A 17-year-old defendant responded affirmatively to the judges question of whether he understands that he will go back to jail if the terms of his probation are found to be violated. Perhaps worst of all, the "broken windows" theory discursively connects small crimes and misdemeanors to large ones, implying that those who commit small crimes must be stopped before they do something worse. Many incarcerated people havent even been told what the symptoms of coronavirus are or the health precautions they need to take. This law allowed the police to hide the outcomes of disciplinary hearings and body camera footage from the public. The name of a party appearing on the document. Now that we have some understanding of some of the problems with contemporary policing, well turn to a few concrete solutions in our next post. But what does just different lives mean? The judge then requested probation to report its recommendations. The prison system also underwent massive changes during this time. Less than ten years after the most substantial police reform, the Presidents Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice in 1967, the federal government initiated the War on Drugs. and steady progress on the road back to normal operations. This manner of justice continued, with minor reforms, until the second industrial revolution in the mid-19th century, which created Americas working class and drew over 20 million immigrants to the country. In this teenagers case, the probation violation charge stemmed from the report of an officer who discovered signs that the family dog was still living at his home, an apparent breach in the terms set for the defendants release. This law provides New Yorkers with information that would allow them to gauge the impact and effectiveness of police activity while also potentially revealing evidence of existing biases in police practices. This unforgiving mindset fundamentally misunderstands the circumstances in which people in povertythose disproportionately caught up in and punished by the criminal justice systemconsistently find themselves. He moves in and out of the courtroom as he pleases, as if its his turf. As the judge began the proceedings for this case, a voice from behind me interjected: He doesnt speak English.. These results could be showing a pattern in the court scheduling that court watchers are not aware of. This new policy primarily criminalized the large African American population in Northern cities after the end of the second Great Migration, resulting in a 433% growth in the prison population from the beginning to the end of the 1970s. For the first ten or so cases, I felt that our hasty shuffling of the pages was loud and distracting I felt uncomfortable accidentally bringing any attention to us. Policing developed separately in the North and South. The Corporation Counsel for the City of Poughkeepsie, who had just entered the courtroom for this one case and was presumably getting a look at it for the first time, explained that this wouldnt be necessary. The docket was full, but the courtroom was strangely empty thanks to capacity restrictions in response to the COVID pandemic. To begin to understand modern policing and the rise of mass incarceration in America, we must begin at our country's colonial roots. From walking through the metal detector to the incessant comments of the court officers, the court room is filled with little signals that repeatedly remind people of their position. Faced with red brick, the half-million dollar structure featured Palladian windows in the second and fifth-story center bays with stucco decoration above. If individuals are unable to make payments on their fines and fees, they must reappear regularly (often monthly) before the court to explain their circumstances. All defendants, visitors, and attorneys were required to wear a mask and take a seat on an X, marked in blue tape six feet from the next person, while others waited outside until their cases were called. Over an hour had passed by the time the teen was called again. This new law prevented people accused of minor offenses from being needlessly incarcerated simply because of an inability to pay bail. The public defender then proffered her own compromise: that the judge at least grant the defendant electronic monitoring. Meanwhile, the young defendant seemed distraught, staring at the floor and shaking his head back and forth. Risk assessment and dangerousness standard might sound good for public safety, but in practice they are in fact highly discriminatory and do little to increase the safety of our communities. Judge Mora waited a few seconds before laughing at the prospect. To counter the perceived threat that ethnic diversity posed to Americas social order, state governments created modern police systems to control the immigrants. Incarcerated citizens in our community are at severe risk of coronavirus. Not vibrate. In addition, Black youth are overrepresented in juvenile facilities. Built in 1903, it is the third[2] county courthouse to stand on that site. The colonies also employed for-profit-sheriffs, appointed by governors, who collected taxes, served subpoenas, and, to a small extent, prevented crime. Everything was fast-paced, too quick for me to keep up. By a risk assessment or a dangerousness standard,people of color will be disproportionately considered high-risk and detained prior to a resolution of their case (in theory a trial, but almost always a plea deal) . At the Poughkeepsie City Court, this is a combination of the letters CR and some string of numbers. If you are unsure of the status of a scheduled court appearance, you should consult
