Day 1, Part II

Post by Captain Dan:

The most interesting thing about training day had nothing to do with training, or our scheduled day.

By 6PM, everyone was tired and anxious to go home. We had spent a full day learning how to do things without actually getting to do them, and the mix of fatigue and boredom was staggering. As soon as our trainer mentioned that those who needed to leave could do so, the horde stood up and rushed the door.

Except for us.

The UVA squad stuck around wanting more. Along with a few kids from BU, we were the only folks who stuck around for further training. After a few minutes our trainer told us, "How about this, instead of practicing interviewing potential clients, we actually go over to the courthouse and do some actual interviews?" The evening-shift magistrate judge is particularly hostile toward the public defender's office, and we had all just learned how to help recently arrested detainees determine if they qualify for public defender representation, so he led us over to assist those who the judge rejected with filling out the appropriate forms.

When we got there we learned there were fewer first assignments than usual, so there were fewer people to help. (A first assignment is similar to what most states call an arraignment, where bail is set.) Only one of us got to actually speak to a client, but the observation of the courthouse was amazing and educational. And when I say "amazing and educational", what I mean is "really intensely terrifying", because we got to witness a judge exercising her power to basically shut down the public defenders as much as possible. She HATES the public defenders, it oozes from her voice. She yells at them, she shuts them down, she tells them it's not their turn to speak and then never gives them one, she sets bail for people at a third of a million dollars and then calls that "reasonable".

After the first assignments were over we stood in the hallway and spoke with a few of the law clerks and attorneys that work in the public defender's office about what had just happened in the court room. It's clear that in this city the deck is completely stacked against the arrested detainees and the public defenders who fight for them. Of course, that just convinces me that we're on the right side of the fight by being here. If we're not going to stand up for people caught in the system, who will?