Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse

by Steve Bogira

Courtroom 302 is the fascinating story of one year in Chicago's Cook County Criminal Courthouse, the busiest felony courthouse in the country. Here we see the system through the eyes of the men and women who experience it, not only in the courtroom but in the lockup, the jury room, the judge's chambers, the spectators' gallery. From the daily grind of the court to the highest-profile case of the year, Steve Bogira’s masterful investigation raises fundamental issues of race, civil rights, and justice in America.

• ISBN10: 0679752064
• ISBN13: 9780679752066
• Publish Date: 14 February 2006
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Vintage
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780679752066

Reviews

[thebookdisciple]

I think that spending a year in 1 courtroom provides for some very interesting perspectives. The book really covered the monotony of the day to day of a courthouse that is only broken occasionally by some higher profile cases.

The one constant however was Judge Locallo. I enjoyed seeing how he treated defendants. He was kind to them and never dehumanized them. Some people thought he was too kind (allowing contact visits, given probation, etc) but this illustrated some of the issues with the current legal system. It also clearly shows that plea deals are king. The rare instances that a trial occurred in the book showcased how many defendants took pleas-guilty or not!

Overall, the story has ups and downs. There are long stretches where literally nothing is happening then a trial, then back to long stretches of plea deals. While the book shows us some of the challenges our court system faces, it could have been much more succinct.