Miscellaneous

Justice Talking Won't Be

By Anne Skove, Esq.

After nine years of helping the public learn about and discuss major justice-related issues of the day, Justice Talking has lost its funding and will be going off the air.

The rights of individuals with mental illness, the roles of bail bondsmen and private prisons in the criminal justice system, First Amendment issues, election reform, the right to a jury trial...Justice Talking tackled these and other issues from all angles.

We first encountered the show when we were working on jury topics at the National Center for State Courts. Justice Talking was making podcasts (back then they were known as "8-track tapes") available to jurors. Rather than have their brains leak out their ears from watching TV all day, jurors could consider the issues of the day (though not the case of the day, of course) by listening to this engaging program. Through the Jur-E Bulletin, we helped the program solicit courts who wished to participate.

This show has been one of the better public outreach programs we've seen. If everyone agrees (sorta) that voter education and the like are important, will anyone cough up funding for programs like Justice Talking? The answer, for now, is is a resounding "nope." All good non-profits must come to an end, it seems.

Best wishes to Justice Talking staff as they move on to hopefully bigger and better things!

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on June 16, 2008 (boomark / email).