True or False?
Judges and court staff from the Puerto Rico team facilitated a game of “Myths and Realities” at all the engagement sessions in a plenary session. The Myths and Realities exercise served to educate engagement participants generally about the basic roles and functions of the court system. Participants also learned about available court procedures for addressing youth and community conflict.
To create this exercise, the Puerto Rico team developed and presented statements about the basic functions and roles of the judicial system. Participants guessed if each statement was true or not.
To make the exercise more engaging, masking tape can be used to make a line in the center of the room. Then participants can be asked to stand on one side of the line if they think the just-read statement is true, and the other side if they think it is false. Alternatively, cards or pieces of paper can have one statement (myth or reality) written on each side. As each statement is considered, participants can choose to show whichever side of the card they believe to be true.
After participants made their choices, court personnel then identified the correct answers. As they did, they addressed various myths and misunderstandings revealed through the exercise.
Example Myth/Reality Statements
Puerto Rico created several statements, many of which were specific to their court systems. These examples may be helpful for you as you think about statements that could describe your courts.
Myths and realities statements for the youth groups included:
- The Judicial Branch is the one in charge of starting a criminal case against a person who is suspected of committing a crime. (Myth)
- A judge and a court bailiff are Judicial Branch employees while the police and district attorney are employees of the Executive Branch. (Reality)
- The Judicial Branch includes the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court, and the Court Administrative Office. (Myth)
- The First Instance Court has superior and municipal judges. (Reality)
- The Judicial Branch offers free mediation services at its 13 judicial regions. (Reality)
- Juvenile court cases are confidential and follow a special process that is not considered criminal. (Reality)
Myths and realities statements for the adult groups included:
- The Judicial Branch is the one in charge of starting a criminal case against a person who is suspected of committing a crime. (Myth)
- A judge and a court bailiff are Judicial Branch employees while the police and district attorney are employees of the Executive Branch. (Reality)
- The Judicial Branch includes the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court, and the Court Administrative Office. (Myth)
- The First Instance Court has superior and municipal judges. (Reality)
- The Judicial Branch offers free mediation services at its 13 judicial regions. However, a person must comply with certain income requirements to be eligible for the services. (Myth)
- The Judicial Branch has an office in charge of developing educational materials and activities for the community. (Reality)
- A person that goes to the court in search of assistance to address neighbor conflicts must be accompanied by legal representation and pay court fees. (Myth)
Myth/Reality Handout Formats
The myths and realities can be read aloud, one by one, with time for discussion of the correct answer after each statement. Alternatively, community participants may be given the statements printed out, and given time to write down their answers or guesses, prior to the discussion. The Puerto Rico team created attractively formatted handouts for this latter method. One format, for the youth, explicitly asked participants to choose whether a statement was a “myth” or “reality” prior to the discussion. The other format, used with adults, allowed participants to follow along as each statement was discussed individually .
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