Joy Corbett Gets From Defense Career in Michigan

Answer: Well, I actually enjoy it. I mean, we deal with prosecutors now from a different perspective. But I enjoyed prosecuting cases. I dealt with fairly high-level, large-scale criminal activity. I was the chief of the organized crime section and prosecuted a number of cases involving the alleged members of the mafia here in the Detroit Metropolitan area. And I enjoyed that because you got a sense of fulfillment that you had taken people who were a serious threat to society and put them in a situation where they were going to be held accountable for their actions.

And at the present time, I'm sort of—not on the other side coin—but I'm looking at it from a different perspective. And I'm dealing with people who have made a single mistake and are trying to put their lives back together, and when you help somebody who has had this problem, and when they get a resolution that they feel comfortable with, and they come to you and they say, “Well, thank you for helping me out.”

You to get a sense of personal fulfillment because you've taken a person who thought they were perhaps in a no-win situation, or their lives were ruined, and you've given them the opportunity to see that it's not the end of the line, and that you can deal with this, and come back and be a valuable effective member of society. It doesn't have to ruin your lives.  It's a choice that you have to make.  And when people see that and get a second chance, you get a sense of real accomplishment because you know you've helped somebody out who was in a bad situation.