Centering Humanity: Action, Assistance, and Healing in Newark, N.J.

Danny’s Pantry opened on July 18, 2024, the day before the anniversary of the death of Daniel Anderl. Daniel was murdered four years earlier in the New Jersey home he shared with his parents, Mark Anderl and the Honorable Esther Salas, United States district court judge.

Danny died heroically, in an effort to protect his parents from the violent act of an aggrieved former litigant. Judge Salas’s one request to her colleagues in the aftermath of the tragedy was that Daniel never be forgotten. So in the very courthouse in which his mother presides, Daniel is remembered every day by those served by the court, including participants in our various court programs and formerly incarcerated persons, who return home with a bag of groceries from the same place where they attended court or were even sentenced to prison. For our beloved colleague and her husband, for our federal family and for those who gather groceries, Danny’s Pantry is a place of healing. It is the embodiment of the phrase often spoken by Judge Salas: Love is light.

Danny’s Pantry is the culmination of a broader decade-long effort, spearheaded by Judge Salas and her colleagues, to better address the needs of those who have become involved in the federal criminal justice system. Presently, those eligible to collect groceries from Danny’s Pantry are participants in one of this district’s “problem-solving courts.” Many of these courts have grown and expanded without a budget, employees, or any manuals, but with the generosity, creativity, and dedication of our federal family.

Reentry Court

“ReNew,” our problem-solving court focused on reentry, began one evening in January 2013, in a federal courtroom, when the first four participants gathered for the inaugural session of this novel “court.” They began exchanging stories with the judge and volunteers from federal probation, federal defenders, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office — all of whom donate their time — about who they were and what they hoped for upon returning home after a long period of incarceration. The session ended with pizza and soft drinks, and the court was up and running.

Over the next year, this group walked together through each individual’s experience of returning home. The team cobbled together information and opportunities; a good construction job, an application to join a union, an inexpensive room in a boarding house, or how to obtain healthcare and a driver’s permit. The group even attended an open house at a charter school for a participant’s son. ReNew also helped them navigate setbacks: job rejections, estrangement from children, positive drug tests, and rocky encounters with law enforcement. And by the time the first cohort completed the program, this group had become a team that had exceeded expectations. The first of many ReNew “graduations” became the highlight of the year.

As new participants followed the first graduates and brought their own unique stories and post-incarceration plans to the court, the volunteer team became more adept at anticipating challenges and connecting these individuals with resources. In fact, the ReNew team built relationships with partners in the community. Volunteer attorneys from the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey were among the earliest and most vital of partners, assisting in clearing old warrants and entering payment plans to restore drivers’ licenses, assuming manageable child support obligations, and reestablishing positive relationships with their children. With this support, participants were then able to qualify for federal education grants and training programs and to secure well-paid employment, all the while recognizing that “your first job is not your best job and will not be your last job.” Each learned to take it one step at a time.

Over the years, there were often difficult days, such as when participants reoffended. One young man was rearrested during his enrollment in the program and was later sentenced to two years on state charges. When he was released, he came back to us and asked for a second chance. We saw the change in him right away, as he immediately enrolled in a demanding HVAC training program. He graduated, obtained a well-paying job, and eventually bought a house in rural New Jersey for his fiancé and two young daughters. The probation officer fondly recalled receiving a call from the young man one night about a deer on his property — as a kid growing up in the inner city, he wasn’t sure what to do! This young man has since returned to speak to and inspire others in our program. He humbly speaks about his new home, hard work, and paying taxes. He also shared his belief that, without ReNew, he would be back on the streets.

On another difficult day, a participant shared a story of sexual abuse that he suffered as a young boy, the memory of which was triggered by his assailant moving back to the community. Another lost all of his possessions the night before a court session in a house fire due to faulty wiring. The ReNew community saw these tragedies as opportunities to offer action, assistance, and healing. And while devastating, these incidents also allowed participants to demonstrate their resilience — and showed them that the ReNew team would support them until they could get back on their feet. Everyone has a unique story, journey, and background, and it is the role of the reentry team to help him figure out the best path forward.

Setbacks occur, but the good days have always exceeded the bad ones. We hold celebrations for Black History Month, where our participants write poems, essays, and stories that speak to their own experiences. We are overwhelmed by their introspection and talent. And throughout the year, we have guest speakers, many of them graduates who come back to tell their stories and inspire others. Participation in the March Madness bracketology, Thanksgiving celebrations with families and children, the desired job promotion or passing the driving test — these are all things that we celebrate together as a court family.

Inspired by Newark’s efforts, ReNew expanded to the vicinages of Trenton and Camden, with federal judges there taking the lead with court sessions. New judges have joined the team from all three courthouses, as well as a growing stable of volunteers from other sectors, including federal prosecutors, defenders, probation officers, and private-practice lawyers. The locations are different, but the goal remains the same: to treat every single person with respect and care, holding them accountable during the course of the year and equipping them with the skills to succeed during their terms of probation and beyond.

Pretrial Court

The court also identified a need to assist those at the “front end” of the criminal justice system, particularly those with little or no criminal history whose crimes were driven by addiction. Thus, the “POP” (Pretrial Opportunity Program) Court was born. The POP Court provides intense addiction treatment and supervision with the hope that such progress will result in a noncustodial sentence. POP has changed the trajectories of the lives of not only those charged with crime, but their families as well.

