers argue against them having toothbrushes and soap? 

Where are the Judge Frank Johnsons of the world today? 


Our county turns its lonely eyes to you. 

*We'd love a nice telephone confab, but alas we are anonymous, and as such, we cannot call, so we take to our prefered method of expressing concern. 



27 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I thought you said the law was powerless."

"Powerless to help no, not punish you."

Rumpole said...

what?

Anonymous said...

It's from the Simpsons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkdvIVyuO8U

Anonymous said...

Shameful. We do not have any Judge Frank Johnsons. We have cowards who shudder on the bench.

Order health care for a sick person? Ah Say Sir! You ahsk me for something I consider ah say ah say ah say outrageous!
Now sentence a man to life- yes sir I say. Take away his freedom and his family and punish him beyond any reason, yes I say.

But order someone to give him an x-ray? Surely you jest.

Anonymous said...

I miss Vicki Brennan.

Anonymous said...

Get me JACK DENARO.....

Anonymous said...

Hey, Judges are not doctors and jails don't give a shit if someone is not treated.

That's the deal.

Anonymous said...

What is the legal rational (case, statute?) that says they have no power over corrections or concerning the inmates they order in jail?

Rumpole said...

The court put them in custody. The court retains jurisdiction over the body until sentenced. QED
Nuff said

Anonymous said...

Were lucky to have an Admin Judge as responsive and as non-resentful as this one.

Anonymous said...

Rumpole, just post the whole 2019 email with the addresses for those people we need to contact to expedite medical care and treatment for our clients.

Anonymous said...

And, please change the captcha to the one to enter characters like the Miami-Dade Clerk's Office website. The Broward-style one you are using now is unnecessarily repetitive and time consuming.

Anonymous said...

your original post, rumphole, gave the impression that the circuit judge was unfamiliar with the basic rules of criminal procedure like when you have, let's 5% of the defendants who appear before you, have mental issues. stop the history lessons and return to criminal law.

Rumpole said...

I will not put the whole email chain for the reasons I have already stated. People will have melt downs. Idiots already post nonsense on this blog. Can you imagine what they will email?

2:44 that Captcha sucks. I got that. I have no control over it. I'll be addressing that issue with Judge Sayfie shortly. Surely she can help with that.

Anonymous said...

I like ice cream
and I like tea
and Rumpole is wrong
and Sayfie is for me

Anonymous said...

Shumie spotted at Wimbledon final. Usual spot near the Royal Box. Wielding a Churchill Cigar like a racquet.

Anonymous said...

Rumpole, In NASA speak, after a shuttle is launched, before it enters orbit Houston calls out "press da-meco" what does that mean?

Rumpole said...

9:30 you've come to the right place. Inter alia, we are experts on NASA, space flight, and space flight lingo.

You are most likely referring to a launch dynamic boundary call from the ground which is "Press to MECO".
MECO is main engine cut off.
Press to- means proceed to.
The flight director during launch makes the decision that the shuttle or the vehicle is within dynamic range needed to achieve orbit even if it loses engines. Therefore, rather than issue an abort order, the Flight Director issues a call that the flight can proceed to the next boundary call which is main engine cutoff. So Press To MECO means the flight can proceed to the next event- the cut off of the main engines and that the vehicle is in position that it can achieve orbit even if it loses power from other rockets/engines.

Anonymous said...

To put it in Wimbledon terms.
Sayfie 7-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. She wins in four sets over Rumpole who walks off the court beaten and exhausted. He came up against a better person.

Rumpole said...

Really? I tank in the fourth set 6-1? NO WAY. I'm sure we go five sets. I play strong serve and volley. My first serve hasn't lost any velocity, although I do not get it in as much as I used to. And I've abandoned my topspin backhand in favor of the safer slice, but I still can play. And I;m good at the net. Cat-like in my reflexes.

Anonymous said...

Rump thanks for the NASA info much appreciated. Are we going to Mars?
also, lay off Sayfie, she is doing her best and is very fair.

Back to Nasa - Apollo 11 was obviously a defining moment in our time. But what about the historical significance of Apollo 8? Historic, si?

Anonymous said...

I wish the REN (A venue)was here to celebrate the 50th of Apollo 11. I'm sure they would have thrown a landing party with fun items like An Eagle shooter, A Buzz-Buzzbuzz, an Armstrong kobe beef slider, etc.

Rumpole said...

Apollo 8 was remarkable in many ways surpassed the achievements of Apollo 11- and I may do a post on it. I think as years go by Apollo 8 is recognized more and more for the great leap it took. This much is clear- without Apollo 8 Apollo 11 doesn't land on the Moon and Pete Conrad becomes the first man on the moon in Apollo 12.

Anonymous said...

I have criticized Rumpy in the past, but here, he is right.

Rumpole said...

Thanks Mom.

Anonymous said...

Rumpole,

what is clear is that you don't regularly practice in REG. If you did, you would realize how absurd this post is and the tone you used is unnecessarily sarcastic. Clearly, corrections are beholden to Court orders. They can always be sued for civil rights violations in federal court and injunctive relief may be sought. I have seen no statute that gives the presiding criminal judge in a Defendant's case the authority to order the department of corrections to do anything as it relates to that inmate's detention. The judge clearly has a remedy if they are unsatisfied with the care of corrections: release the Defendant.

Anonymous said...

There is a simple reason the Judges can't order DCJ to do certain things, it's called the separation of powers. As much as some of them want, the judicial branch can't order another branch (DCJ falls under the executive branch for those of you keeping tabs) to use it's funding for one purpose or another. To provide some type of medical care or an eval is directing funding and a violation of the separation of powers. Plenty of cases from the 3rd and pretty much every other DCA on this topic.

-2cents