They could make a call and people on the other end of the line could trust you to keep their names out of it.” Wakefield suggests this is police work, the duty of police, and not the work of community.

Gibbs and Fornell have always had an Odd Couple-style friendship.

To believe in the evils of mass incarceration naturally leads to skepticism towards prosecutors, the ones who put the harsh sentences in grand jury’s heads and set the tone for a given case. The season was originally scheduled to premiere on January 13, 2008, but was delayed due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. This is the only way the courts, law enforcement, and the State of Ohio can “deal” with this troubled youth: in the convoluted, often unproductive, and always lengthy way that pervades every case this season documents.In a fascinating turn, there is a glimmer of redemption here, at least in character. By Sara Netzley

S16 E22 Recap “They ran.” Why won’t he help police? S16 E12 Recap Torres gives chase and eagerly throws himself into hand-to-hand combat to bring Ray down.At NCIS HQ, Gibbs asks Torres handle Ray’s investigation solo and forge a connection.
His driver’s license has been suspended ten times, and he owes the state of Ohio about ten thousand dollars. He was part of the Heartless Felon gang. On the phone, Spencer’s mother confirms this behavior. Oh, but she did; she told the FBI agent, Fornell. Police know and dislike him. For a crime he committed as an adolescent, he will spend nearly a decade in prison. By Sara Netzley These are “the people that understand me [Joshua] the most.” They are the only people he knows.To end the season, Koenig offers some recommendations for what is obviously a very convoluted and often broken criminal justice system—at least in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. She asks if reform could instead be possible from inside the police department itself. Koenig swiftly explains the decades of criminal law history that has made it so easy for prosecutors to over-charge and thus prompt either longer sentences or plea bargains.

By Sara Netzley Even if Davon did witness a murder, hypothetically, he’d tell police someone “got shot.” Where did that person go? Hicks shrugs off his mistake, but the truth slams Gibbs right in his fabled gut.He and Jack follow the newly freed Hicks to the batting cages, watching from the car and debating whether he’s a liar and, if so, whether that also makes him a murderer.

S17 E14 Recap
That reputation of ratting made juvenile detention centers dangerous for Joshua, and exposes the holes in ODYS’s reforms: the remaining juvenile prisons have become even more unsafe. It’s here that Koenig’s personal voice is most active. By Sara Netzley

Episode 7: The Snowball Effect Plenty of shows are tackling the criminal courts in some fashion at this moment. Episode Discussion. “Get out of the punishment business,” Koenig suggests. S17 E17 Recap By Sara Netzley (Ducky was out of town during the initial autopsy, which was handled by a city ME.) She also plays the role of translator: ideas or positions he describes as “political,” she refreshingly calls out as racist.

Or is there something larger at work here, in this subdued, even resigned, episode? With Michael Palin, Olivia Cooke, Tom Bateman, Johnny Flynn. Hicks swears he was framed during the joint NCIS/FBI investigation.

Even when no one else—those controlling his fate—can see hope, he can. He’s pulled over, harassed, dragged back into court. The story serves to illustrate the context behind Nickerson’s story and demonstrates the unparalleled abuse of power and cronyism that runs the town.



By Sara Netzley

Black was stopped and beaten while driving on his way home through East Cleveland. TV She is with him—at least via telephone—as he struggles in juvenile detention, where the deal he struck previously with the FBI to “rat” out the Heartless Felons gang has not led to the protection the bureau had promised. “I wasn’t raised like that,” Davon says, “it’s against my religion to tell on somebody.” This type of dedication to a code—a refusal to snitch, “by principle,” as Koenig suggests—is further illustrated by another, similar case. She doesn’t remember what he looked like, beyond the fact that he was black and in his 40s.As Hicks is white and much younger, Gibbs asks why Mary didn’t tell anyone 11 years ago.