Deland, Florida

Arrived

Here in Deland, Florida! Having arrived last night (6pm here, 11 in my head) have woken up to the sultry, humid late August temperatures of mid Florida. It's the Labour Day holiday weekend here so Court appointments start Tuesday. I'm receiving wonderful hospitality already from a recently retired Public Defender, his wife and two cats. There's a couple of days now to acclimatise and orientate then I'll have meetings during the week with Probation Supervisors and a Circuit Judge. 

Travel itinerary plotted to scale by my Dad

One week to go

Contacts logged in every electrical device I can think of (and a notebook just for safety); file made up of etickets, hotel bookings,maps and addresses; case opened and waiting. It was never like this. I used to roll up clothes, stick them in a rucksack, pick up ticket and passport and leave all within a few hours. It must be age. Or a fresh sense of responsibility. One thing remains the same: uncontainable excitement.

The reason for the title

Strangely for someone who really likes reading and really likes travelling and has an interest in all things crime related I have never read 'Crime and Punishment.' While on the road in USA and Canada from 30 August on my Churchill Fellowship I plan to read it. Not least because all the questions it raises about justice and judgement will be more than relevant to my research project into the support given to people with learning difficulties who find themselves in the criminal justice system. But mainly because I'm really pretentious and what could be more pretentious than having a copy of 'Crime and Punishment' lying on top of your bag, or acting as a screen to fend off chatty people on the train, or as a reference point in conversations with people you're trying to impress: "As I read last night in the fourth chapter of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel, Crime and Punishment.......". Yes, I'm going to talk like that. That should really win people over.

This is a test, incidentally. And a bit of an explanation. This blog will begin properly when I make my first meetings with the Florida court system after 1st September. And then on and on, through New York and Canada, visiting services run by the Delancey Street Foundation and the John Howard Society of Canada, interviews with academics at the University of Massachusetts and a two day course in new models of service provision in San Francisco. Thanks wholly to the generosity of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (www.wcmt.org.uk)  the organisation for which I work, Cornerstone (www.cornerstone.org), and the nice people in all of the places mentioned who have agreed to meet with me and share their experience.

I am about as untechnical as people come so it will never be a totally interactive virtual experience but I'll write about where I am and what I'm learning and who I've met and I'll try to add some photos. You're welcome to drop in anytime.