Justice System: A Personal Experience

1252 Words3 Pages

For my research paper I decided to observe at the North Justice Center in Fullerton, CA for the morning session. My goal entering there was to watch the process of a criminal trial since I felt that would be the most interesting and would allow me the opportunity to witness all the working parts of our justice system in action. While waiting for the criminal trial to open its doors and start, I managed to come across a post- arraignment court, where I was able to watch a different side of our criminal justice system. This is the side that enforces the punishment and makes sure that restitution is paid for whatever crime was committed. By far the most interesting thing I took from this experience was the differences in how the judges conducted themselves in their courtrooms and the amount of discretion that they were allowed to use. For this paper I will be going over what I observed in both the post-arraignment court and the criminal trial and analyze my findings in a sociological context.

When talking with the deputy in charge, who was incredibly helpful in my observations, he told me that the people in attendance that day were people that plead out, or as we have discussed in class they have taken a plea bargain where they have agreed to the DA’s terms in order to get a lesser sentence for their offense. This could be community service, pay restitution, and being placed under house arrest or a combination of the latter. There are 3 types of cases that the court reviews in post-arraignment court, the first is sentence modification. This is where the defendant can ask the court for change in their sentence because they cannot pay the issued fines, or they need an extension because they need more time to either service their comm...

... middle of paper ...

...d other individuals to take him seriously. This is not the only time I have observed this behavior from a judge of a minority race.

Overall, I think that this experience was a great way to see how law and society interact with one another in order to bring order and conformity to the community. I was interesting to see how in the post-arraignment the threat of a more severe punishment as a deterrent is used to keep individuals from getting into further trouble with the court. It’s apparent that the use of the justice system will always be needed in order to keep order in a continuously changing society and spending just a couple of hours at the courthouse is a great way to learn about what behaviors society finds to be unjust and in need of reprimand.

Works Cited

Vago, Steven. Law and Society. Ed. Christopher Dejohn. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005.

Open Document