My Jury Duty

Yesterday April 22 I went to the superior court to participate in jury Duty.It is considered duty than service as it is obligatory on all citizens to serve when asked which can be in most cases no more than five or so times in life.This is my second call to serve.I have been citizen for 30 years .on that basis my service had been once every 15 years.In Rhode Island where i live you can be asked to serve on a jury for 2 days or one case every three years.For federal jury the regulation may be 2 years.
It for sure gives one a Chance to look at the criminal justice system. As a juror one is participant as well as observant of the system.
I reached at 8:15 my designated time to report.I was pretty close to the last person to report.I am glad i was on time.I recognised their were 100 plus jurors all of them had reached on time.Punctuality is a great quality and on has to admire that in American ethos.
Other thing which was interesting to note was the make up of the jurors they seemed to be equally divided among male and female .Average age would be median of voting population.It seemed like their were 5 minority candidates about the same as in the population.
Every juror is given a number and system is intended to be anonymous to keep its integrity.
We were given hand book to read about the process and the responsibilities of the jurors.We also watched a movie explaining the process .One can not understand it unless one sees it closely.
In order to keep the system fair lot of effort is put into process.At times it has created its own problems .Our society has become extremely litigant and the justice system has become heavy on costs to the process as well as to the citizenry.