More Responses to "Pro Se" program

The following is post to the blog for the This American Life episode titled Pro Se.

While I don't necessarily believe that psychiatry is evil, I do believe that it is rather inaccurate. As such, I don't believe that psychiatric evaluations should be permissible in court due to their inherently arbitrary nature, e.g. how the setting a person is in makes everything seem insane.
With regard to defending yourself in court, I think that "Tony's" is a perfect example of why people should not try and defend themselves. Here a person thought that they could out-wit the system only to be unduly caught in it. Furthermore, "Tony's" case exemplifies the fact that 1) the vast majority are too ignorant to represent themselves and 2) that the "plain English movement" is too little. "Tony's" case demonstrates the need for lawyers and an extension of the right to representation in court, no matter what type of case.

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Wright,David R


Sara Sanfilippo

The topics discussed in This American Life radio talk show were astonishing. It was truly overwhelming to hear that the vast majority of Americans in civil and housing litigations are representing themselves in court because they are financially unstable. I am sure that these people know that their chances of winning are slim to none and that having a professional lawyer represent them would put them at a much better advantage; however, if they cannot afford to hire an attorney, their case still goes on and they have no choice but to represent themselves in court. It is a shame to hear this though because since they are amateurs, they do not possess the necessary skills and knowledge to win the case for themselves. Sadly, it boils down to, if you have the money, you can guarantee yourself of getting out of anything with the right lawyer (take O.J. Simpson for example), and if you do not have the money, you are simply out of luck. Granted, there are the rare exceptions such as in the case of Jorge Cruz but most people are not as fortunate as Jorge Cruz. Just as anyone, despite his or her financial circumstances has the right to a lawyer paid by the state in criminal law, the same procedure should apply to civil and housing law as well. The story about Tony was the by far the most interesting because it addressed the common misconception in our society, that being put in mental ward is much ???softer??? than prison. Tony???s story is extremely unfortunate, that after twelve years he still cannot manage to find his way out of the ward. However, I can understand how anything he does whether he is cheerful and happy or standoffish and set apart from the rest is diagnosed as mentally ill behavior. Once a patient is placed in a ward, their behavior and every move is under the microscope, which is exactly why Tony is still there. Everything he did seemed to be labeled as a characteristic of mental illness. As it would be nice to think that one day Tony may break free from the ward, as they said in the talk show it is much easier to get in the ward than it is to get out.