My encounter with the mass incarceration system (fka as the justice system)

In the summer of 2017, I served on a jury in Manhattan. It was instructive. This is an account of that experience. I’ve hesitated to write this down before, because the way I want to write it makes it seem like I want to be the hero of the story in a way that I’m probably not. But this is how I remember it.

Voir dire

During jury selection, we learned that we were being considered as jurists for a minor drug case. The district attorney (DA) asked us if we would be able to…