GUILDERLAND — Richard Sherwood, 57, who has been a town justice in Guilderland since 2013, describes his courtroom philosophy as listening to both sides and not jumping to a quick decision.

The Guilderland court is very busy, he says. There are just three judges and he thinks Guilderland was recently ranked 24th-busiest in the state in terms of fingerprintable offenses. In Albany County, he said, Guilderland is ranked third-busiest, behind Colonie, even though the town has only a fraction of Colonie’s staff, he said. He thought Albany City Court was busiest.

Each of Guilderland’s three justices is responsible for everything that happens during the week, including the two court nights, any arraignments that come up, and hearings and trials throughout the days, Sherwood said. The judges also hold hearings and trials during their off-weeks, he said.  

Until about three-and-a-half years ago, defendants did not have an attorney present at arraignment, unless they had arranged for private representation, he noted. Now, public defenders will appear up until 9 o’clock at night, after which defendants are held over in a special holding cell at Albany County’s jail — separate from the general population — for arraignment in the morning.

After 9 p.m., Sherwood said, “Typically, the only times we would have to come out would be if it’s a domestic situation, where we’d have to issue an order of protection, because obviously they can’t necessarily wait until morning.”

His guiding philosophy involves “trying to be fair and realize that — certainly on the traffic end of things, they’re not criminals, they’re people who didn’t have a seatbelt on, or were going a little fast.

But as far as the people who have committed crimes, “you look at their circumstances and try to help them,” Sherwood said. He added, “Going to jail is not necessarily what they need. A lot of people have issues with drug addiction or mental illness.”

Judges work with police, attorneys, social workers, and counselors, to try to get people “into the right place and get the help that they need so they can get better.”

Sometimes, Sherwood said, levying fines can just exacerbate a situation: “Sometimes you’re almost encouraging them to go out and commit another crime, to get the money to pay the fine. Certainly you don’t want to do that.” In many cases, he said, community service can be appropriate.

Many times, people need help, rather than punishment, he said.

There is a unit at the county jail, Sherwood said, for people addicted to heroin, but inmates need to volunteer to enter it. “If they don’t want to go into that unit, no one can make them, including us. By law, we can’t do it. A lot of the frustration with rehabilitation programs is you can’t compel them to go there. They can check themselves out.”

Sherwood also mentioned the “Alive at 25” program designed for speeding violations or other violations “where you’re putting people’s lives in danger.”

About recusal, Sherwood said that judges at the local level sometimes recuse themselves when someone is a client or a close friend or a neighbor. But the need doesn’t arise as much as people might think, he said.

Sherwood said that seeing repeat offenders again and again can sometimes be frustrating. “Many times it makes you sad,” he said. “You feel for them, because of circumstances in their lives.”

He deviates less often on sentencing, he said, and more often on bail, including whether bail is necessary and how much it should be. Having a public defender at arraignments has been very helpful, he said, to let judges see both sides and learn more about a defendant’s ties to the community and “various things that would impact our decision about whether they’re a flight risk.” There isn’t any one side — heavier than recommended, or lighter — that he comes down on, he said.

Sherwood said that judges are limited in what they can say about particular cases, but that, about the specific domestic-violence case mentioned by The Enterprise, which was his case, “I’ll just say I had my reasons for doing that. At least I felt like I had my reasons for doing that.”

Sherwood is a partner in the law firm Mazzotta, Sherwood & Vagianelis. He was also town attorney for 14 years and a prosecutor in the Guilderland traffic court for about seven.

A Democrat, he is married and has two grown boys who were raised in Guilderland. He himself is from the area but did not grow up in Guilderland. He moved to town for the school district in 1991, when his oldest child was getting ready for school, he said.