Having someone in my life who I could easily see falling into the bucket we are labeling “ignorant and/or apathetic”, I’d say there could also be less cynical reasons why people fall into this trap.

Might it be fair to also assume that anxiety, depression, and a general sense of hopelessness against a system you’ve maybe been treated unfairly by in the past might have something to do with why people miss court dates? I doubt that most of them just don’t care.

We 100% need to fix the larger dark patterns at play in the criminal justice system. We also need to not pretend that text message nudges are all we need here. But it’s possible some help from the system rather than feeling like it’s engineered for you to fail is a small step. And it isn’t fair to assume the worst of people who likely have pretty difficult life circumstances weighing them down.