Community Experience
For my community experience I went
observed the regular Saturday drug court. I learned that it was a weekly or
biweekly occurrence only after a little while observing. The judge clearly knew
most of the offenders already; in fact, he knew them by name and their
situations very well. There was one point where the judge was asking an
offender about the proper place for him to live once released from the facility
he was staying at, and immediately rejected the idea that he go live with his
wife again, saying, “We know how that turns out for you.” There was only person
that the judge didn’t know (in fact, I noticed him looking inquiringly me at
several times, as if aware I didn’t belong), and that was only because it was
the man’s first time at drug court.
In a way it wasn’t surprising that
the judge seemed curious about me, though, because I could tell as soon as I
walked in that I was going to stick out. Most of the people ordered to show up
to the court brought friends with them. They all looked pretty unkempt as if
they didn’t shower often and hadn’t brushed or combed their hair that day at
all. Many people had hair died in crazy colors (which I just have to say I
would absolutely do if I wasn’t a BYU student) and the hairstyles were not conservative.
Their clothes were often dirty and worn. So when I walked in with my very
conservative hairstyle, new clothes (I was very aware of how bright white my
shirt was), well-rested appearance, and not a single piercing, I very clearly
didn’t fit in.
It took me a while to get absorbed
into the conversations the judge was having with each offender as they were
called up. In fact, that very structure was surprising to me, because I’ve
never been to a court before, I don’t think, nor have I ever watched a TV
program like Law and Order. So I’ve only rarely seen court scenes depicted in
media and am pretty unsure of what they’re like. So when the court just
consisted of the judge reading updates about each offender’s progress in the
rehabilitation program and how well they’d completed / adhered to his rulings
from the previous session, I was very surprised. I was a little surprised at
the judge’s tone of voice, too. I was happy he was so kind to the offenders,
but he seemed to be talking to them with just a hint of the voice you use when
you talk to a child. But I actually came to understand after a little while.
There was a fairly open dialogue between the judge and each person when they
took the stand (enough so that I could tell he was good at cutting them off
when they’d get on rants about how motivated they were to change—presumably actions
speak louder than words, particularly when you've seen the same words not come
to fruition many, many times). As I listened to each person speak when they got
up, I was amazed at how slow, slurred, and simple their speech was. I could
tell that for many of the people, drugs had probably permanently affected their
brain. It really brought home to me the severity of what these people had been
engaged in and what kind of sheltered life I’ve led that I don’t even know how
to identify the smell of marijuana, let alone ever had close friends or
relatives involved with drugs.
I’m really glad I went and observed
the court. I’ve always felt very disconnected from criminal experiences and
drug use because of my upbringing and limited media exposure, but I really want
to be able to understand those things. And I know that the area I’ll be
teaching in in Houston will feature a lot of those lifestyles. My students’
families, friends, and even some of my students themselves will personally deal
with those issues, so I need to learn more about them now (and be able to
identify if one of my students is even high…).
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