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Chapter 5-The Dynamics of Courthouse Justice Learning Objectives 1. LO1 Have a general sense of who works where in the courthouse. 2. LO2 Analyze the importance of assembly-line justice. 3. LO3 Describe why discretion is found in the criminal courts. 4. LO4 Identify the principal actors in the courtroom work group. 5. LO5 Indicate why ethics is important to the American legal system. 6. LO6 Contrast differing understandings of why delay is a problem in the courts. 7. LO7 Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of speedy-trial laws. 8. LO8 Explain why law in action approaches to court delay are more effective than law on the books approaches. notes the courthouse and the people who work there the courthouse  designed to be imposing, grandiose o designs vary  criminal courts frequently located near detention facilities—public safety purposes o sometimes in isolated areas  high security clearances  “In older courthouses, prisoners used the same entrances and circulation paths as judges, jurors, and members of the public. Modern courthouses, however, are designed to transfer prisoners securely from holding facilities into courthouses using different entrances and restricted internal routes so that they are kept separated from the public and courthouse personnel.”  the courtroom: outward (outside the building) appearance of orderliness, inside “gives way to a sense of social anarchy.”  court reporter (or court stenographer): trained to record, transcribe what s said during legal proceedings  judicial law clerk: usually a recent law school graduate, assists judge with conducting legal research, drafting opinions  judicial secretary: secretarial tasks, maintains judge’s calendar, controls access to judge

 bailiff: roles vary in different courts—announce when court is in session, escort the jury, mark evidence, maintain supplies (water, paper, pencils), relay messages to/from the jury, operate courtroom equipment, lock/unlock courtroom, serving court orders, preparing bond forms, some security duties  behind the scenes  “Courts are paperwork bureaucracies” o initial charge, indictment, bail release forms, pretrial motions, notice of appearance of counsel, etc  clerk of court: (prothonotary, register of probate, clerk) major admin in local judiciaries o a lot of power o compete with judges over control of judicial administration  judges are responsible for court administration, “but they have most often been ineffective managers.” o rarely have the necessary authority to implement systemic change o not trained in management  court administration becoming more professionalized, with more specific careers and positions in managerial positions courthouse security and changing technologies targeted acts of violence in courts  incidents of courthouse bombings, shootings, arson attacks o typically people dissatisfied with their verdicts o murder-for-hire  random stats o 86% of courts did not have a security committee, or at least one that was deemed to be fully functioning o 84% of courts did not have an incident reporting system—or one that sucks o 79% of courts provided some form of security training, but no court-specific courses o 92% of courts assessed had less than adequate or no exterior cctv o 74% of courts had entryway screening, albeit some were missing certain pieces of equipment o 26% respondents had no screening station at all o 96% of courtrooms had some type of duress alarm o 55% of courts had no security officers in courtrooms during proceedings o 62% had duress alarms in judge’s chambers

o ex) police accepting bribes in exchange for underreporting, falsification of evidence  most of the time, discretion is exercise appropriately  can allow certain factors to influence case processing o ex) legal factors, such as the nature of the crime and criminal history are the most salient determinants of criminal sentences  socioeconomic factors affecting the likelihood of being found guilty, sentence length and severity the courtroom work group  the ongoing relationships among the courthouse actors  judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys represent separate, independent sponsoring institutions o drawn together by a common task: doing something about a given case  mutual interdependence o criminal courthouse is not a single institution, rather a conglomerate of a bunch of separate ones  lacks a central leadership, no formal hierarchical system of control o no single actor can work towards a shared goal on their own o ex) assistant prosecutors are judged on how few cases they lose, not how many they win  shared decision making o judges retain legal authority to make major decisions o judges still rely on others—bail recommendations from prosecution and defense attorney  bail recommendations based off a certain judge’s bail setting history  cyclical o diffuses responsibility  risk that a decision could turn out to be wrong → not necessarily a high risk, but one with serious consequences o regularity of behavior—product of shared norms regarding behavior and decision making o socialization: the process of ‘breaking in’ new members  newcomers learn from peers, other members of the group o normal crimes → group sense of justice  cases are put into a limited number of categories, leading to generalizations about each type of ‘normal crime’  includes typical manner in which they are committed  → typical social characteristics of defendants  → types of victims o rewards and sanctions o variability in work groups  not really an issue, low turnover rate  policy norms vary