But the most likely possibility is that he might not have been living at this address for very long. As of today, there have been 466 verified cases of infection in Dutchess County, and this devastating pandemic has made its way into our jails and prisons. The court is in session. And so is ENJANs court watching program! The reality is that where there is a demanding judge, there may also be a demanding boss, a demanding home life, and a whole slew of other demanding responsibilities. Of those cases we observed in court, only 24.2% of defendants are women, even though women make up 51% of the City of Poughkeepsie population. And while 97% of defendants spoke and understood English, 3% did not. She was a black woman bound in chains, clad in an orange jumpsuit, and flanked by six police officers. These police systems were publicly funded, decentralized, regulated by laws, and concentrated on crime preventioni.e., controlling the underclass. The first Great Migration, beginning in 1915, brought millions of African Americans to Northern cities. As a result of backlash against physical punishment and more regulations in the modern police system, incarceration became the primary sentence. You may search using all or part of the name. It empowers prosecutors to offer harsher pleas, which defendants already locked up are likely to accept. There are three different name "modifiers" available. Listening to the public defender address the problems with probations report made me wonder how this racial divide may influence our civil servants to make problematic assumptions about defendants. Also contact your local senator and assemblyperson to thank them for passing the Safer New York Act. Because these proportions do not align with the observed race of defendants, we must question possible causes behind, as well as consequences of, the overrepresentation of African Americans in our local courts. The people offered the defendant, who was facing criminal mischief charges, probation along with a full order of protection. Of the 52 prisons in New York, 34 of them have tested less than 1% of their population and 8 that havent tested anyone. Its time to end this racist system. Fines are supposed to punish people for their misdeeds but mandatory fees are in reality a revenue-generating mechanism for state and local government that extracts wealth from the poorest New Yorkers. Would it be reasonable to conclude that this probation officer behind the report only viewed the defendant as a deadbeat father because black males are supposed to fit that criterion? In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In the following years, Giuliani and police commissioner William Bratton initiated a top-down crackdown on crime, beginning with fare beaters in the subway. Find calendar information for an attorney or firm and email copies of your Calendar. Even if the official legal storyline is innocent until proven guilty, the hidden narrative of the courtroom is guilty until proven guilty. When Judge Mora ignores these realities, he renders them invisible, and so missed court dates are instead attributed to laziness or a defendants inherent criminality. Kelling and Wilson believed this form of policing would help accomplish the ultimate goal of empowering the people of affected communities by helping them reclaim safe public spaces. Moreover, theres no evidence that open container laws actually correlate to, much less cause, a reduction in more serious crimes. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, in 2019, over 48,000 youth in the US were confined in facilities related to juvenile or criminal justice. In response, local laws began to target public drinking. The judge initially said nothing, but then announced the sentence: $120 in court feesand a $200 fine. The three names will be used in conjunction during the search. One of the inmates had a temperature of 105 degrees but instead of being sent to a hospital, he was sent back to his room and threatened that if he spoke to anyone, he would be sent to second-stage quarantining, where he could not shower, call loved-ones, or have access to his personal property. During a break, I tapped the public defender on the shoulder and told him how upset I felt about the case. Fortunately, there are still steps that the ordinary citizen can take to improve the accountability of police. Why did she, as someone who was accused of a nonviolent offense, require such excessive security? Despite the shocking length of his sentence, the court treated his situation as a matter of course. Probation informed the court that it desired that the defendant serve time in jail instead of supervised release. She began by calling the probation officers report ridiculous and irrelevant due to the subjective nature of the document. Useless policies like this will not stop the spread of the coronavirus, especially when healthcare supplies are being withheld from prisoners. The public defender rejected the offer. I know the systematic ins and outs, whats cool and whats a dub. Ive also seen and experienced the role-playing, mocking and hierarchies of the halls based on others' exercise of power and personality. This is the framework of justice that Mora evokes when he, frankly, punishes people for not having the time to show upthat is, for the circumstances of their lives. One change implemented at the Fishkill Correctional Facility, where over 30% of incarcerated coronavirus deaths in NYS have occurred, is that instead of sitting next to each other in the dining hall, inmates now sit one chaira mere arm-lengthapart. The other day in court, a black male defendant arrived in chains. NOTICE: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis, some of the scheduling
