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Judge Laura Safer Espinoza received her Bachelor
of Arts degree from Barnard College and her Juris Doctor degree
from New York Law School.
Judge Safer Espinoza is a New York State Acting Supreme Court
Justice and a Deputy Supervising Judge for the Bronx Criminal
Court. She runs a nationally-recognized problem-solving court.
Judge Safer Espinoza has consulted for the United States Information
Service and the U.S. Department of State and has lectured
extensively throughout Central and South America.
She is a co-founder of Proyecto ACCESO.
When she is not finding beds in drug treatment centers for
her "clients" (defendants in court proceedings who
appear before her) and administering one of the busiest drug
treatement courts in the country, Judge Laura Safer Espinoza
is visiting college campuses with her son Daniel and going
to basketball games of her other son Eric. This committed
mother of two and leading jurist has become a national figure
and pioneer of drug courts in the United States. These problem-solving
mechanisms that have been designed to address the cyclical
nature of drug dependency and halt addiction are fast sweeping
the Americas. "There are now hundreds of drug courts
across the nation," explains Lady Justice, one of the
founder of Proyecto ACCESO. In lieu of jail time, defendants
agree to participate in drug rehabilitation programs to end
their addictions and get back on their feet to meaningfully
participate in society.
Judge Laura Safer Espinoza is ACCESO’s Trainer of the Month. Lady Justice, as Judge Laura is known in ACCESOlandia, continues to do wonderful work in the Drug Court in the Bronx Criminal Court where she leads a nationally-recognized problem-solving court. Her youngest son, Eric is readying for college, the second one in a few short years. For Judge Laura, he is “basically a liberated high school senior.” With all her work, she still has time for public service.
She is traveling with a legal delegation to Venezuela and then heads back to her favorite Latin American country – Chile to assist in the development of a national project to build a drug court system. Building on her work in August 2004, Judge Laura will be speaking at a conference sponsored by Proyecto ACCESO, Fundacion Paz Ciudadana, and other stakeholders.
Problem-solving is an increasingly important mission around Latin America, whether it be diversion programs in the criminal justice system like drug courts, or the use of traditional horizontal, peacemaking mechanisms like cosmovision in Chile or usos y costumbres in Ecuador, Bolivia and elsewhere in the Andes. The mission of California Western School of Law, the U.S. home of Proyecto ACCESO, is to educate creative problem solvers.
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