Judge Who Sentenced Young Woman for Burglary Receives Her Thanks

Don’t tell District Judge Doug Shaver and at least one former prisoner that the criminal justice system doesn’t work. They know better.

It was a routine day in Shaver’s court last week as he worked through a crowded docket, not paying attention to a 22-year-old woman in the audience.

The woman sat patiently and, when the court day was done, gave the bailiff a handwritten letter to the judge.

The letter reminded Shaver that in March, 1985, he had sentenced the woman to two years in prison for burglarizing her mother’s home.

“I am writing you this note to thank you; a little ironic, I know,” the letter said.

She wrote that her time in prison gave her “a lot of time to reroute my new life when I got out. Well, I am doing pretty good. I am in school; I have my own apartment and furniture, my own car and my first checking account.”

The letter said that the woman had a drug problem when she committed the crime, and that was why her mother refused to drop charges against her. She has recovered, she said.

She ended the letter by saying her time in prison “changed my whole life. So I owe you and my mother much thanks.”

Shaver said the woman waited until he finished reading the letter, then “just waved and said, ‘Thank you,’ and walked out.”

The judge asked that the woman not be publicly identified because “she’s started a new life” and many people may not know of her prison record.