SERIAL SEASON 3.

• Author: Shackford, Scott
• Position: PODCAST - Brief article

For the podcast Serial's first two seasons, host Sarah Koenig focused entirely on two specific court cases. For season three, she widens the focus, spending a year at the Justice Center in Cleveland, Ohio, documenting the entire court system's machinery as it grinds across many cases, ranging from assault to homicide. The show was given remarkable access; Koenig shares audio recordings of court hearings, and she interviews everybody from judges to prosecutors to inmates to families of the accused.

Listeners who have been following criminal justice issues are unlikely to be shocked at the show's revelations about the callous, thoughtless treadmill upon which cases are managed. But across nine episodes, Koenig masterfully details the entrenched dysfunction of the courts every step of the way across many cases.

The season begins with Anna, who is tossed into the system after a bar fight--she's actually the victim, but she gets arrested for lashing out and accidentally hitting a police officer. The...