How do the “players” in the criminal justice system become so jaded? There are numerous factors that affect the “cops, robbers, lawyers, judges, and assorted creatures of the law” and it certainly results in various levels of compassion or numbness. In addition, one thing cannot be applied across the board; for instance, not all women are more compassionate than all men, but there were certainly examples of that in Courtroom 302. For example, Deputy Laura Rhodes says it’s a general belief among deputies that all prisoners are monsters, whereas she feels she can see beyond their anger. In fact, she feels she would be more effective in probation where she could help prisoners get GED’s, and put them on the ‘right path’. Is that because she is a woman? Or because of where she was raised? (A suburb as opposed to the city). That’s not to say male deputies don’t have compassion, like Dep. Gil Guerrero says he’s not necessarily a tough individual, but he doesn’t want to be taken advantage of by prisoners, or possibly viewed as a ‘sissy’ by his male peers. And, in Dep. Guerrero’s case, he was raised in the city, and sees himself as one bullet away from being on the other side of the bars. So does that create the “us versus them” mentality, which is so often seen in law enforcement.
Or is the problem as simple as monotony? Dep. Guerrero illustrates the same day-by-day routine for readers. So does it just become a revolving door of nobodies? Is it just a list of case numbers for the attorneys? Even the prisoners figure “What does the public defender care about me? They’re still getting paid at the end of the day.”
And for those that still believe in justice and taking each individual charged with a crime on a case by case basis, what influences them? August Locallo took pride in not only putting people in prison, but moreso in keeping those out that shouldn’t be there. Was it having a role model in the CJ system what made Dan Locallo an upstanding attorney...