One of the most vaguely understood events in the United States is the modern criminal trial. Most people have a faint knowledge of the goings-on of criminal proceedings, mainly due to what is seen on television, but the person who knows the real course of a trail is rare. Before a trail can proceed, certain events must take place. The first is the arraignment of the defendant, which can happen anytime between arrest and a logical, non-specific time before the trial itself. Arraignment consists of the court reading to the defendant the substance of the charge, and calls on the subject to enter a plea within a given time. Not only is the arraignment process a process in a criminal trial that most people do not know much about but it is also a process that society segregate the offender. The arraignment process has been looked into depth in the book entitled The Jail: Managing the underclass in American society by John Irwin is the thesis that American society uses jails to control and segregate the "rabble,' a subset of the poor and disadvantaged. Besides being destitute, the rabble are detached from the conventional social networks and behave in ways that the middle class finds objectionable or threatening. Members of the rabble are jailed not so much because of the seriousness of the crimes they commit as for the offensiveness of their behavior to middle-class sensibilities. John Irwin tells us that "the contemporary jail is a subsidiary to the welfare organizations' that control the poor and defuse their threat to the status quo. I recently went to an arraignment hearing at the District Court of the County of
Nassau in order to see for myself the process that the arrestees go through and if any of the terms used to describe the process or the arrestee were of any relevance. The first case I heard was of a nineteen year old male whom had been arrested for getting into an argument with his girlfriend and running over her foot with his car once he threw her out of the car. The defense attorney advised the judge, that his client had no other arrests, his parents were at the hearing to show support, he was student and that he was currently employment. The nineteen year old male was released without bail, and ordered to return to court on December 13, 2011, and his girlfriend was given an order of protection. The second case was of a male whom was arrested for trying to sell a stolen vehicle. This arrestee was not as “attached to society” as the nineteen year male was he had been arrested in the past for the same charges. The defense attorney tried to reattach him to society by saying that he lived with his grandmother, had a job and had completed up to a high education. The judge was not as lenient with him, and ordered that he pay a
$3,000.00 or remind arrested until his next hearing date. The third case involved an eighteen year old female. She had been arrested for getting into an argument with her mother and destroying the mother property. The defense attorney advised the judge she was a high school graduate, had no criminal record, was currently employment and lived with a supporting family. The Judge released her without giving her bail and ordered she return for her next hearing. The fourth case I found interesting was of a forty-one year old male whom was arrested for stealing four motor vehicles and trying to sell them to a scrap yard. The defense attorney argued that the arrestee was a married male with seven children, college graduate, was employed and his wife was employed, and they own a house. The People had requested that his bail be set for $50,000.00 and the Judge released on a $2,000.00 and set a hearing date for him to return. Another case I heard that I found interesting was of a thirty-five year taxi driver,

whom had been accused of hitting a pedestrian and as a result the pedestrian passed away.

The defense attorney argued that the arrestee was a college graduate, was married with a

child, own a house, and was employed. He also argued that the arrestee maintained his

innocence of the motor vehicle accident. The People requested that the Judge set bail at

$50,000.00 and his license be suspended. The Judge released the arrestee and set a

hearing date for him to return.

As I continued to seat and listen to all the different cases being presented that day

I realized that the book The Jail discussed many of the events I was watching. The Judge

seem to be more lenient with the people whom were considered to be part of the society

and that it was just one bad event that made them end up in front of her. The more the

defense attorney argued that you were not in other words a “rabbel” she would allow you

to go ahead and be part of the society once again.