Miriam Waltzer, b. 1935
Judge Miriam Waltzer has many firsts, including first woman District Attorney in Orleans Parish, and first woman elected to Orleans Parish Criminal Court—despite a campaign of red-baiting by the police because she was a woman, a friend of Dutch Morial, foreign-born, and a Civil Rights activist. From this court, in 1982, Waltzer began the Probation Education Program (P.E.P.), which gave first-time offenders her version of the three R’s: “Revisualization, Reclamation, and Redirection.” Juveniles went to her courtroom every Tuesday to work towards their GED and, upon successful completion, received early termination of their probation. Waltzer also set up civics classes with Orleans Parish students in her Friday courtrooms. She also completed a statewide survey that became an important report on how women–in every role from attorneys to witnesses–were treated in the court system.
Miriam Waltzer, ca. 2000. Courtesy of the National Council of Jewish Women.
Judge Miriam Waltzer: First Woman in the District Attorney’s Office
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