As the courts grew, so did each team’s commitment to helping each person who needed the program’s extra support. The team engaged social workers — assigned to the courts by Rutgers University and Columbia University — to engage continuously with participants to help prevent serious challenges from cascading and overwhelming them. The courts have learned that mental health is often neglected in the system, and post-release from incarceration, stress and anxiety can be overwhelming. Classes in anger management, parenting, and cognitive behavioral therapy are now available to all.

As just one example, in the first weeks after his release, one participant’s brother was shot, his mother absconded from drug treatment, and his landlord sued him in housing court. While confronting these challenges, he was also trying to begin coursework at Essex County College and maintain an overnight shift at a supermarket. His social worker talked to him daily about how to prioritize his problems and take meaningful steps toward resolving each of them. The court also supported him at the bimonthly court session. Complex problems need a team effort. But with that support, he and his family have been able to work through these challenges.

Accessibility to healthcare is also often a challenge. One participant had difficulty finding an ophthalmologist to evaluate his declining eyesight, which was interfering with his ability to obtain employment. Frustrated by the lack of accessibility, the judge took him to his own doctor. When the man received the bad news that he had a degenerative eye condition that would ultimately lead to blindness, the same judge offered to pay for new prescription eyeglasses, commenting: “It was the least that I could do given the news he received today.” That judge had a different perspective before working with ReNew.

Over the course of this decade, we have accrued some extraordinary successes: high school, college, and technical school degrees (including a high school dropout who received a master’s degree in social work), careers, houses, families, and several marriages, happily presided over by federal judges, complete with music and cake. Even President Obama visited the ReNew program in November 2015, and carried forth stories about the transformations he saw there. The court takes pride in these milestones and in the finding that graduating from the program significantly reduces the chance of returning to jail. In fact, people who complete the program have less than a 10 percent chance of being reincarcerated, compared with more than a 50 percent chance of returning to prison absent the program.

But the inspiration in these courts is the participants themselves. Behind ReNew’s success are the choices that these individuals make every day. They choose to come back to the same courthouse where they were convicted and sentenced, to gather together with some of the same people responsible for convicting and sentencing them, and they do so every other week for at least 18 months. They have chosen to open up to the ReNew and POP Court teams about their dreams and hopes, their struggles and successes. Most importantly, they have decided to do the work — the very hard work — of changing their lives.

And they are not the only ones who benefit. In the process, we become better judges, prosecutors, defenders, and probation officers. Judges often view their role as imposing sentences for crimes; ReNew and POP Court remind us that we are sentencing real people. We now see resilience, perseverance, humility, love of family and country in those whom we sent to prison. We now see ordinary Americans striving to live their American dream and we are rooting for them. We understand that, as Brian Stevenson says, “each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

A Future Vision

The future always holds new opportunities and challenges. Our Trenton vicinage will be starting a Veterans Court in 2025. Headed by a district court judge who is a veteran himself, this problem-solving court will focus on issues unique to our veterans, particularly those who become involved in the criminal justice system due to addiction. A second Danny’s Pantry has opened in the Camden vicinage. We are even considering expanding it to include “Danny’s Closet,” which would provide participants clothing for the winter months. There is always need. And we have learned that other districts are beginning the process of opening a Danny’s Pantry in their courthouses. We are here to help with those efforts in any way we can.

When we started our work, we met with colleagues in Philadelphia and Boston who had thriving and well-developed reentry programs. We borrowed many ideas from them. Our group also visited Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang rehabilitation and reentry program. He is the gold standard of reentry work, with a reentry center, store, a bakery, onsite programming, training, and housing. When we asked him for his blueprints, he told us that it wasn’t as simple as replicating what he had done; rather our efforts must be “organic,” developed to meet the needs of our community. Ten years later, Father Boyle’s words still resonate. There are certainly opportunities for any district, but how that opportunity might reveal itself will depend on the needs of the community and the willingness of unpaid volunteers to devote time, resources, and love to the effort.

Despite their challenges, problem-solving courts such as ReNew, POP, and the Veterans Court are more than worth the effort. It has been the most rewarding work of my professional life. All of my colleagues — from varied backgrounds and experiences — share that sentiment. The opening of Danny’s Pantry was a meaningful extension of the work we had done: further serving our community, honoring our colleague’s son, and helping our federal family to heal. Now is the perfect time to consider starting something similar in your own courthouse. It is a worthy endeavor. Our doors and hearts are open to any court looking for guidance. New Jersey is here to help.

Special thanks to the Honorable Michael A. Hammer, presiding judge of ReNew court, and Caroline Sadlowski, assistant United States attorney and ReNew team member for their input; and to my law clerks, Tripp Connors, Marissa Manzi, and September McCarthy, for their editorial assistance. And special thanks to Judge Salas, who inspires us every day.

Madeline Cox Arleo serves as a U.S. district judge for the District of New Jersey. Previously, she served as a federal magistrate judge. She was founding judge of the district’s “ReNew” reentry court, which supports those recently released from long sentences of incarceration. She is a 1989 graduate of Seton Hall Law School.