This is a paper I wrote describing my observations during a trip to the Wayne County court house.
Court Observation Paper
For my observation paper, I chose to visit the Wayne County Circuit Court (Family Division), which is located at 1025 East Forest in Detroit. The date of my visit was March 6th and I was there from 8:45 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.
There is a neighborhood surrounding the court, however it is also right off of
I-75 and minutes from downtown, which makes it very easy to locate. When I arrived, I found parking to be very easy and I parked across the street on Forest. When I walked into the Court building, I was immediately met by metal detectors and 5-7 security guards. The guards asked me to empty out my pockets, open my jacket and then pass through the metal detectors. As I walked around the court building, I also noticed that there were security guards at every exit door and they made sure nobody entered, only exited. There were also Wayne County Police Officers in most of the courtrooms I looked into. In my opinion, security measures were very good at this location and I felt very safe.
The building itself was ordinary, nothing to fancy. The outside of it looked like any other building in Detroit and it was hard to tell what the building was without knowing. The inside was the same, very ordinary. The staff was very helpful. When I first walked into the building, I walked over to the receptionist's desk, which was
surrounded by bulletproof glass, and told her who I was and why I was there. She then
1.
told me that I was welcome to sit in on any of the hearings going on that morning as long as it was all right with the judge/referee. She also told me that there were courtrooms on the first three floors. I decided to go to the third floor because the first two were crowded. As I was walking through the hall, I was looking into the different courtrooms to see if anything was going on. Finally I looked into one of the last courtrooms and saw someone I recognized, not a student, but the judge. I couldn't remember where I knew him from, but I
For my observation paper, I chose to visit the Wayne County Circuit Court (Family Division), which is located at 1025 East Forest in Detroit. The date of my visit was March 6th and I was there from 8:45 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.
There is a neighborhood surrounding the court, however it is also right off of
I-75 and minutes from downtown, which makes it very easy to locate. When I arrived, I found parking to be very easy and I parked across the street on Forest. When I walked into the Court building, I was immediately met by metal detectors and 5-7 security guards. The guards asked me to empty out my pockets, open my jacket and then pass through the metal detectors. As I walked around the court building, I also noticed that there were security guards at every exit door and they made sure nobody entered, only exited. There were also Wayne County Police Officers in most of the courtrooms I looked into. In my opinion, security measures were very good at this location and I felt very safe.
The building itself was ordinary, nothing to fancy. The outside of it looked like any other building in Detroit and it was hard to tell what the building was without knowing. The inside was the same, very ordinary. The staff was very helpful. When I first walked into the building, I walked over to the receptionist's desk, which was
surrounded by bulletproof glass, and told her who I was and why I was there. She then
1.
told me that I was welcome to sit in on any of the hearings going on that morning as long as it was all right with the judge/referee. She also told me that there were courtrooms on the first three floors. I decided to go to the third floor because the first two were crowded. As I was walking through the hall, I was looking into the different courtrooms to see if anything was going on. Finally I looked into one of the last courtrooms and saw someone I recognized, not a student, but the judge. I couldn't remember where I knew him from, but I