Alright, I have to admit it. Next to food, history, and politics one of the subjects that I have always enjoyed was law. Seriously! When I was in high school I worked volunteer for a summer at the local district attorney’s office. It was an educational experience as I assisted the victim’s unit with preparing for court or helped with preparing the judicial pool selection, among other things. It became very personal when I walked into court one day to learn that a boy from my school was going to testify as he had been molested.

I also participated in Law Explorers. The Explorers program is a division of the Boy Scouts of America, which is co-ed and is focused on particular careers. With Law Explorers we would get together monthly and do fun things like putting on a mock trial, listen to prisoners speak, visit the prison and so on. During the mock trials, I got to play the role of the judge several times.

Law was always fascinating because it affected so many people and cases could be won or lost on the finest of detailed arguments. In fact, it was those very fine details that could cause a case to go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Through high school I continued to work at several law firms. I know this will sound very weird but I even had a postcard of the U.S. Supreme Court justices on my mirror. I really wanted to become the 2nd woman U.S. Supreme Court justice and every day I would be reminded of my dream.

As the years went by I decided that I wanted a family and time with them more and so I let those dreams move on. Nonetheless, I still relish reading a good legal transcript and can understand legal contracts enough that I have thankfully caught more than my share of errors prior to signing legal documents.

So, with this understanding I will share our daughter’s learning experience regarding the judicial system, prisoners and the paddy wagon. One morning on our way home from a doctor’s visit, we came upon a Department of Corrections transportation vehicle. I realized immediately that they were headed to court coming from one of the prisons. As we continued, I figured this would be a great time to talk with our daughter about the law, court and prisoners.

I asked my husband if he would follow the van so we could see if I was right. As we followed, we began a discussion. I asked her what she thought the van was for and why did it have bars? Who might be in it? Why were they there? Where were they going? I explained that there were prisoners in the van and that they were on their way to court. We talked about how when someone does something wrong, they can end up in jail. In those cases, they will appear before a judge to decide if bail will be set. For other people who are awaiting trial they will go to a prison and then be transported back to court for their trial.

Our discussion continued with me asking more questions. How are the prisoners arranged in the van? Do you think prisoners ever try to get out and break free? How would they do it? How can only one or two guards transport many prisoners? We talked about safety, the use of bars, escapes and proper planning when transporting prisoners.

“What happens when they get to the court?” I asked. Our daughter was unsure and so I explained that the court has a big garage. The prisoner van drives into it, it is met by other guards, the garage door is closed and then the prisoners are led out in handcuffs and leg chains. Considering we drive by the courthouse all the time, our daughter had never noticed this garage. So, what’s a homeschool mother to do?

I asked my husband to follow the paddy wagon all the way to the courthouse. While he had agreed to go along with following the van on the highway, he looked at me as though I had three heads when I made the last request. He agreed to follow the van but was concerned that the guard who was driving was beginning to get suspicious of us following him. I assured him that there was nothing to worry about, after all we were not doing anything illegal, even if we did look a little odd following the van.

So, we followed the van off the highway, took the same turn at the light as the van, continued up Main St. behind him and managed to hit every light with the van right in front of us. At this point, we could see that the driver kept looking in his side mirror. My husband was becoming more uncomfortable but we were able to convince him to continue following the van, down another road and through several more lights. Then we came to the courthouse. As we drove up behind the van, we saw the garage door open and the van pull in. Success! The van was going to the courthouse.

As we drove off, my husband breathed a sigh of relief that this learning adventure was over, as I am sure the driver of the van did too. We continued talking about law and prisoners. Our daughter contemplated what it must be like to lose your rights, have a judge decide your future, not be allowed to come and go as you please and so on. In that time, we were able to take a seemingly innocuous van and teach some valuable lessons. Our daughter learned about the judicial system, laws, crime, rights, responsibility, good citizenship, dangers of particular professions, and how one single decision one makes can change many lives. All-in-all it was one adventure we won’t soon forget!