2018-01-26 Court watch

(Permalink: https://mumble.net/~campbell/2018/01/26/court-watch)
(Twitter: https://twitter.com/Riastradh_/status/956953665155321857)

From a court watch this morning: an object lesson in why the @MassBailFund objects to putting pretrial services—to remind defendants of upcoming court dates—under the management of the probation department.

Probation officer: She's been in court three times this week, she let the battery deplete on her GPS monitor, she ignored the flashing warning on it, and she didn't answer her phone when probation tried to contact her about it. So please revoke bail and put her in detention.

Defense attorney: She had two scheduled court dates this week, she waited at probation office for battery to charge, and she came in a third time because the battery ran out. And the only reason she's on GPS is that she defaulted last year, but obviously she's showing up at court now!

To be clear: probation officer asked court to hold indigent defendant responsible for state's defective device by jailing her—after she showed up in court to fix the device she's wearing only to persuade her to come to court. Her child was already taken away.

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