Experiential Learning Proposal, The Flight Plan​ & ​Daily Log

 
 
Name​: Shawndia Jones 
Date​: 1/23/2020 
 
Mentor Name​: Melissa Farley 
Mentor Contact Info​ (email and phone number): ​melissa.farley@jud.ct.gov​ ​860-757-2270
Experiential Learning Site Name​ (company or business): Supreme Court Building 
Experiential Learning Site Address​: 231 Capitol Avenue Hartford, CT, 06106 
 
Connections to  
• Essential Question​: How do public defenders work effectively in the criminal justice system? 
  
• Foundational Learning​: I learned that in other locations such as Florida and New Orleans, public 
defenders are burdened with multiple cases at a time. There is not adequate funding for public 
defenders either, which ties back to the legislature. There is also the race component to evaluate as 
well.   
 
• Final Product​: TBD either a case study or an interview or something... 
 
Goals- New Learning and Skills You Hope to Gain​: I hope to gain hands on experience about how public 
defenders are overworked. I want to look at actual cases and examine them. I want to see how successful 
each case is when appointed a public defender to it. Hopefully Judge Sanchez can help me resolve this 
problem of a “product.” The race aspect of it all also concerns me and I want to learn more about that.  
 
Remaining questions, logistics or planning, if any​: 1) What is the address? 2) What is the time-frame of this 
internship? 3) Product? 4) How am I going to get there? 5) What am I going to be doing? 6) Who is Norma 
Sanchez? 
 
Experiential Learning Description​ Fully describe the work (with mentor, during internship, working on your 
own, etc) to be done, list all 10 days and hours, transportation, other important info): 
TBD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Daily Flight Plan & Log 
 
 
Day 1 Plan: ​Judicial Marshal Academy Graduation Ceremony (Melissa) @1p.m. 
Day 1 Log: 
Date​: 1/3/2020 
Total Hours​: 7 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am:​ Arrived and met Rhonda Heburt 
9:20am:​ Got acquainted with Allison and Brittany 
9:30am:​ Toured the Supreme Court Building with Brittany 
9:50am:​ Walked over to the Civil Court building and listened to a civil case about construction litigation 
10:20am: ​Left the civil building and went back to the Supreme Court building 
10:30am:​ Started Computer Training 
11:00am: ​Met Melissa Farley 
11:03am: ​FInished the computer training 
11:15am:​ Brittany gave me three websites to look at news articles. I read around three or four. 
11:30am: ​Did basic google searches on public defenders and their starting salaries in various states. 
11:55am:​ Drove to get lunch with Brittany at “The Kitchen” and she paid :)  
12:00pm-12:45pm: ​Lunch Break  
12:47pm:​ Walked to the graduation of justice marshalls with Ms. Farley 
1:00pm-1:40pm: ​Graduation Ceremony 
2:00pm: ​Returned to the Supreme Court Building and proofed papers about an essay/art contest. 
2:30pm-3:30pm: ​Organized file cabinets by alphabetical order 
3:30pm-3:35pm: ​Took a break 
3:40pm-3:50pm: ​Finished organizing file cabinets 
3:50pm-3:55pm:​ Planned out what tomorrow will look like with Ms. Farley 
4:00pm:​ Clocked Out  
 
 
Day 2 Plan​: ​Tours of the Supreme Court w/ Justice Mullins @ 9:15am and 10:15am, Speaker Series: Interacting with
Reprect is Everyone’s Job (Interacting with the deaf community) @2-4pm 
Day 2 Log: 
Date​: 1/4/2020 
Total Hours​: 7 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am: ​Arrive and walked to office (​8:49am ​really) 
9:00am-9:07am: ​Waited for instructions  
9:15am-10:05am: ​Gave a tour to fourth graders with Allison, Met Justice Mullins (he went to Watkinson) 
10:08am-10:19am: ​Went back to office and waited for the next tour group 
10:30am-11:20am: ​Gave another tour to fourth graders with Allison and Justice Mullins again 
11:25am-11:45am: ​Dropped off a package and went to the Capitol and saw the Senate and the House 
Chambers with Brittany 
11:45am-12:00pm: ​Back in office and researched articles online (free-time) 
12:00pm-12:30pm: ​Lunch Break 
12:30pm-12:50pm: ​Prepared questions for phone conversations with Chris Rapillo, who is public defender 
12:40pm: ​Did a career fair work for Melissa but it was already done 
1:00pm: ​Call Chris Rapillo 
Notes: 
- Caseload goal: Geographical Area (GA)- No more than 400 cases a year and between 250 and 350 
cases at a time 
- Struggles with individualized time given to each client 
- CT does better with funding/salaries for public defenders than other states 
- More funding- CT easily funds public defenders if need be 
- Ethics and Morality: If you want to deal with this then public defender is the way to go 
- Public defenders don’t “win” a lot. It's mainly about how you help people 
- Public defenders are in fact underfunded and struggling to keep up their caseloads 
- Need to be more than a lawyer 
- Sharing the workload helps (like with investigators) 
1:08pm: ​End of call with Chris Rapillo 
1:08pm-1:35pm: ​Computer/Free Time 
1:40pm: ​Left for meeting with Melissa in Glastonbury 
2:00pm-4:00pm: ​Meeting with Melissa in Glastonbury (Safe Connect Statewide Response to Victims of 
Domestic Violence 
4:00pm: ​Clocked out 
 
