This week, I was able to attend court each day I was present in the office. Tuesday, I observed Bond Hearings. During this process, the judge asks the defendants various questions while taking their guilty plea, such as their highest grade completed, age, ability to read and write, were the under the influence of any illegal substances, the charges presented against them and if they were satisfied with the representation of their attorney. One of the common themes with most defendants is that they did not complete high school, which in my opinion directly correlates the probability of committing and crime with education. There was also an individual who originally was going to be sentenced under the first offenders act, but after the judge gave the discloser that he could be sentenced up to ten years if he did not comply with the terms and conditions given by the court, he decided that he did not want to take the first offenders act. This showed that many individuals plan to recidivate and believe that is almost impossible not to violate their probation conditions.
Thursday, I attended Juvenile Hearings. Unlike Superior Court, public defenders who
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There was once case in particular that stood out to me, which involved two high school girls charged with armed robbery. Although the girls had no prior history and were only a party to the crime, they’ve been in the Lowndes County Jail for a month. One of the defendants was being held on knowledge of the crime and text messages because she was informing the robbers of their location. The other girl, had no direct evidence associating her with the party to the crime other than the statements of her codefendants. The judge addressed that the system was not working in favor of the girls because the bond hearing given to them was months out from their arrest date. Subsequently, they were able to find a resolution and work with an tracking agency to release the