I arrived at the office today at 9:00 a.m. sharp (well, more like 9:05 because I had to grab coffee…). Then, I headed to my office–yes, I have my own office–and promptly sat in the desk chair. I’m totally kidding about the office part, by the way; my “office” belongs to a staff member currently on vacation, but it’s cool to imagine that I am actually an ACLU-NC employee!
I spent the next twenty minutes or so sorting through my previous notes and chatting with Sarah and Susanna. At around 9:30, we entered the conference room for an informal Friday campaign and policy meeting. At the meeting, the conference participants and I discussed our weekly activities, strategies, and new knowledge. We began with a conversation about the new budget bill recently passed by the General Assembly. Unfortunately, although the Raise the Age bill, which changes the maximum age of an individual tried in the juvenile justice system from 15 to 17, will become law in November 2019, hardly any money in this budget will be used to abet this process.
I got to learn about how the ACLU organizes information for conducting public information and other campaigns, and that was really impressive.
I was pretty hungry from all the discussing/toggling with the web, so I grabbed a nice smoothie from Smoothie King (I didn’t really know what I was doing, so the process took way longer than expected..) and sat back down at my desk. Sarah then proceeded to instruct Jessica and me on what to look for when we visit the Wake County Superior Court on Monday. We were told that each case takes about two minutes–enough time for the defendant to be charged and presented with a set amount of bail. The cases we’ll be viewing are higher level crimes, and most of those accused are not aware of the proper court proceedings and do not have an attorney. Thus, the heavy subject material.
In total, I learned a multitude of information today. Mostly that I can’t consider myself a staff member until I have my own office and learn to take less than an hour on a trip to Smoothie King. But in all seriousness, I’ve had an amazing time this week. I cannot wait to see what Monday will bring.