Day 3​ ​Plan​: ​First day of the legislative session @12pm, Employee Well-Being Subcommittee @2pm 
Day 3 Log: 
Date​: 1/5/2020 
Total Hours​: 7 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am: ​Arrived and waited for instructions (really ​8:46am​) 
9:01am-9:09am: ​Computer stuff/Article Readings/Waiting on instructions 
9:10am-9:40am: ​Still waiting on instructions but while I wait, I took notes on Racial Disparity in Prison 
Sentencing 
9:40am-9:50am: ​Talked with Melissa and she gave me a bunch of articles to narrow my focus for the project  
9:50am-10:20am: ​Walked over to 80 Washington Street to drop off flyers and a banner for the UCONN Career 
Fair. (All by myself :) I was so nervous and even got lost a little bit)  
10:20am: ​Returned back to the Supreme Court Building 
10:20am-10:50am: ​Read and annotated some of the articles that Melissa gave me earlier 
10:50am-11:00am: ​Walked over to the LOB through the Capitol 
11:30am: ​Got budget and walked it over to the Supreme Court Building and gave it to Melissa 
11:45am: ​Walked back to the LOB  
12:00pm-12:50pm: ​Governor Ned Lamont Address 
12:55pm-1:40pm: ​Lunch Break (Bought lunch for Chris Rapillo, the attorney I spoke on the phone with 
1:45pm-3:57pm: ​Took notes on innocence project cases for senior project (Notes in the notebook) 
4:00pm: ​Clocked out  
 
 
Day 4 Plan​: ​State Capitol Tour @9:15am, Calendar Call Podcast Recording @2pm 
Day 4 Log: 
Date​: 1/6/2020 
Total Hours​: 7  
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am: ​Arrive and wait (really ​8:46am​) 
9:00am-9:15am: ​Put papers into folders and then into the file cabinets 
9:15am-9:24am: ​Brittany gave me an article, so I started reading it  
9:30am: ​Walked over to the Criminal Court w/ Allison  
9:30am-10:05am: ​Waited for the criminal court arraignments to start 
10:09am-11:37am: ​Sat in on around 15-20 arraignments (most people don’t even meet their public defenders 
until their arraignment and some don’t even have one during their arraignment 
11:40am: ​Walked back over to the Supreme Court Building  
11:45am-12:00pm: ​Read more articles from Brittany (all of the articles have to do with public defending) 
12:00pm-1:30pm: ​Lunch with my Dad :) 
1:30pm: ​Walked over to the LOB to listen to a meeting about the budget that Governor Lamont gave out 
yesterday (Education shouldn’t have the cuts) 
1:30pm-3:30pm: ​Meeting about the budget!  
3:35pm:​ Walked back to the Supreme Court Building 
3:40pm-4:00pm:​ Read the article Brittany gave me  
4:00pm:​ Clock Out 
 
 
Day 5 Plan​: ​No Plan given, but I assume going back to the Criminal Building
Day 5 Log: 
Date​: 1/7/2020 
Total Hours​: 7 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am: ​Arrive and wait (really ​8:30am​) (Dad dropped me) 
9:00am-9:10am: ​Elizabeth Normen Research. Couldn’t find any youtube or ted talks, but her articles are really 
interesting. 
9:10am-9:40am: ​Researched Normen more and decided to stop 
9:40am: ​Prepared to head over to the Criminal Court 
9:55am: ​Walked over to the Criminal Court  
10:00am-10:30am: ​Waited for trial to start but missed it 
10:45am-11:40: ​Arraignment hearings (more people from “lock-up” 
11:45am: ​Walked back to the Supreme Court Building 
11:47am-12:00pm: ​Read more on Elizabeth N. 
12:00pm-12:55pm: ​Lunch  
1:00pm: ​Read the packet that Brittany gave me yesterday 
1:55pm: ​Walked to the criminal Court and watched more arraignments 
2:30pm:​ Walked back to the Supreme Court Building 
2:40pm-2:50pm: ​Talked with Victor, he’s nice and worked at the SCB for 25 years 
3:00pm-4:00pm:​ Read the article Brittany gave me  
4:00pm:​ Clock Out 
 
 
 
WEEK 1 REFLECTION ​ ​Please write a summary of what you have learned and the skills you have 
acquired, successes and challenges, progress on product and revised plans for Week 2​:  
 
This week, I learned more about the criminal justice process. I learned that people who need public 
defenders sometimes aren’t appointed one until right before the arraignments. Some people do not 
qualify for public defenders, which I think goes against the constitutional right. I also learned not to 
wear heels. I plan to continue working the way I did in Week 1 for Week 2. Some successes of mine in 
the past week have been speaking with a public defender, going to arraignments, and going to 
important meetings such as budget cuts from the state. Some challenges in the past week have been 
filing documents, navigating around the building, navigating around the city, and wearing heels on my 
first day. I have been working with Ms. Farley to help my product forward and hopefully I will develop 
it more in the next week.  
 
