Accomplishments

For my Job Shadow Assignment, I went to the Philadelphia DA's office in Center City, Philadelphia. I was able to shadow Mr. Boyd, a prosecutor, and learn about more about the Philadelphia court system. The purpose of his position is to convict criminals of their crimes. However, the prosecutor’s office is divided up into sections. They divide up into different crimes. He is in the section that handles juvenile crimes. This means he deals with crimes done by people who are under 18. For example, on the day I was there Mr. Boyd had a plea- a plea is when somebody admits to doing the crime without a jury trial- with a seventeen year old who was caught with marijuana and had the intention to deliver. I also sat in on the opening of one of his colleague’s major cases. I also was able to sit in the court when the general public was not and experienced some of the behind the scenes action and conversation that goes on between the judges, prosecutors, defendants, bailiff etc. Also I learned a lot of behind the scenes information that the general public is not aware of. I learned that cases usually only go on trial if they are cases that could go either way. If it is a weak case or a really strong case then there is usually a plea. Also I learned how they decide who gets what case. There isn’t really much discussing on the prosecutors end because each person has a section of the city and whatever crime is committed in their section, is their case. For example if Mr. Boyd had North East Philadelphia, then he would handle and crime committed by a juvenile in North East Philadelphia. Then I also learned about the relationship between the prosecutors and their detectives.