{William Cerf's Creativity Journal 

ou need more help you can simply type your questions into the Support Forum and get instant 

Serving for two weeks on a Grand Jury in Brooklyn, NY was an interesting if exhausting experience. It confirmed my most negative thoughts about the United States, namely that our entire system is at every level of society interested in only two things - who did the wrong thing and how to punish the “offender” as severely as the system can get away with. It is not just the so-called “justice system” that is severely antiquated but the entire American experience from the social world, the world of business and most certainly the world of partisan politics. There is no interest at all in helping people with severe mental and emotional problems when they make gross errors of judgment. There are a number of labels applied to such people if they are now or have ever been convicted of a felony. These labels include such terms as criminals, felons, ex-felons, parolees and probationers.

            There is one good thing about the Grand Jury system in New York State in that Grand Jurors are the finders of fact and can reign in prosecutorial excesses by voting for a dismissal of charges. Make no mistake about it there are witnesses on both sides of the issue that have an interest in the outcome of the case. Cops want to have their arrests result in convictions and Assistant District Attorneys (ADA’s) use strategies to get what they want - an indictment. If the poor bedraggled defendant does testify, he/she is interested in not going through more hell than they have already experienced. The Grand Jury process is convoluted and a lot of time is wasted repeating the same instructions to the jury with each and every case presented. These instructions to the jury consist of repetitive legal jargon and intentional confusion. Our jury which heard about 25 cases got more than tired of being read these instructions verbatim 25 times. I believe that there is sufficient evidence and reasonable cause to believe that the system is broken if not completely nuts!

            In order to maintain the appearance of fairness the Jury Wardens and Assistant District Attorneys are not allowed to talk to one another except for getting jury assignments from the Wardens. The Wardens are in charge of the building and all equipment and the District Attorney’s office is in charge of the ADA’s. The left hand does not know what the right arm is doing. Bureaucracy is defined by breaking down tasks into minute parts and having persons doing only their small task with no knowledge of the whole. There are of course, turf wars between the Wardens and the DA’s office. Brooklyn, the most populous borough in New York City has over 300 ADA’s roaming the courthouse. It is a total zoo and I’m glad that I don’t have to do this again until the year 2021.

            There is one other good thing. I met some really cool people including a fellow Ph.D. student, a political science professor, several students and as assortment of folks from all walks of live among the 23 Grand Jurors with whom I was privileged to serve.