[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 177 (Thursday, December 8, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1647]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RETIREMENT OF CIRCUIT JUDGE BERLIN JONES

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                          HON. BRUCE WESTERMAN

                              of arkansas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 8, 2016

  Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a fixture of the 
Arkansas Judiciary. The Honorable Berlin Jones of the Eleventh West 
Judicial Circuit in Pine Bluff was originally appointed to the bench by 
then-Governor Bill Clinton on July 11, 1987, serving the remainder of a 
term that ended on December 31, 1988.
  Judge Jones ran for a full term four years later, taking office 
January 1, 1993. Since assuming the bench more than 20 years ago, Judge 
Jones has heard a magnitude of criminal, civil, and probate cases in 
the Delta.
  Among Judge Jones' accomplishments since taking the bench has been 
the Jefferson County Drug Court, for which he has been the presiding 
judge since its formation in March 2004. In the time Judge Jones and 
his staff have been managing the drug court program, 106 citizens have 
graduated and started on the path to a new life free from drugs.
  In addition to being an advocate for those in recovery, Judge Jones 
has also served on the Arkansas Sentencing Commission and has been an 
active member of the Arkansas Bar Association, where he was admitted in 
1976.
  Men like Berlin Jones are hard to find today. Not only did he serve 
his country in uniform during the Vietnam War, but he has devoted his 
life to the people of Jefferson and Lincoln Counties as an attorney and 
judge. I thank him for his decades of dedicated service to the Pine 
Bluff region, the state of Arkansas, and the United States. May God 
bless him.

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