Jakob Goodwin ’23–I am interning at the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office this summer. I am an undergraduate intern for all four court teams, meaning I can potentially help every prosecutor in the office. My duties vary every day. For the past three weeks, I have been reviewing parole records and putting together a timeline for one of my managing prosecutors. On multiple occasions, I have had to help schedule depositions or taped statements with witnesses. One of my other major responsibilities is listening to jail calls. Calls by inmates, except for those to lawyers, are available to the police and the prosecutors, so someone has to listen to them. I have not heard anything of any importance, but others have heard substantive things and we mainly hear conversations with family and friends.
On the education end, I have learned more about practical legal practice than I could have thought. Throughout my week of orientation, we had many classes about legal procedure and the responsibilities of lawyers. Theseincluded discovery procedures, rules and policies regarding depositions and statements amongst other things. We had a shortened version of criminal procedure where we learned about the process from an arrest to a conviction.From the booking process to trial tactics and when a prosecutor should let a case go.
My most important education was not an actual education experience but more of a life experience that has made an impact. I was simply responding to phone calls when I got sort of wrapped up in a case. This defendant had gotten COVID-19 and was transported to the hospital without anyone knowing. His parents were calling and asking what was going on, and long story short, the charges were dropped after he had gone on dialysis. I learned a lot about how to treat people and what justice means. That experience will follow me and will be useful when I become a prosecutor.
