“The judge was very encouraging”

Excerpt from Rhonda, a defendant at the Hall of Justice in winter 2022.

Interviewer: So I'd now like you to think back about how you felt about your time in court. And if you could tell people in power anything about your time in court, what would you share with them? 

Rhonda: … Hmm… Um, let me see… I just again would have to go back to how [the] [j]udge was very encouraging when people chose to speak on their own behalf. Just that encouragement and support that, you know, even though a mistake was made, um … really feeling that he believes what he's saying, um, helps our own psyche to know that we've made a mistake, but yet things can get better. And so: just, just his support, his encouraging words are just like, I was like, “Oh, wow, he's human.” Yeah, it kind of made him more human versus the ruler of the land, you know?