This jumped out at me, because of cases in the news involving what seemed like well-meaning actions by courts that led to people being placed into horrific scenarios of mismanagement and abuse. As important as taking control away is who receives that control, and monitoring what they do - even when family is involved. By the time stories about systemic problems make the news, it’s startling to note abuse didn’t take much effort to uncover - it just wasn’t a priority. Reported problems didn’t stop the courts from continuing on the same path for long periods of time.
Cases like the one below highlight what happens with the courts and social services. One person was given control over the lives and finances of one hundred people. That all went through the courts. This is a pattern we see repeatedly with the most vulnerable: the elderly, children in foster care, the disabled, and more.
Bribery cases, bias studies, and evaluations of disparities in judgments or sentences show how easily swayed the courts can be. Even a backlog can cause people to get a bad outcome, because courts get overwhelmed, too. Unfortunately, just like in other parts of the “justice” system, it’s not easy to remove bad judges from the bench or correct systemic problems that have been allowed to continue for decades.
