Court watch is a volunteer-based presence in courtrooms to observe legal proceedings. Court hearings are public, but many folks have never seen the inside of the courtroom. We highlight the reality of our legal system by recording data and stories, finding trends in the system, and presenting our findings to the general public.
Court watching is a tool used in a greater campaign — there are many ways to court watch. Different programs might focus on specific laws, court actors, duration of hearings, the severity of charges, conditions of release, use of terminology, personal accounts of defendants, etc. The greater campaign determines the details of individual court watch programs it will be used in. We plan to focus on arraignment court to collect data that will reveal any overt or implicit bias in the bail setting process as wel
Volunteers will watch court sessions in-person or over Zoom and record significant details of each decision made by the judge (such as specific charges, racial background of the person being charged, whether they have a public defender, whether they are homeless), and that data will be moved into a spreadsheet for analysis and eventual publication.