 most visible variation is delay—courtroom’s expectations about properly pacing case dispositions the problem of delay  case disposition targets not always met consequences of delay  “justice delayed is justice denied”  reformers and critics argue that case delay undermines the values and guarantees associated with the legal system o delays in courthouse center on defendant, society, citizen  historical view: delay jeopardized defendant’s right to a speedy trial —6th amendment  modern view: delay hampers society’s need for a speedy conviction—harm done to the prosecution  negatively affects public confidence in the judicial process → discourages seeking prosecution assessing the costs of delay  lengthy pretrial incarceration can cause defendants to enter into detrimental plea bargains  caseload pressures can force prosecutors into offering unduly lenient negotiated agreements  social costs of delay  jail overcrowding, defendants failing to show up in court law on the books approach to court delay  common response to delay is to supplement resources o more judges, clerks, other personnel o judicial budgets often cannot accommodate  streamlining procedure  “In Justice Delayed” …”The relative size of court caseloads, for example, bore little relationship to case-processing time.”  court procedure inaccurate in predicting delay o ex) courts that emphasized plea bargains took had same rates of delay speedy-trial laws  some specify precise time standards for each step of the CJS process

o although they are often help responsible when something goes wrong  most courthouse actors are required to report to their higher-ups, not all of which are the administrators variability in courtroom work groups revisited  some courts are considered hierarchical—clear chain of command among staff o processed felony cases significantly faster than other court structures  communal court culture—processed felony cases more slowly than other courts o not necessarily good or bad  variations in courtroom work groups reflect “responses to multiple goals as well as differing ways of managing relations between a diverse set of courthouse actors.” legal ethics  lawyers generally get a bad reputation → legal professions place considerable emphasis on legal ethics  an example of applied ethics, ethical principles are applied to specific issues  an example of professional ethics, involves the behavior of a profession  all ethics have a moral component o morality is individual, however, and legal ethics “involves the difficult task of helping lawyers sort out the best option when perhaps no good options exist.”  american legal system is based on the adversarial system (which stresses verbal combat) o represents a fight between opposing viewpoints o legal ethics ensure a fair fight  emphasis on protecting clients o “ensuring that they have competent attorneys to forcefully present their cases.”  seeks to promote public respect for the judiciary o lawyers cannot mislead the court, allow witnesses to perjure themselves  american bar association adopts the Model Rules of Professional Conduct 1983 o federalism→each state adopts its own code  law students required to take a legal ethics course, separate tests before being admitted to the bar  legal ethics codes supplemented by statues, precedent Learning Objectives 1. LO1 Have a general sense of who works where in the courthouse. bail bondsmen have their office outside courthouses. judges, lawyers, clerks, court stenographers, law clerks, and bailiffs work inside the courtroom. clerks of court and court administrators work behind the scenes. 2. LO2 Analyze the importance of assembly-line justice. the concept of assembly-line justice stressed the high volume of cases in courthouses and the emphasis on moving the docket.

3. LO3 Describe why discretion is found in the criminal courts. at every key stage of the criminal court process, humans must apply the law. choices are made on the basis of legal judgements, policy priorities, and values and attitudes of the actors. 4. LO4 Identify the principal actors in the courtroom work group. the courtroom work group refers to the regular participants, such as judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, who interact on a daily basis. 5. LO5 Indicate why ethics is important to the American legal system. legal ethics are important because they provide necessary boundaries on conflict represented by the adversary system and also seek to ensure clients that their lawyers are working in their best interests. 6. LO6 Contrast differing understandings of why delay is a problem in the courts. some see delay as a problem because it works to the disadvantage of the prosecutor, others see delay as a problem because it jeopardizes the rights of defendants, and still others see delay as a problem because it reflects a waste of resources. 7. LO7 Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of speedy-trial laws. speedy-trial laws reflect a law on the books approach to problem solving. although these laws have the advantage of calling attention to delay as a problem, they are limited because they provide no mechanisms to deal with discretion. 8. LO8 Explain why law in action approaches to court delay are more effective than law on the books approaches. law in action approaches to solving the problem of delay can prove effective because they focus on coordinating the activities of the key actors in the courthouse. without such coordination, the local legal culture is unlikely to be changed.