Leadership Shelby County hosted their annual Justice Day on Tuesday, Dec. 13, at several locations in Shelby County. Throughout the day, Leadership Shelby County’s Adult Class learned about law enforcement, the court system, community corrections and juvenile services in Shelby County.

“This is providing the leaders of Shelby County and the future leaders of Shelby County with a good understanding of what goes on in our county,” said Shelby County Probate Judge and Leadership Shelby County Board of Directors member Allison Boyd. “What makes us unique how all of our offices work together to solve any problems that we have or any issues that we see. This gives them a good opportunity to see how all of our departments work together.”

Justice Day began at 7:30 a.m. at the Mildred Harrison Library in Columbiana. The class met with Circuit Clerk Mary Harris, Boyd, Probate Judge Jim Fuhrmeister, District Attorney Jill Lee and Judge Jim Kramer.

At 9:30 a.m., the class moved to the Shelby County Courthouse to meet with Public Defender Robert Williams, District Court Judge Daniel Crowson, Shelby County Coroner Diane New and the Circuit Judge Panel. They also met with Shelby County Circuit Court Judge William Bostick and Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Michael Joiner before moving to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Training Center for lunch.

During lunch, the class listened to presentations from Shelby County Community Corrections Residential Manager Julius Cook and Shelby County Sheriff John Samaniego. Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force Commander Clay Hammac and Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Captain Kevin Turner demonstrated live scenarios, one of which involved a mock meth lab.

At 2 p.m., the class toured the Shelby County Jail. Justice Day concluded with a tour of the Shelby County Regional Juvenile Detention Facility.

Private attorney and Shelby County Commissioner Lindsey Allison said the event also helped the class better understand the hard work involved in the county’s legal system.

“Many of them had no idea how sophisticated our system is, and how much energy and planning it takes,” Allison said. “[Shelby County is] doing a lot of things to help our citizens, and they’re seeing it today.”

Allison said Justice Day has been held annually for over 20 years, and there have been many advancements in all aspects of the Shelby County legal system since its beginning.

“When we started this years ago, we had basically two or three judges and one or two programs,” Allison said. “Now, people [from other counties] come in to study our systems.”