It's the process (and a lot more)

"The process is the punishment": it's an old phrase, and it's still accurate.Courtesy of Changing the Court, though the original post seems to be down now:

Feeley conducted a year's worth of intensive observation, interviews and statistical research in 1979 at the New Haven Court of Common Claims. Though much has changed since the book was published, the general form of the modern, centralized urban courthouse had emerged by that time. Many of the book's countless observations and case studies of the different actors in the court process and its clear-eyed analysis of adjudications in a high volume, low stakes courthouse ring as true in the Bronx in 2007 as they did in New Haven nearly three decades ago. It's a useful handbook for anyone trying to make sense of the chaotic and sometimes bewildering environment of a large urban courthouse, which can so often seem mysterious and opaque to outsiders and the public...