All of us who visit courtrooms have encountered some frustration with the manner in which they are designed.  I had occasion to have a brief discussion about this with a Judge form the United Kingdom which, in turn, led to researching the literature on courtroom architecture.  In this Criminal Justice column, we will explore some of the current themes (or themes that should be current) regarding what courtrooms look like, why they look that way and how we can do better.

For the purpose of this article, we will look at the broad historic trends in development of the modern courtroom in the context of Anglo-American law.  We will focus on the treatment of criminal cases in particular and then look at some of the more disturbing trends in dealing with people in custody, the non-judicial courtroom participants and the public.  We will use as examples some local and other California examples.