PITTSBORO — As part of their curriculum, 15 students studying law at UNC-Chapel Hill recently met with Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson to tour Chatham County’s Detention Center and bolster their understanding of the role law enforcement plays in the judicial system.
Spending several hours at the 110-bed Detention Center on Renaissance Drive on Thursday, February 23, the students — all second- and third-year law students in UNC Law Professor Jamie Markham’s Judicial Sentencing class — observed every aspect of the facility, from the space where detainees are booked to the commercial-grade kitchen where their meals are prepared.
Such real-world observation is important to their studies, Markham said.
“We spend a lot of time in the class talking about prisons, probation, sentencing policy,” the law professor said. “And we do a lot of interaction with sitting judges and prosecutors, defense lawyers, probation officers. I wanted to add the piece of getting the sheriff’s perspective, the law enforcement perspective.”
Markham said he routinely arranges a tour of a prison for his students, but their visit to the Chatham County Detention Center was a first.
“I wanted to bring them to a jail,” Markham said, “to give them a complete picture of being charged with an offense to being sentenced and then maybe winding up in prison.”
The soon-to-be lawyers represented a wide cross section, hailing from North Carolina, Maine, Virginia, Tennessee, California, New York and England, but all came prepared with lots of questions which Roberson spent several hours answering.
“I think this is really important,” Roberson said, “not only for you but also for us to make sure we’re putting out information about what we really do.”
Often, the Sheriff said, the public sees only one side of the bigger law enforcement picture.
“You only see the chases, the fights, the shootouts and the crime scene tape,” Roberson said. “We don’t always show people the other side, which is 99% of what we do.”
Markham said the overview his students received in Chatham County would be helpful as they soon pursue a variety of careers.
“Some of them are interested in prosecution, some are interested in being defense lawyers,” Markham said. “Someday, some will probably be judges. I want them to have a real picture of the work they do and the decisions they make, what happens in real life.”
Courtesy of a video training tool that virtually places participants in a potentially life-threatening scenario, the law students during their visit also got a brief taste of the split-second decision-making that law enforcement officers could encounter on any given day.
The “shoot/don’t shoot” virtual experience is one of the training tools officers use to prepare for real-life encounters.
Armed with a realistic Glock 17 air pistol, each student — taking on the role of an officer investigating a late-night burglar alarm activation at a business — took a turn before a large video screen as a virtual encounter with a potentially armed suspect played out. Entering the business, the students came face-to-face with a suspect who — one hand concealed from view — may or may not have been armed with a deadly weapon. Depending on which scenario they faced, the suspect brandished either a gun or a stapler, and the students were tasked during the interactive experience with deciding whether to fire their gun or not.
As the exercise got underway, Devon Rhodes, a third-year law student from New York, virtually entered the business, making her way into a poorly lighted room where she encountered the suspect and began attempting to question him. Quickly revealing his hidden hand, the suspect produced a gun and suddenly opened fire.
Reacting fast, Rhodes shot back.
“Oh, my goodness!” she said, a smile returning to her face after the pulse-raising encounter. Though a virtual experience, it left her a bit unnerved, Rhodes said, but also with a broader appreciation for the work law enforcement officers do every day.
“That wasn’t easy,” she acknowledged, saying she’d never fired a gun of any kind in real life. “But that was cool! Thank you. And it was good to get that glimpse into what an officer might encounter in those situations.”
Markham was so impressed with the welcome he and his students received during their visit — the professor commented that Chatham County’s Detention Center is “the nicest jail I’ve ever been in” — he said he would like to make the tour a regular part of his class.