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You recognize the man standing before you in court. He is thin and his tangled hair hangs in his eyes. His clothes are dirty and worn, and his shoes have holes in them.

As a justice of the peace, you're reading this man his rights because he has been charged with breaking and entering in a local corner store. It certainly isn't the first time you've seen him standing before you in the courtroom.

"It can be frustrating when you see the same people again and again," says Larry Cole, a justice of the peace in Oregon. "It seems like a revolving door or a recycling bin."

This repeat offender is an alcoholic and commits crimes to feed his habit. "People like this go through the process, go in a program and in six months they are back," says Cole. "It's a sad thing."

It is stories like this man's that can make a justice of the peace's job difficult to bear. It isn't easy to see people in what is probably the worst time of their lives.

"But it's all worthwhile when you wind up with a real success story," says Cole. He remembers one alcoholic who kept appearing before him on different charges.

"But then he had a total life turnaround," he says. "This gentleman is now the head of an alcohol and drug program.

"One success story makes a thousand failures worth it."

Some JPs travel to smaller communities to deal with the many people who stand before them. But these days, technology is eliminating the need for travel.

Instead, the justice of the peace can organize a conference call or videoconference to include the officer, the prisoner and the lawyer.

Still, justice of the peace Hugh Gaffney meets most of the officers and prisoners face to face. "It's a very interesting profession," he says. "You work with all kinds of people and you never know what you're going to hear next.

"It could be a common assault, a murder charge or a multimillion-dollar fraud charge coming over the fax at any given time," he says.

Because of the variety, Gaffney says that justices of the peace have to work hard to keep up will all the changes in the court system.

Cole agrees. He also notes that a changing and more diverse population is making his work more difficult. "It's important that people who don't speak English well have a translator," he says. "They must be able to understand what charges are being laid against them."

However, a lack of translators creates problems. "It's a more diversified population and we don't have any resident translators. It can be difficult and a problem we're running into more often," he says.

Justices of the peace work with all kinds of people. If they're performing a marriage, then they may be witnessing two people at the happiest moment in their lives. Or they might be reading charges to a person who will eventually be sent to prison for life.

Knowing that you're involved in the outcome of people's lives can be difficult. "You deal with lots of people who are in custody," says Janice McGuckin, a justice of the peace. "That can be hard."

She says the key to her work is remembering that she's toiling for the good of that person, and for society. Whatever happens on a day-to-day basis often has to be left at the office.

"There's not a lot of job satisfaction," she says. "When someone is screaming at you and they don't want to be there, you can't take it personally. And you can't take it home with you.

"You have all kinds of people coming before you, and that's actually the part of this job I enjoy the most," says McGuckin. "I work with many prosecutors and the police."

But she warns that being a successful JP takes more than simply being a people person. "You've got to be somebody who can handle pressure, and is able to not take all of what you see home with you."

As frustrating as it is to see repeat offenders such as the alcoholic before you in court, and despite how miserable it makes you to see people ruining their lives, you can't let the work destroy your spirit.

Cole agrees. "It can be a difficult job, but overall, it's a very worthwhile endeavor."

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