 
Day 6 Plan​: ​Judiciary Committee Public Hearing and Meeting (LOB) @10am, Rules Committee meeting (Hartford)
@2pm 
Day 6 Log: 
Date​: 1/10/2020 
Total Hours​: 7 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am: ​Arrive (Really ​8:41am​) 
9:00am-9:30am: ​Reading articles of the Innocence Project 
9:30am: ​Drove to LOB with Doreen and Brittany  
10:00am-1:20pm: ​Judiciary Committee Public Hearing (Saw Emma S. and James B. 
1:30pm: ​Drove to The Kitchen for lunch with Doreen and Brittany, and Judge P. 
1:50pm-2:15pm: ​Lunch Break 
2:20pm-4:00pm: ​Read articles on Equal Justice Initiative and took notes 
4:06pm: ​Leave 
 
 
Day 7 Plan​: ​Two Generations Initiative Advisory Board meeting @10:13am-12:00pm, Feeling Stressed, Learn to Stress
Less (East Hartford) @1pm-3pm 
Day 7 Log: 
Date​: 1/11/2020 
Total Hours​: 7 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am:​ Arrive (really​ 8:27am​) 
9:00am-9:20am:​ Read Articles 
9:20am-9:30am: ​Talk with Bob Meredith: Notes on Separate Page 
9:40am:​ Walked with Melissa and Judge P to Legislative Office Building 
10:00am-11:45am:​ Meeting about budget 
11:47am: ​Walked back to the Supreme Court Building with Doreen and Brittany 
12:00pm-12:35pm:​ Lunch Break 
12:40pm:​ Drove to East Hartford with Rhonda  
1:00pm-3:00pm: ​Feeling Stressed, Learn to Stress Less Meeting 
3:00pm-3:20pm: ​Drove back to the Supreme Court Building 
3:20pm-4:00pm: ​Did my own things 
 
Day 8 Plan​: ​Should be a day off from work. If so, work on product! 
Day 8 Log: 
Date​: 1/12/2020 
Total Hours​: day off 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
Financial aid meetings about college. Pretty busy day working on appeals and scholarships. No time to do 
much but think about the product 
 
Day 9 Plan​: ​Training Subcommittee meeting (Wethersfield) @2pm-3:30pm 
Day 9 Log: 
Date​:1/13/2020 
Total Hours​: 7 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am: ​Arrive (really ​8:50am​) 
9:00am-9:40am: ​Researched more on Walter McMillan 
9:45am:​ Walked with Brittany to LOB 
10:00am-10:30am: ​Gun Violence Reduction Press Conference 
10:35am: ​Walked to Capitol Building Basement with Brittany  
10:40am: ​Walked back to the SCB 
10:45am-11:45am: ​More research for product  
11:50am: ​Walked to the LOB with Brittany  
12:00pm: ​Press Conference about Incarcerated people phone calls to their loved ones  
12:45pm: ​Lunch Break 
1:15pm: ​Tour of the Capitol Building (nice tour guide, wishing chair-my wish was about colleges and 
something else) 
2:35pm: ​Walked back to the Supreme Court Building 
2:50pm-4:00pm: ​Research for product 
 
  
Day 10​ ​Plan​: ​Judiciary Committee Public Hearing and Meeting (LOB) @10am 
Day 10 Log: 
Date​: 1/14/2020 
Total Hours​: 7 
Description of the Day (activities, hours/activities, progress on your product, etc)​: 
9:00am: ​Arrive (really ​8:54am​) 
9:10am: ​Walked with Brittany and Doreen to LOB 
9:20am-10:00am: ​Waited for Hearing to start 
10:00am-12:20pm: ​Judiciary Committee Public Hearing and Meeting (Lee Whitnun is insane) 
12:30pm-1:00pm: ​Lunch with Judge P, Doreen, Brittany and Melissa (Melissa paid for me :) 
1:00pm-2:00pm: ​Research on project  
2:05pm: ​Walked over to the criminal court 
2:15pm-3:00pm: ​Criminal Arraignments  
3:00pm-3:50pm: ​Research/my own thing 
 
WEEK 2 REFLECTION​ ​Please write a summary of what you have learned and the skills you have 
acquired, successes and challenges, and plans for Week 2​: 
The second week was a little less exciting than the first. I did get to speak with someone who hired an 
attorney that used to work at the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama. This week I sat in a bunch of 
meetings and I got to see Emma again. I didn’t really acquire any new skills. It was so sad to leave 
because all of the people were so nice and friendly. I had a great time!