Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse

Great read... better story-telling than a lot of crime fiction and an insight into "justice" in America.

This is solid, albeit somewhat dry, reporting on the worrisome state of our modern criminal justice system as viewed through the microcosm of a single courthouse and judge.

This is a valuable book to read if you want to learn more about how the judicial system works. Its documentary style allows the reader to share the viewpoints of all players in the game: judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, defendants, their families and the victims. It is readable. I gleaned useful information and insight here for which I'm appreciative. So glad Bogira took the time to write a...more

This is a valuable book to read if you want to learn more about how the judicial system works. Its documentary style allows the reader to share the viewpoints of all players in the game: judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, defendants, their families and the victims. It is readable. I gleaned useful information and insight here for which I'm appreciative. So glad Bogira took the time to write a book like this. It needs to be said, and said again.   hide

Like the title says. The deal here is the reporter sits in just one courtroom for a year and talks about the most compelling cases, but he also shows how much of a inhuman machine criminal justice is in the United States. In courtroom 302 author Steve Bogira focuses on Judge Locallo, an ass kissing judge that regularly gets a new hair cut when a high profile case falls on his lap. He’ll do...more

Like the title says. The deal here is the reporter sits in just one courtroom for a year and talks about the most compelling cases, but he also shows how much of a inhuman machine criminal justice is in the United States. In courtroom 302 author Steve Bogira focuses on Judge Locallo, an ass kissing judge that regularly gets a new hair cut when a high profile case falls on his lap. He’ll do almost anything to retain his seat. At the same time, as far as judges go, he’s developed a reputation as one of the best in the biz, being both fair, and most importantly efficient, that is to say, “speedy”. He holds the record for most “dispos”. Dispos is short for “disposed of/ disposal” , the goal here being that the faster you can convince one suspect to plead out and wave his rights to a trail the better it is cuz then you’ll get through more cases per day/ per year, which is pretty important when you look at the incredible number of people in jail and how that number is constantly increasing. SO from a factory perspective they do what they can, they’re doing their best, the judges and the attorneys, trying to pass quickly through cases at breakneck speed. The one thing they’re failing to see is that crime is in most cases a symptom of poverty and many down and outers are completely disrespected by all who work in the criminal courts and jails. The book takes on many specific cases, a "how they got there" sort of thing, for example it talks about one crackhead that keeps showing up in Locallo’s courtroom and how he started on his path when his schizophrenic wife killed their daughter in a 4 gallon pail and he lost most everything afterwards. It also shows just how dastardly the police can be in obtaining confessions. Torture is not out of the question. Nor is hiding evidence that contradicts their objective – attorneys too regularly ignore evidence that works against a guilty verdict, which sounds kosher, but the truth is many people have been wrongly convicted because converse evidence is purposely withheld by police and prosecutors. There is also a high profile case that Locallo is very happy to have received (publicity) that deals with the son of a Chicago mafia member beating, to the brink of death, a young black kid that was in a neighbourhood he wsn’t supposed to be in. The book points out how America’s war on drugs is beyond absurd; how a junkie with $10 worth of crack will be processed/incarcerated at a cost of close to $80 000. The whole system is a set up to create jobs and keep a large section of Americans employed. The welfare of the prisoners, whether actually guilty or innocent is secondary. SO yeah, very readable and revelatory. I wonder how different Canada’s criminal justice system is--- I bet not much.   hide

A little dramatic but not too far from how Chicago really is.

An absolutely delightfully enlightening book. Whether you are hoping to be a defense attorney, prosecutor or neither this book gives a fresh perspective on the criminal justice machine from several different vantage points. In analyzing the stories of the people working and going into this one court room, Bogira leaves no stone unturned. Every time I thought I had heard the whole story, he would...more

An absolutely delightfully enlightening book. Whether you are hoping to be a defense attorney, prosecutor or neither this book gives a fresh perspective on the criminal justice machine from several different vantage points. In analyzing the stories of the people working and going into this one court room, Bogira leaves no stone unturned. Every time I thought I had heard the whole story, he would come back and open my eyes once again. I highly recommend this book for people looking to enter the criminal justice machine.   hide

Anyone who wants to get a good view of the underbelly of the Justice system should read this book.

Very good book, especially for someone in or thinking about getting into the criminal justice system....All petty criminals should read the first 50 pages

"Courtroom 302" was, though eminently readable, exceedingly depressing. The back of the book proclaims that fans of Law & Order will enjoy the book- sure, I liked the book and I enjoy the show, but the book is way more disturbing than any episode of SVU will ever be. Steve Bogira spent a year in Chicago's busiest courtroom- 302- and he is not going to let readers off of the hook with any...more

"Courtroom 302" was, though eminently readable, exceedingly depressing. The back of the book proclaims that fans of Law & Order will enjoy the book- sure, I liked the book and I enjoy the show, but the book is way more disturbing than any episode of SVU will ever be. Steve Bogira spent a year in Chicago's busiest courtroom- 302- and he is not going to let readers off of the hook with any flimsy made-for-tv version of courtroom justice. Courts, justice, judges, jails, prison, the war on drugs are not what they've cracked up to be, Bogira shows in instance after instance. Justice is not blind when it comes to black people or poor people- he quotes an almost century old study that states that the "poor and the friendless" end up in jail. He profiles the public defenders and the prosecutors who work in 302, both for justice and for "other" goals. It is depressing. The judge in room 302 is clearly one of the best judges in the courthouse. He works hard, he studies current rulings in death penalty cases (but never hands it out) and traffic court. Even so, he is caught up in the vicious cycle of plea bargaining which amounts to a tax: plea out on this charge (whether or not you did it) or go to jail. Jails, and "the system" in general, are so overcrowded that dispositioning cases is a must for judges, defense attorneys, and prosecutors, who serve as a oiled machine to get as many people as possible through the system without a trial. Bogira could have gone deeper than he did into the implications of his findings: the book is a good, touching, depressing piece of investigative journalism, but lacks some of the probative sociology work that I'm used to. He could answer more of the "why" or "now what" questions that he poses. I'm left depressed and hoping never to get arrested, as well as feeling extremely privileged to be born upper-middle class and white.   hide