Videoconferencing
In Criminal Proceedings:
A New Wrinkle In An Old System

Videoconferencing is a workable, cost-effective tool that improves the criminal justice system and enhances prison security.

By Rep. Robert G. Goetsch

In upholding the constitutional principles implicit in our laws, courts maintain a delicate balance between the rights of a person accused or convicted of a crime and the interest of the state in providing a safe, secure environment for its residents. The use of videoconferencing technology in the criminal justice system adds some interesting wrinkles to the practical factors that influence that balance.

Interactive videoconferencing technology is a tool that can be used to provide services and to conduct certain criminal justice proceedings commonly associated with incarcerated inmates. As a tool, videoconferencing presents enormous potential as a cost-effective security enhancement to help prisons provide routine inmate services and proceedings.

The Department of Corrections already uses interactive videoconferencing between University Hospital in Madison and the Waupun and Dodge correctional institutions to save substantial costs in transporting prisoners for medical consultation. Videoconferencing in many cases eliminates the need to physically transport an inmate from the institution to University Hospital, which can require the use of specially equipped vehicles and a major part of three correctional officers' work day (often resulting in overtime pay). Besides saving those costs, the state also benefits from enhanced institutional security because the correctional personnel remain to monitor the prison, rather than transport and monitor the inmate.

Using videoconferencing in pretrial hearings also can save costs and enhance prison security concerns. Current law requires inmates accused of crimes within a particular prison to be prosecuted in the county where the institution is located. The counties, rather than the Department of Corrections, bear the cost for those prosecutions.

For several years circuit court judges and county supervisors statewide have expressed concern about the extra court security and secured transportation costs needed to bring inmates to the courts for pretrial hearings. Pilot projects funded by federal grants in Kenosha and Portage counties have shown that in those cases, videoconferencing is a secure, cost-saving alternative to transporting inmates. Although the pilot videoconferencing equipment demonstrated some technical flaws, it showed that the system could resolve many security and fiscal concerns.

Some counties - including Dodge and Columbia - have budgeted to develop videoconferencing technology within their justice systems. With the availability of refined video equipment, enhanced telephone lines and fiber optic cables, they should experience fewer technical problems than encountered by Kenosha and Portage counties. Once the equipment is installed, it will allow judges to conduct videocon-ferencing for pretrial and other inmate hearing procedures when it is not essential for an inmate to be physically present, and to network with other sites for other educational and professional purposes.

The Parole Commission, faced with the ever-increasing numbers of inmates who are eligible for parole, also has experimented with videoconferencing for some of its hearings. Parole Commission chair John Husz and the inmates themselves generally have reacted favorably. Videoconferencing has saved parole commissioners the time and expense of travelling to various institutions and gives inmates a break from their usual daily routines.

So far, I know of no legal barriers that might hamper the continued use of videoconferencing as described above. Fax and email communications have been integrated successfully into videoconferencing systems, enabling essential documents to be made available to all parties during medical examinations and pretrial or parole hearings. Attorneys either for the state or the inmate have the option of being present with the inmate or in the court, whichever is most expedient. As we seek more widespread use of videoconferencing technology, case law certainly will develop as certain aspects are challenged and litigated.

The state has a duty to investigate the implementation of all available resources, including developing communication technology, in the interest of maintaining secure, efficient prison management. So far, I think the new procedures that are developing to use videoconferencing technology are workable and cost-effective, and they contribute to an improved justice system.

Rep. Robert G. Goetsch represents the 39th Assembly District. He chairs the Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee.