The above quotes really speak volumes as to explaining my experience interning at the Criminal Justice Center. Before the internship I was under the impression that that courts were not effective and that they operated in a way that was not beneficial to the offender. Hearing about the past experiences of defendants that have been to court, lead to the belief that the courts were biased and did not allow defendants their Constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial. Along with this, it seems that those defendants had cases that were drawn out and over two years old at times. This suggested that the courts were not upholding their promise of providing a speedy trial. Before the internship my confidence in the court was very minimal. However, during and after the internship I discovered some remarkable things. It was discovered that the courts did not necessarily pose an unconstitutional risk to defendants but that they offer programs that can prevent a defendant from going to jail as well as offer programs that allows the defendant …show more content…
The slogan about, “It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know” has proven to be relatively true in the criminal courts. Plea bargains are made in between counsel; thus it is really beneficial to a defense attorney’s client if that attorney has a positive relationship with the prosecutor in the case. Relationship is also important in the Judge and attorney interactions. If an attorney has a bad reputation amongst Judges, it is more than likely that the attorney will have a hard time putting on a case in front of certain Judges. This political atmosphere of the courts is not always a good thing because it seems to mix relationship with justice and justice should be unbiased and impartial with respect to the defendant as well as legal