In courts across country, it's business-as-usual as COVID rages. Prosecutors demand jail. Judges cage. Howard University Law Students have been court watching in P.G. County, MD. A brave student collected her thoughts. "Like an assembly line. Minutes is all it takes." Read more: 
"I open up Zoom and my court watch of the bond hearing in Prince George’s County, Maryland begins. There are four screens. Two of them show a lawyer in suit and tie. One shows a judge in a robe. The last: A person in an orange jumpsuit, their hands cuffed behind their back."
"Nine times out of ten this person cuffed is a Black man."
"Judges go through each bond decisions-whether they'll force a person to risk their life in an overpopulated jail during a pandemic, caged for months waiting for their trial date to be set-like an assembly line. Minutes is all it takes for judges to determine their fates."
"I’ve witnessed judges ignore the people they are about to jail who say they cannot hear what is happening in their hearings, while making technical adjustments for prosecutors when they make the same complaint."
"I’ve witnessed judges fail to have a translator communicate with a non-English speaking person."
"I’ve witnessed judges chastise attorneys who present extended arguments on behalf of their clients. 'How much longer are you going to be?'"
"I’ve witnessed judges make jokes at the expense of the men and women who stand before them."
"I’ve witnessed judges yelling and berating people experiencing clear signs of mental health illnesses for not responding to their questions."
"Meanwhile, while the State's Attorney, Aisha Braveboy (@SABraveboy), has taken the public stance that she is against cash bond (one of her prosecutors even referred to herself as “No Bond Nancy”), I hardly see her prosecutors objecting to putting defendants in jail pre-trial."
"Meanwhile, the jail population continues to increase & COVID threatens lives. While millions of us have been protesting against racial inequality and mass incarceration, court continues to perpetuate these structural forms of oppression against human beings."
Today, The Movement Lawyering Clinic at Howard University School of Law released a fact-finding report-- "Inside PG County Bond Hearings,"--detailing civil rights concerns they uncovered while observing bond hearings in Prince George's County, Md. Read: law.howard.edu/content/new-re…
Over the course of three months, law students in the Clinic collectively observed approximately 100 hours of bond hearings. Through these hearings, students discovered several troubling trends relating to due process rights, judicial ethics and conduct, and over-criminalization.
The Howard University Law School clinic found out about the horrific conditions inside the local jail and the cruel court process through the GaspingForJustice.org project and campaign. Learn more here:
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