Now in her second year of retirement, former Shawnee County Judge Jean Schmidt did Wednesday what sitting judges can’t — she spoke candidly about public policy.
“Zero-tolerance policies are for stupid and lazy people who don’t want to think or have to analyze the situation and really make a concerted, thoughtful decision,” Schmidt told a crowd at the YWCA in downtown Topeka.
Schmidt retired in 2014 after nearly a dozen years as a judge in Shawnee County District Court, where she handled adult and juvenile criminal cases and children in need of ...