Courts to start video arraignments

Over the next few weeks, Whitley County officials say they are hoping to begin the process of arraigning prisoners at the jail through a video conferencing system and the Internet.
Officials with the Administrative Office of the Courts installed video cameras, microphones, wiring, and monitors in the district and circuit courtrooms at the Whitley County Courthouse last week, which is part of a nearly $70,000 system being put into place.
“We will start as soon as it is done. We are very excited about it. It is helping to bring our technology into the current year, and it will make things more efficient. It will save the county money in gas,” said District Judge Cathy Prewitt. “Then there is the safety factor. You always have the concern you might wreck, or you might have an escape, and somebody might get hurt. It will save a lot in the long run.”
Circuit Court Clerk Gary Barton said the main hold-up is getting high speed Internet service set up at the jail, which is required for the system. The phone company won’t have DSL ready for about another year in that area, but he said officials are in talks with the cable company about possibly using their high speed service.
Barton said the Williamsburg court facilities are ready, and that work was supposed to begin last week on the Corbin courtroom.
Barton said he spoke recently with Whitley County Judge-Executive Mike Patrick, and learned that the jail was built with wiring for such a system.
Prior to the opening of the new jail this past August, deputy jailers would simply handcuff prisoners together, and march them from the county jail to the courthouse, which was less than 100 yard away.
Now that the jail is roughly three miles from the courthouse, jailers are having to transport the prisoners by vehicle, which is taking longer.
“Our docket has increased so much that we have gotten to the point where deputy jailers were sometimes making two trips a day. They would bring a van load full of prisoners, then they would come back with another one,” Prewitt said. “It occurred to me that there has to be a better way. The jail is doing the best they can, but it does slow down the process when you have to do that.”
Prewitt said she got the idea to do the video arraignments about six months ago, since one of her goals as judge is to update the courtroom system from a technological standpoint to make it more efficient.
Prewitt said she contacted officials with the AOC about two months ago to see what they could do to help out with the problem.
“One of their big things right now is to update courthouses, so the county fiscal court agreed to pay to wire the jail. The AOC will pay for wiring the courthouse here, and the courtroom at city hall in Corbin,” Prewitt said.
Prewitt said it will cost the county about $10,000 to wire the jail, and that AOC would be paying about $60,000 to wire courtrooms in both Corbin and Williamsburg.
“The good thing about this is that not only will we be able to arraign an inmate from the Whitley County Jail at the courthouse, but we can arraign an inmate at any other facility that is wired in the world for that matter,” Prewitt said.
“It is through the Internet. We can tie into it. For instance, if we have a defendant that is incarcerated in Bowling Green, and Bowling Green is wired, which I understand they are, then we just tie in to them, and it saves that transportation costs of bringing the defendant here.”
Since the Whitley County Jail houses all female inmates from McCreary County, Prewitt said the system will be used by her and Judge Dan Ballou to arraign those prisoners via the Internet when they are conducting court in McCreary County.
The video system will also enable some witnesses to testify from elsewhere besides the courtroom.
For instance, the state police crime lab is wired, which could reduce the need for crime lab technicians to drive to court, and sit around for one or sometimes two days waiting to testify when they can do any other work.
“Some of the state facilities are already wired so that would be more efficient,” Prewitt noted.
Prewitt said all of the district court arraignments involving prisoners housed at the jail will be done via the Internet.
“I will have a monitor on the bench so I can see them, and they can see me. The attorney’s counsel table will have monitors for the attorneys to see, and I understand there is a larger monitor for people in the courtroom to see. It is still open court. Everybody will be able to see and hear what is going on,” Prewitt said.
“Some of the hearings, if the defense attorney agrees, could be done that way. Obviously, your trials are still going to be done in person,” Prewitt said.
District judges normally hold court every Monday in Williamsburg and every Tuesday in Corbin, and the video system could reduce the need to transport anywhere from 10 to 20 prisoners on each of those days to court.