jail

This week has been our busiest yet, probably because we have four homicides on our plate. Also, now that my partner and I have 'proven' ourselves capable of handling all aspects of a case we are being tasked with more responsibilities and loosed to our own devices. This is both very flattering and very intimidating because we become more directly involved in the outcome of a case. Being an integral part of the defense team means that you rise and fall with the defendant. This knowledge does give us more pride in our work, and when we do get a piece of critical information it is that much sweeter. At the end of the day our satisfaction with our work is wholly dependent on how much our efforts have helped our clients.
I doubt that I will ever be intimidated by a neighborhood at first glance again. We are becoming more and more familiar with the highest crime communities and I am constantly surprised at how normal they seem to me. There are some indicators, such as discarded beer cans or the syringe I stepped on last week, but overall it can be hard to separate a less advantaged neighborhood from a crime den. People live in all kinds of places, some are just used to hearing gunshots.
We finally got an opportunity to visit the jail this week. It was actually the Correctional Treatment Facility, which is a privately run jail. This facility houses mainly women and offenders who have mental problems. My experience was a bit disappointing ,as I mostly realized how poorly run these facilities are. It also made me understand how terrible the situation is for incarcerated individuals. Persons who have been imprisoned pending sentencing have the worst situation, because they have not even been convicted of a crime but still are removed from their families. It is incredibly sad to see someone be introduced to their newborn for the first time in a jail visiting room.