The sentence for an infraction like this is often a fine. Find published decisions by index number and county. Our court watchers have seen six different judges in action. I had the impression that he was frustrated with being there and just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possiblea pattern Ive noticed with a lot of defendants who want to avoid having to come in week after week to hash out the details of their cases. This theory is named for a 1969 experiment by psychologist Phillip Zimbardo in which he abandoned a car in two neighborhoods: a poor one in New York and an affluent one in Palo Alto, California. Not only were Judge Moras comments condescending and rudeas he had treated a number of defendants all morningbut they also lacked an understanding of why it might be difficult for some people to remember their address. His visibly overworked public defender, now having had a chance to talk with the defendant and his mother, reported that the dog was living with a friend. It was determined during the proceedings that he was going to plead guilty to the charges and serve 60 days in jail. First, many defendants struggle with the pressure of speaking in front of a judge and a full court room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-0bURq6wBo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZhyEW5fww4, a report by the Fines and Fees Justice Center (FFJC), amounts to a racialized tax reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, George Kelling and his colleague James Wilson tried to apply this idea to policing, 30% of incarcerated coronavirus deaths in NYS have occurred, Policing in America: Making Police More Transparent and Accountable. As a third-year student in college completing an internship as a court watcher, my only familiarity with the dynamics of a courtroom comes from episodes of CSI or Law & Order. The defendant turned to walk back to his mother who was standing and shaking her head as the next case number was called. The Dutchess County Courthouse is located at 10 Market Street in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. court appearance. Please note as the courts return to normal operations the automated email notices
The probation officer is the goodie-two-shoes within the courtroom, the judges pet, anticipating his needs and finishing peoples sentences with her insider knowledge. Since that day, I have seen 13 different open container cases during my time as a court watcher. In American society, popular media commonly portrays black males as criminals and deadbeat fathers. At a certain point, these postponements represent an onerous hardship. However, the proposed rollbacks on New York State bail reform will squander this once-promising future of pretrial judicial equality. Drunkenness was decriminalized and reframed as a public health issue. At the same time, police hunted down immigrants and African Americans for the same crimes or no crime at all. However, upon further research I found that open container laws are actually a continuation of old laws against public drunkenness and vagrancy that were prevalent in many states and municipalities in the early 1960s. Is this justice? It felt good to be back in the courtroom again. Get involved! My eyes quickly moved from the paper to the screen and screen to the paper, double-checking to make sure I got the birth year of this defendant right. This is not the first time Ive observed the city prosecutor make a questionable offer for a littering charge. Furthermore, when defendants do show up to court, more often than not nothing is resolved, and their case is simply adjourned to a later court date. The public defender is the jock who tries to get along with everyone. Since then, other tough-on-crime measures led to the imprisonment of millions of people of color, leading to todays mass incarceration. I dont have an answer to this quandary, but there has to be a better way than fining people and dragging them into court every other week. You know, these kids had to fight to survive from a young age. At the exact same time, I looked up to see a different court officer idly scrolling through his own cell phone while standing behind a black male defendant in chains. Turn the phone off and put it away. The initiative received bipartisan support, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle saw it as a good way to effectively prevent crime. In return, the police kept their stable jobs and partook in illegal activities as they saw fit. Today, it houses judges' chambers and clerks' offices as well as courtrooms. Most importantly, what could we as a society do to avoid similar