America’s Most Dangerous Export: TV Court
by Stephen Steim
I watched a lot of Night Court as a kid. The show featured the hijinks of a vain and lecherous prosecutor, a do-gooder district attorney, and a stream of quirky criminals, all holding their breath to see what hilarious sentence the eccentric judge Harry Stone would come up with next. Add in a well-timed Richard Moll head slap and you had all the ingredients of a prototypically bizarre 1980s sitcom.
In preparation for a collaboration between the New Media Advocacy Project (N-Map) and Brooklyn Defender Services, I spent a few hours at a real night court in Downtown Brooklyn. If you need convincing of Bryan Stevenson’s observation that slavery didn’t end, but evolved into the US criminal justice system, spend an evening at Kings County Criminal Court.
You’ll see mostly young men of color brought into court one after another, facing unaffordable bails that create a catch 22 with equally awful choices: plead not guilty, but go directly to Rikers Island to await trial (sometimes six months or more), or plead guilty, pay a fine, and go home, but with a criminal record that bars you from most work and future housing.
Some people had committed “real” crimes, but many had simply committed crimes of poverty, like jumping a Subway turnstile or petty theft — their hand forced because of some earlier conviction likely connected to a first contact with the criminal justice system as a child. Our criminal justice system operates like brutal machinery, with spokes extending into every community of color. It’s not sobering to behold the machinery at work — it’s nauseating.
When I left around midnight, I thought about Night Court. I wasn’t so trepanned by television that I expected a sitcom scenario to unfold in the Brooklyn courtroom. But I realized that even a blatantly comedic depiction of the legal process formed my thinking about the idea of what happens in night court.
Visual media makes an indelible mark, and oftentimes for the worse.
Exporting Injustice via Visual Media
David Danzig’s work on the “Primetime Torture” project at Human Rights First during the George W. Bush years demonstrated how much visual media can perpetuate the worst practices of our justice system, not just stateside, but around the world. Danzig found that depictions of torture on shows like 24and Law and Order were causing new soldiers to think of torture as an effective and acceptable tool. Danzig wrote in the Huffington Post that, “Junior soldiers have imitated techniques they have seen on [24]. And military educators report that 24 is one of the biggest problems they have in their classrooms.”
Months after my visit to night court, I had a coffee with Alex Mik from Fair Trials International, which works globally to ensure people have access to justice. Just as American television is exported and emulated around the world, so are the broken policies and practices that we highlighted in our work with Brooklyn Defender Services. In Fair Trials’ report, The Disappearing Trial, the entry point is — surprise surprise — through the lens of visual media:
To many, the idea of justice conjures up distinct images. The wood-paneled courtroom. The judge in his gown. A jury sat attentively. Two sides fighting for justice. Grandstanding speeches. We’ve all seen the films.
Despite what we see on television, the vast majority of people facing charges never see a courtroom or a jury. Using the term “trial waiver systems” to cover subtly different practices that allow defendants to plead guilty in exchange for reduced chargers or less severe sentences, Fair Trials finds that the use of trial waivers has grown massively across the globe.
It’s a popular American export.
The use of trial waiver systems like plea bargaining, abbreviated trials and cooperating witness procedures have increased about 300% since 1990. It’s also happening in more places than ever before. Of the 90 countries studied by Fair Trials and Freshfields, 66 now have these kinds of formal “trial waiver” systems in place. In 1990, the number was just 19.
The report is a compelling read. While trial waivers are not always a bad thing, Fair Trials finds that overuse of this practice pressures innocent people to plead guilty, supports over-criminalization and harsh sentencing, and weakens access to justice for those with the least access to power.
To Change the System, Change the Visual Culture
False impressions of the way the system works create an enormous hurdle for advocates to overcome. To change systemic problems, we need to reach and influence people who are themselves influenced by visual culture.
Part of N-Map’s role is to create powerful visual media that is designed by civil society rather than the entertainment industry, and tailored to achieve very specific goals. N-Map leverages the power of visual media, and its ability to cross borders, to bolster some of the most challenging cases and campaigns led by frontline human rights defenders.
In Pakistan, we’re using a range of storytelling approaches to shift public perceptions about use of the death penalty and the people who are on death row. In Guatemala, we’re supporting a coalition of NGOs working to hold high-level military generals accountable for atrocities committed during the junta, and focusing on activating students to take up this fight.
The entertainment industry will continue telling stories about criminal justice with audience entertainment and a bottom line in mind — that’s just what they do. But that can’t be the end of what people see.
Civil society needs to tell stories and harness the unique power of visual media to make deep impressions, change perspectives, and export ideas based on real life.
