Criminal Courtroom Observation Reaction Assignment

Criminal Courtroom Observation
Name
Course
Date
Attending a criminal trial is a First Amendment right and access to the court proceedings is provided. The Manhattan Criminal Court in Lower Manhattan New York state is the chosen court of observation. Those in court are either arrested, and others are arraigned where they appear to be read the charges against them and plead guilty or not guilty. However, the full transcript proceedings and records of cases are made much latter In the criminal proceedings few of the accused can hire their own private lawyers and a lawyer is appointed by the court, and even fewer try to represent themselves. Prison is meshed with poverty in the US where the crime and punishment approach has resulted to mass imprisonment, especially among the blacks (Wacquant, 2000). This dynamic is present in the court as there are differences on who are arrested and prosecuted differently for similar crimes.
Crime rose in the 1960 and 1970s, but the violent crimes were separate from the disorders linked to civil rights activities, anti-war activities and urban riots. In the 1967 Katzenbach Report the attorney General focused on crime, law enforcement and reforms in the justice system including adopting uniform laws that addressed to balance the defendant’s rights and prosecuting criminals (State President's Commission on Law Enforcement, and Administration of Justice, 1967). Furthermore, the government would provide useful information on federal offences and be judicious when providing information on criminal records. To Katzenbach there would still be crime in the 1960s even without the political turmoil during the decade, but this is also the time when there was increased interest on framing crime as a national political agenda. Debate on crime in the US was then linked to the political context yet the rising crime rate was not necessarily linked to the political turmoil and disorder. Getting tough on crime became a rallying call for those who proposed to restore order and decades later law enforcement officials have more power and dealing with crime is a common issue in political campaigns.
Like in other courts security is prioritized with guards ensuring that everything is in order and no one trying to interrupt the court hearings and proceedings inside and outside the court. At 8: 45 a.m. most people mill around the court, where there is an array of lawyers, law enforcement officers and the public including witnesses to the trial at 9 o’clock people took their seats including the court room officials. Besides observation, noting down the important aspects of the criminal case and helps to understand the context how different parties are involved. Unlike the TV courtroom shows, the place is quieter with more visitors and observers, but there is still no agreement on the impact of televised violence on crime (Weber & Timmermans, 2010).
There has been an increase in cases based on drug convictions in the past three decades including New York, and some of the cases have involved this in 2019. However, there has been growing concern that punishment is not always fair as it is punitive and sometimes disproportionately affects the minority including cases of drug charges. C...