Intern Experience

A couple of interns from public defender offices have been blogging about their experiences lately. In fact, Bad Ass CSI posted multiple times yesterday.

Here is an excerpt from her latest post:

This is my last week working as an investigator with the Public Defender Service, I will sorely miss it. The life lessons that I have learned in a mere four months are enough to change my life forever. I recall when we met with the English trial attorney and he said that working here will change our whole outlook on life, mine has. Witnessing first hand the tragedies of our criminal justice system, getting to personally know clients, seeing the devastating effects of poverty and drugs, and meeting passionate young people like me committed to fighting these inequalities has been an experience of a lifetime. With the risk of sounding trite, I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

And a public defender intern in Washington State has a blog called Ben Coogan, with this recent post:

I’m currently interning with the Whatcom County Public Defenders. I am really enjoying the work so far, and have been surprised at the amount of responsibility given to the interns. On my first couple of days, I was given clearance into the jail as well as the county courthouse. I go to both of them frequently. One of my daily responsibilities is to do an initial interview with all of the people in jail who request a public defender. I do these interviews over the phone and in person. As a result, I end up visiting the jail on fairly a regular basis. I have found this to be an interesting and enjoyable part of the job.

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