5
November 2019
Technology and the Courts
Working Together
to Minimize Inmate Transports
Article by Lori Benoit |Lori.Benoit@gdc.ga.gov
The first phase began in May 2018 with a pilot project in the Augusta Judicial Circuit. The Public Defender’s Office would schedule a teleconference with an inmate to discuss, in private, their pending criminal matter. Over an eight-month period, there were 53 teleconferences held, which resulted in a savings of over 13,000 miles in either state inmate transports or travel by the public defender to state facilities. This phase was very successful and is now available in all 49 judicial circuits.
The second phase of the project resulted in the use of video hearing equipment to complete authorized court proceedings versus returning the inmate physically back to the courts. A pilot program was launched in the Augusta Judicial Circuit in December 2018 which ran for six months. Since that time, 57 court proceedings have been held and has resulted in the savings of over 38,750 miles of inmate transports by the Sheriff’s Department or GDC. The GDC has since purchased video hearing equipment for all 34 state prisons and the installation of the units was completed in June 2019. Several judicial circuits are in the process of purchasing equipment that will allow them to conduct video hearings in their circuit on inmates with pending criminal matters and is expected to save thousands of dollars in transportation costs.