Donald L. Allen

Donald L. Allen
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Current Court Information:
Michigan Fifty-fifth Judicial District Court
Title:	Judge
Service:
Appointed by:	Jennifer Granholm
Active:	2008 - 1/1/2017
Past post:	Director, Office of Drug Control Policy
Past term:	6/2006 - 12/2008
Personal History
Law School:	Wayne State University Law School

Donald L. Allen is a District Court judge for the 55th District Court in Michigan. He was appointed to this position by Governor Jennifer Granholm on December 22, 2008, replacing Rosemarie Aquilina. He was re-elected on November 2, 2010 to a 6 year term that expires on January 1, 2017.

Education

Allen graduated in 1983 from Wayne State University Law School.

Career

Allen was the director of the Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) from June 2006 until his appointment to the District Court at the end of 2008. He also served as deputy legal counsel of Governor Granholm's legal staff where he advised the executive office on responsibilities for emergency management and homeland security, civil rights and criminal justice. He began his career as an Assistant Attorney General in the Michigan Department of Attorney General. He worked there from February 1988 through September 2005, serving in the Social Services, Revenue, Corrections, and Health Care Fraud divisions as well as serving as a member of the Attorney General's Litigation Advisory Board.

2010 election

See also: Michigan judicial elections, 2010

Allen defeated challenger Paul T. Joseph with 63.01% of the vote in the general election on November 2, 2010.

In a July 8 debate, Judge Allen said that if re-elected, he would like to increase enrollment in the district court's sobriety court. The sobriety court is "an intense, therapeutic court" for habitual drunk driving offenders. Allen said, "We’re continuously graduating graduates as a result of the help they get from the sobriety court."

In the August 3 primary to narrow the race down to 2 finalists for the November 2 ballot, the vote was:

• Donald L. Allen, Jr.: 10,480 (51.60%)
• Paul T. Joseph: 3,612 (17.79%)
• Patrick J. Crowley: 3,456 (17.04%)
• Randie Kay Black: 2,722 (13.40%)
• Write-In: 39 (0.19%)

Sobriety court

Judge Allen has been a champion of the District Court's Sobriety Court, which was established in 2004. In a ceremony held on April 27, 2010 to celebrate the 17th graduating class of the program, he said, "Our Sobriety Court continues to be a win-win situation, proving rehabilitation effectively protects the community, saves significant taxpayer money, and returns citizens to productive lives. We are very proud of our program, our participants, and of the community support we consistently receive, The long term success of Sobriety Court is based upon close supervision of probationers by an interdisciplinary team dedicated to the safety of the community."

Participants can be in the Sobriety Court for up to three years. From its inception in 2004 through April 2010, the program has successfully graduated 194 participants.

There are approximately 2,400 "drug courts" or "sobriety courts" throughout the United States.

External links

• Judge Allen campaign website
• Committee to Retain Judge Allen (Facebook)

References