tragedies? After initial success in catching some serious criminals who also happened to be fare beaters, the enforcement tactic was employed city-wide. The names of infected correctional officers and inmates are withheld from inmates- even if they were in direct contact with them. Based on implicit bias around race or gender identity (think NYCs infamously racist Stop and Frisk policy), the approach has not only been unevenly applied, but has often resulted in increased incidents of police violence against people of color. Is there an over-policing of the Black community in the City of Poughkeepsie? For more information on how to get involved, visit the No Price on Justice Campaign or ENJAN. Granted, seeing as I dont know the defendants income or housing history, all this is speculation. For individuals without a (steady) job that pays a living wage, even a one-time $200 fine and a $120 fee can produce years of headache. Three years later the state legislature appropriated funds for a new one, which stood for almost a century. LPs are filed in the Clerks Minutes/LP document type. The time for change is now. Finally, she pointed out that probations assessment had nothing to do with the charges he was facing. Then, just as I was falling deeper into my thoughts, the public defender calmly mentioned how this defendant was already sentenced to 6 years in prison at the Dutchess County Court and stated to Judge Volkman that it would be unnecessary to sentence him another 6 months at the City Court. He had been quiet up to this point, forced into silence as the details of his life were tossed around the courtroom. Editors Note: In response to the death of George Floyd and marches calling for significant police reform, Court Watch of Dutchess County has decided to post a multi-part series called Policing in America, to educate the public on the racist evolution of policing in America and reform solutions that put the welfare of marginalized communities first. The two theorized that a sign of disorder, such as a broken window, would signal that a neighborhood is uncared for, encouraging more frequent and severe crime. Her top charge was read aloud petit larceny essentially shoplifting an item from a local Rite Aid. When I walked into the City of Poughkeepsie courtroom for my first session, I was surprised to see the court reporter keep up with the quick back and forth for each case. Meanwhile, following the Civil War, the emerging modern police system in the South perpetuated many of the practices of slave patrols through the enforcement of black codes. Meanwhile, families of people incarcerated at the Dutchess County Jail have told us that their loved ones have started to show symptoms associated with the virusbut have not yet been tested! Phones away! shouted the court officer. From my vantage point in the jury box, where I had been invited to observe, the courtroom appeared starkly divided. To accommodate the growing number of inmates, congress passed the Three Prisons Act in 1891, which established the Federal Prison System. Thus, since its early inception, the modern police system has thrived by persecuting marginalized groups: immigrants in the North and Far West, Mexican-Americans in Texas and the Southwest, and African Americans pretty much everywhere. A number of possible reasons ran through my head. As the problems with "broken windows" policing and other contemporary enforcement strategies have been exposed, people who hope to make our criminal justice system more just have been promoting measures aimed at requiring law enforcement to be more transparent and accountable to the citizens they serve. The teenage boy dropped down in the row next to his mother and the two waited through most of the days hearings to find out if something as harmless as an inability to find someone else to take the family dog would land the defendant back in jail. In fact, a recent article in The New Republic has documented how gentrification in New York City has driven many New Yorkers to Upstate New York, driving up rent prices and making it more difficult to obtain affordable housing in our area. Time and time again these thugs are targeted and over-policed because of the perceived deviant label associated with their skin color. By perpetuating a narrative that the growing number of strikersprimarily immigrants and laborerswere criminals, police justified the need for new technology, such as alarm boxes and patrol wagons, which extended their powers. In response Judge Mora said, You dont live at -----? filling in the defendants address on file. This is not unusual for the United States reforms, which have a long history of creating changes to help white people on the backs of people of color. You may enter up to three different criteria for the name. Additionally, we observed that Black or African American defendants made up 52.7% of all defendants, while only 30.6% were White, and 12.6% were Latinx. Find New York State Civil Supreme Court cases by index number. Because the Supreme Court determined that enforcement of these laws was overly subjective and unfairly targeted homeless and alcoholic men, they were struck down as unconstitutional in a string of rulings starting in 1964. If you were like me, high school did not feel like a place that valued justice.
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