Video provides link from courts to prisons

[UC101]

A four-minute link between the Howard County Courthouse and the Rockville Correctional Center resulted in a savings to county government.

For the first time last Friday, a video conference link between Howard County Superior Court 4 and the women’s prison was established. The hearing before Judge George Hopkins was the reading of a warrant.

If not for the computer link, the Howard County Sheriff Department would have been required to send two deputies to Rockville to transport the female inmate back to Kokomo. The link eliminated a 400-mile trip and saved the two deputies from being out of the county for eight hours.

In recent months, the Howard County Information Systems Department has established video links among the courthouse, jail and Howard Regional Health System and now the Indiana Department of Correction.

“Once I found the right person to talk to, the link was finalized,” Terry Tribby, director of the Information Systems Department, said of the link with the DOC. “The hook-up was immediate.”

Tribby explained the link allows a connection with the judges, public defenders and inmates. The public defenders are capable of communicating with a defendant without the courtroom hearing the conversation or can have a conference with an inmate who is at the county jail.

“It eliminates the need to transfer people to Howard County,” Tribby said.

The initial cost was approximately $3,500 for a television set, camera and the special software to allow three-way conferencing. The camera and television set are on a mobile unit that can be moved to different locations.

Tribby said Miami and Cass counties are using the same equipment and video links can also be established with those two counties.

Norris Jones, security officer in Superior Court 4, said earlier this month one inmate was transferred to the jail to the court while five hearings were conducted by video link.

“It is a little slower to do it this way,” Jones said of the video conferencing.

Still, Judge George Hopkins said the video conferencing is a good second option.

“In six weeks, we have cut transports from the jail to the courthouse by 75 percent in this court alone,” he said. “The links have worked like clockwork.”

Howard County Sheriff Marty Talbert said the video conferencing almost eliminates the security risks.

Hopkins said the video link can be used for initial hearings, pre-trial conferences, bond reductions and mental health cases.

“This is Star Wars-type technology,” he said. “I do have to remember to push a button to be heard.”

Tribby credited Jason Andreas, assistant administrator of the department, with building the system.

“I made the purchase and he made the equipment work,” Tribby said.