Faith, love and justice

By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor

From an early age, assistant district attorney of Evangeline Parish Julhelene “Betsy” Jackson dreamed of becoming a lawyer. She has spent her career advocating for juveniles in need and has relied on her faith to guide her down the path.
“One very important thing for me that is very vital and intricate to what I do is my faith,” said Julhelene “Betsy” Jackson. “Nothing that I do am I able to do without my faith. That is also something I bring to what I do as a prosecutor.”
The Ville Platte native and Southern University graduate continued, “I don’t have to share my faith in terms of carrying a Bible, preaching, and quoting scripture to these kids, but I hope that by reaching out to them and showing them care, love, and concern we can show them that they are accountable for what they do.”
After graduating law school in 2001, Jackson returned to her home town where she began practicing with local attorney Charles Tate in 2002. She then spent five years succeeding him as city prosecutor for the City of Ville Platte.
“I’ve always had a desire to come back and work and serve this community,” she stated. “Being city prosecutor afforded me the opportunity to impact the community in a positive way.”
She stated that she owes much to the late City Court Judge Donald Launey and Charles Tate. “They served as mentors to me to give me the foundation that I needed,” she said. “Once I had that it came natural to me because it allowed me to work with people that I knew. It also gave me an opportunity to begin to implement some of the diversionary efforts that I carry through here.”
In her current role as assistant district attorney, Jackson’s passion involves working with at risk children through diversionary programs like Juvenile Accountability Program and Informal Adjustment Agreements.
Jackson sees these programs as a success. The reason why she sees these programs as a success is because they are geared towards working with individuals from the moment they commit their first crime.
“I find they are very successful if they are geared towards first time offenders,” she explained. “This is because it’s their first contact with the court system. If there is a short period of time between the offense and the accountability measure, then they get that they are accountable for what they do.”
“There are sometimes a lag between the time a kid commits an offense and I get the case information, so the level of effectiveness can decrease because the kid doesn’t make the connection between what they did and being held accountable because so much time has passed.”
Another program offered for juveniles in the Families in Need of Services. This is geared to those students who are truant from school and those with disciplinary problems; however, Jackson admitted this program has mixed results because of the lag time. “Sometimes by the time I get the referral, it’s too late sometimes because the kid has already missed 26 days of school,” she said.
“For the kids that I can catch early between the time that there is a referral and the time of the offense, then the greater the success rate is.”
When these diversionary programs are not available because of the type of offense committed, Jackson then sees that these juveniles are held accountable by sending them to confinement. However there are issues with this because of limited space available.
“The issue that we face in this parish is the facilities that open up juvenile detention facilities in other parishes, then they give priority to the residents and children of that parish,” she stated. “That sometimes blocks other parishes out. It depends on the bed availability.”
“The other issue you have is they may also dedicate beds to the Office of Juvenile Justice,” she added. “In addition to that it takes up additional space that’s not available to outside parishes.”
Besides prosecuting juvenile offenders, Jackson is involved in advocating for children in need of care who are removed from the home. Her goal is always returning the children to the parents.
“The first priority is always reunification,” she said. “That involves certainly some factors that I may not have control over in terms of the parents playing their part, but I work very closely with the Department of Children and Family Services so that we can give these families all the resources that they need because we want to reunify them with their kids. It is not always the reality for some of our cases, but going in each and every case that comes through the Children in Need of Care proceedings, the goal is always reunification.”
When she is not advocating in court settings, Jackson and her husband are involved in giving back to the community through the Boys and Girls Club. She said that her involvement in the program is very rewarding, and it works hand-in-hand with her Families in Need of Services.
“I saw a wonderful opportunity to allow children who have at risk factors for becoming delinquent to get them involved with something positive exposing them to things that they never have been exposed to, and the Boys and Girls Club provided that opportunity,” she said.
She added, “I constantly go over there so I can see the evolution of where they started and where they end up to make sure what we are doing is making a difference. What the hope is from the time that they start to the time they finish, we could have taught them one skill they didn’t know before. They then have been exposed to something they otherwise would not have been exposed to. Then at the end of the day, it’s all worth it.”
Jackson does not know what the future holds for her as a prosecutor, but she knows that she will continue to have challenges. “I face a lot of challenges because my primary work is with juveniles,” she said. “I’m always sitting and contemplating what else can I do to turn the lives of these children around and get them back on the right track.”