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Criminal Court System Failures During Covid-19: An Empirical Study, Cynthia Alkon
Criminal Court System Failures During Covid-19: An Empirical Study, Cynthia Alkon
Faculty Scholarship
How did the criminal legal system respond to the early months of pandemic in 2020? This article reports the results of a unique national survey of judges, defense lawyers, and prosecutors that gives a snapshot of how the criminal legal system responded to the COVID-19 in the first five chaotic months. Criminal courts in the United States rely on in-person proceedings and formal and informal in-person communications to manage caseloads. The survey results detail, in ways not previously fully understood, how crucial these in-person communications are and how ill-prepared the criminal courts and legal professionals were to deal with the …