Get To Know Your Criminal Justice System

Have you ever seen the inside of a prison?

Over at the Atlantic, Sara Mayeux offers some important advice to those of us who advocate for criminal justice reform — and especially to those who've rarely thought about the system. She urges us to step inside and learn more.

Visit the prison cells, police stations and courtrooms where the wheels of justice grind every day, she says. You'll get a new understanding of the ways this system works — and the ways it doesn't.

Her post provides a fresh reminder of the fact that the criminal justice system isn't an idea — it's a sprawling human system, and it's ours. We pay the salaries of police, public defenders and prosecutors. We pay to build prisons and we pay our representatives to make laws. We should know what's being done in our name.

Mayeux offers some great suggestions on how to get involved: Go on a police ride-along. Sit through a day in court. Both are valuable experiences, and the latter, at least, is available to you anytime you feel like dropping by your local county seat on a weekday (or even during the night in many big cities).

She's onto something. Citizen engagement in the system shouldn't be limited to jury duty. Prisons are invisible only because we allow them to be that way. Accordingly, allow me to offer three more suggestions on ways you can get a firsthand look inside the system:

1). Visit a prisoner. Many prisoners have lost touch with the outside world. They don't get any mail, much less visitors. Volunteer to visit a federal prisoner through Prisoner Visitation and Support — you'll help a prisoner and get an inside view of life in prison, too.

2). Set up a meeting with your local district attorney. If your prosecutor is elected (and he or she probably is), then you're a constituent. Your prosecutors represent you, and you have a right to know what they do every day and where their focus lies. Are they prosecuting low-level drug offenders or focused on treatment? Are they committed to protecting against wrongful prosecutions based on faulty evidence?

3). Invite a speaker to your school or community group. Invite a local police officer, prosecutor, defense attorney or a former prisoner to speak to your school or community group — you can focus the talk on a specific issue or ask them to give an overview of their work.

These are just a few ideas for ways to engage and get a first-hand look at our country's criminal justice system. Have you visited a courtroom lately as an observer? Do you have other ideas of ways we can get windows into the justice system? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Photo Credit: hagge