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Dane County Court Observer Training

Monday, September 24, 2018 • 15 Tishrei 5779

6:30 PM - 10:30 PMFountain of Life Covenant Church, 633 W. Badger Rd, Madison, WI 53713

Nehemiah, a well-respected organization working to address racial disparities in Madison, seeks volunteers to be trained as court observers to help gather data on discrepancies in sentencing, representation, and interpersonal interactions in the Dane County court system.

After a brief two-hour orientation, you'd be prepared to sit in courtrooms two half-days a month, or more if desired, and document your observations about the hearings, sentencing, court staff demeanor toward African Americans, and other issues, and send the data back to Nehemiah.

Temple Beth El's action team addressing racial disparities in the criminal justice system, part of the Urgency of Now initiative, has met with Nehemiah and aims to send a group of TBE congregants to each orientation session to learn more about this project (no commitment required now or then; just attend to learn more).

Please contact Urgency of Now chair Betsy Abramson (betsyabramson@gmail.com) and/or action team co-chairs Jim Mackman (jim@jssmadison.org) and Mary Fulton (mfulton49@hotmail.com) if you are interested in attending or learning more, and also RSVP to Nehemiah here.

Nehemiah's is developing this court observer project because its Court Advocacy Group has determined that before engaging in advocacy, they need to gain firsthand observations of what is happening in the Dane County system. As the data are collected, there will likely be additional opportunities to help with the data entry, data analysis, presentations, media work, serving on the Court Advocacy Group, etc.

More on the project from Nehemiah:

We know that people of color in Wisconsin are incarcerated at over 10 times the rate of white individuals, despite making up a smaller portion of the population. This effort is an on-the-ground initiative to gain insight into factors contributing to this unwarranted disparity.

Volunteers observe court hearings at the Dane County Courthouse and/or the Dane County Public Safety Building and record objective observations on a provided monitoring form. We would request a minimum commitment of two mornings or afternoons per month, and would welcome as much assistance as you can offer. Mentors will be available to support volunteers on an ongoing basis.

There will be two information and training sessions offered for court observers: Monday, September 24, 6:30–8:30 pm, or Tuesday, September 25, 6:30–8:30 pm. Training sessions will be held at the Fountain of Life Covenant Church, 633 W. Badger Rd, Madison, WI 53713. (Interested volunteers only need to attend one of the trainings.)

RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XWwew7yZsRbSMcsgl1YRTKlaCQj_36zfMqUBF1iCjQs/viewform?edit_requested=true for the date on which you’d like to attend. Questions about the program can be sent to Betsey Day at daybuss@charter.net.

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April 18, 2024 10 Nisan 5784