Court Watch MA is a community project with the goal of shifting the power dynamics in our courtrooms by exposing the decisions judges and prosecutors make about neighbors every day. This Essex County courtwatch expands our focus in order to document racial disparities among who is released and who is held in pre-trial detention.
Project Overview
Under our bifurcated bail statute in Massachusetts, money bail can only be used to ensure appearance at future court dates; if a prosecutor believes an accused person charged with certain eligible offenses presents a danger to a specific person or the community, they must request a 58A dangerousness hearing: a separate evidentiary hearing during which a judge evaluates whether someone is such a threat as to be held without bail.
Essex County has among the highest rates of dangerousness hearings in the Commonwealth. CourtWatch MA is deeply concerned about our neighbors being held without bail for months and sometimes years approaching trial or the resolution of their case. We are equally worried about the documented practice of higher bails being imposed on Black and Brown people than white people arraigned on similar charges, which operate as a de facto hold without access to pre-trial release.
Our Plan
We are launching a project in Essex County to monitor arraignments so that we can document bail requests and determinations as well as when/why Assistant District Attorneys request dangerousness hearings. Court Watchers will collect data on race and charging in an effort to identify patterns of racial bias. Our intention is to confront racism at this critical decision-making point and continue to push the public conversation about ending pre-trial detention.
Court Watchers will observe arraignments for a total of four weeks in Lawrence and Lynn. We hope to have one volunteer in arraignment sessions each day for two weeks at the beginning of October and two weeks at the beginning of November. After each shift, Court Watchers will be responsible for entering the data they collect in an online form. The CourtWatch team will then clean and analyze the data and prepare a public report.
We typically ask volunteers to sign up for shifts from 9 AM to noon/1 PM - whenever the court breaks for lunch. For a short-term project like this, we ask volunteers to sign up for one to three shifts (up to three mornings in court across the whole four week period). You would not have to commit to being in court for two full weeks!
Essex County has among the highest rates of dangerousness hearings in the Commonwealth. CourtWatch MA is deeply concerned about our neighbors being held without bail for months and sometimes years approaching trial or the resolution of their case. We are equally worried about the documented practice of higher bails being imposed on Black and Brown people than white people arraigned on similar charges, which operate as a de facto hold without access to pre-trial release.
Our Plan
We are launching a project in Essex County to monitor arraignments so that we can document bail requests and determinations as well as when/why Assistant District Attorneys request dangerousness hearings. Court Watchers will collect data on race and charging in an effort to identify patterns of racial bias. Our intention is to confront racism at this critical decision-making point and continue to push the public conversation about ending pre-trial detention.
Court Watchers will observe arraignments for a total of four weeks in Lawrence and Lynn. We hope to have one volunteer in arraignment sessions each day for two weeks at the beginning of October and two weeks at the beginning of November. After each shift, Court Watchers will be responsible for entering the data they collect in an online form. The CourtWatch team will then clean and analyze the data and prepare a public report.
We typically ask volunteers to sign up for shifts from 9 AM to noon/1 PM - whenever the court breaks for lunch. For a short-term project like this, we ask volunteers to sign up for one to three shifts (up to three mornings in court across the whole four week period). You would not have to commit to being in court for two full weeks!
Upcoming Essex County Courtwatch Trainings!
Please attend whichever training is most convenient for your schedule.
There is absolutely no need to attend both.
The training usually lasts about 2.5 hours but we have scheduled the space for 3 hours.
Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019
3:00-6:00 PM
OR
Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019
7:00-10:00 PM
First Parish Church
225 Cabot Street
Beverly, MA 01915
RSVP BELOW!
Please attend whichever training is most convenient for your schedule.
There is absolutely no need to attend both.
The training usually lasts about 2.5 hours but we have scheduled the space for 3 hours.
Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019
3:00-6:00 PM
OR
Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019
7:00-10:00 PM
First Parish Church
225 Cabot Street
Beverly, MA 01915
RSVP BELOW!