I have a work space filled with stacks of subpoenaed documents and transcripts from prisons around the country. For a little background, Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), and set up a PREA Commission and Panel to study/investigation the issue and then work in conjunction with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to inform and advise policy decision making in on this issue. For more information, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_Rape_Elimination_Act_of_2003
Here is the basic gist of where I work, below. The Office of the Assistant Attorney General is nested in the Department of Justice. The Office of Justice Programs is not actually shown, but for simplicity, let’s say it is everything on the right side. Then I am in the Office for Civil Rights.
Also, if you want to know a little more about the Office of Justice Programs (where I work in the Office of Civil Rights), check out:
It is a well laid out website that will give you a decent and concise idea of what other issues I am working on and learning about.
Please also check out the major issue my office has been working on: the Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Initiative. They have a great website you can poke around just to get a basic idea:
Essentially, LEP provides funding to local programs, such as schools/law enforcement so that persons who have limited English proficiency will not be deterred from seeking public services. It is pretty much the only meaningful issue that the Bush administration has left our Office—everything else pretty much comes from Congress.
Let me tell you some fun work stories. Last Friday was a good one. That was one of the days I got kicked out. First, I must say that the Metro system has gone bonkers in the last two weeks; two or three fires, one or two persons run over; one or two derailments—crazy stuff. So anyway, last Friday, there was a fire at one of the major transfer stations, Metro Center that made the Red Line go all wacky. That just happens to be the line I ride to work, no? I finally managed to get to work at 9:15AM, and the power was going off and on. The fire effected like 40 city blocks with sporadic blackouts, or something like that. A couple of my roomies got sent home from work because of it. We were going to meet at a pub for some food after work that day, and it took them like 3 hours by bus because of the chaos to get there. After I was at work for like 45 minutes, my supervisor sent everyone home because all of the computers were acting up. That was not good for me, because I was sort of behind. Luckily, everything on my computer was working for some reason, so I just stayed and worked. I work in the back, so no one noticed.
Here’s the best part of the story. There were all of these glowering, important-looking people running back and forth with clipboards. They had been moving the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) on to our floor for that entire week, so it had been a chaotic week. However, these people were like inspecting who-knows-what, not moving in. Then this really nice lady I had been talking to from OCFO came by and introduced me to a group of glowering people with clipboards.
“Bradley. I would like you to meet Jeffrey L. Sedgwick, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Beth McGarry, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Operations and Management, Eugenia Tyner-Dawson, Senior Advisor for Tribal Affairs.”
They are pretty much the heads of my “department.” That was pretty sweet. Later I found out that lady that had introduced them to me was the CFO, herself. How dumb am I?
One more thing for any of you potential Law and Criminal Justice (LCJ) students out there: The Supreme Court is releasing its decisions now from its Fall/Winter session. The big one that I have been waiting for just came out: Boumediene v. Bush. It is all the buzz around here. I cannot believe they ruled it that way; it will be really interesting to see what happens. Just to give you the basics: Boumediene has been held at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo), without trial or even formal indictment for 6 years. In this case, he argued that he should be able to get access to the federal courts because he was being “wrongly held” without trial. That is a very simplified version, and is actually wrong, but it gives you the idea. I recommend reading a quick analysis of it.
Also, you should watch the December 2007 oral arguments, they are exciting and sexy.
Back to work, I have been having a good time. Today was an eventful day. An attorney just retired, so we had a reception for her that lasted the entire late afternoon. It was small, formal, and very fun. It sounds like one of those opportunities that every law intern wants: to hobnob with their superiors, but it wasn’t. It was just a natural extension of the day. I don’t know how to explain my work environment, but I doubt I will see the likes of it again in law. I get a chance to work in close proximity with these attorneys everyday. They are great; they value my contributions, and seem to mix as they work. They are a fun, professional, and dynamic team.
I just got plugged into a program for Department of Justice interns and met some new friends from the Office of the CFO. I have been out to lunch with them a few times. Today, we took a tour of Capitol Hill through this program.
Pictures:
Yeah, I am not the best photographer, but those are the ones that I got to come out in good lighting. We were able to gain access to the Capitol through the Virginian Congressperson Jim Moran. We got to sit in on a House session, while they were arguing about off-shore oil drilling. I guess what I did not know about was the immense labyrinth that lies under Capitol Hill. It is like a shopping mall for self-important people down there that connects all of the important buildings together. There is even a little mini-subway.What else has been going on? Work consumes most of the week, but on the weekends we are able to get out and stretch our legs a little bit with some lacrosse.
My roomies and I also went to an all-Grosvenor Tower cook out. I got to play my first decent scrimmage of soccer in almost a year—test drove my knee a little bit. Still holding up.
One thing that has been really fun is dinner. My roomies and I get along really well (at least as I see it). We have almost made a ritual of sitting down to a nice dinner every night. It helps that they can cook really well—‘cuz I can’t. I can’t even claim to know my way around the kitchen. However, I have every intent of learning as much as I can without getting in the way too much…
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