Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush of Indiana Supreme Court

1/27/2016

Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush

c/o Indiana Supreme Court

315 Indiana State House

200 W. Washington Street

Indianapolis, IN  46204

Dear Chief Justice Rush,

My name is Matthew Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in studying history, public policy, and the criminal justice system.  The main reason I have a strong interest in these subjects is to learn the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect people who are different from being discriminated, have checks and balances in the criminal justice system to help protect people’s civil liberties while finding ways to reduce crime, and many others. My main goals for the future is to teach people about the need to improve society and advocate for reform.  Chief Justice Rush, I find your work as juvenile justice judge and currently as Chief Justice of Indiana Supreme Court to be very inspiring to me.

When you served as a juvenile court judge in Tippecanoe County, I liked on how you assisted other court officials including law enforcement to create county Court Appointed Special Advocate program to allow court-appointed advocates help abused or neglected children get the care they need including working to provide children with a safe and healthy environment in homes.  Your work on creating the CASA program is common sense and is a great way to help children who are abused or neglected to get assistance from the judicial system.  In your role as a juvenile court judge, I was very proud on how you implemented a juvenile drug treatment court with a 24 hour assessment center for youth to help youth who were drug addicts get the care they need so they won’t use drugs instead of strict sentencing and even have mentors work with youth to find ways to make sure that they stay away from crime.  In your current role as Chief Justice of Indiana Supreme Court, I truly appreciate your commitment to be a strong supporter of the need to advance on Civil Rights to help protect minorities, women, and people with disabilities from being discriminated. Another thing that I like is how you continue advocating for the need to reform the juvenile system to help youth get the care they need or assistance they need away from crime or drug use.

Chief Justice Rush, your work as a juvenile justice judge and current as Chief Justice of Indiana Supreme Court really inspired me to take a Intro to Criminal Justice class at Washtenaw community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the class I got to learn about how the court system works, Miranda Rights, some juvenile justice, law enforcement, and many others. Also in my class my instructor explained to me about the need to reform to criminal justice system like the need for drug treatment programs to help drug addicts get the care they need, have community service programs to help rehabilitate non-violent offenders including juveniles from re-offending, expand on services to help victims of crime including children, and have DNA testing with fund forensic science to reduce wrongful convictions.  I agree with my instructor on the need to reform the system. Having Autism with a learning disability is hard for me because I have trouble with comprehension, struggle with speech when communicating with people, and sometimes I get teased by other people. Your commitment to reform the criminal justice system and be a strong supporter of Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights inspires me to work hard on Autism and have a passion to learn different subjects especially history.

I strongly believe that you make a great difference in fixing the juvenile justice system to help youth get the assistance they need  and advocating for great reform to fix the criminal justice system in your role as juvenile justice judge and current as Chief Justice of Indiana Supreme Court. Chief Justice Rush, your work has inspired me to learn more about the criminal justice system including learn the need for reform and inspires me to continue working hard on Autism. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great difference, and inspiring me. Please continue advocating for great ideas to make the criminal justice system better for society.

Sincerely,

Matthew B. Winick

the State of the Judiciary Address 2016 report that I received along with the letter