The court observer program which has been implemented into cities across the nation was brought to Madison at the end of 2018 by local groups Justified Anger and Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development. The “court watcher” programs are designed to create complete fairness in the courtroom. Court watchers are members of the community who sit in on hearings and fill out forms documenting what they experience. Anyone can go on CCAP and find out someone’s criminal background but actually experiencing how a defendant is treated in court can help implement actual change. Since the onset of the pandemic, there has been a rare opportunity to grow this program faster than expected as hearings are held via Zoom and easier to attend anywhere. There is much speculation if Zoom hearings are fair in general, but that is a whole separate topic for discussion.