Corrections Officials Call For More Remote Hearings To Save Money

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the face of court proceedings in West Virginia, allowing many hearings to move online.

As lawmakers look to reduce state spending, some corrections officials are urging an expansion of pandemic-era virtual conferencing technology to reduce prison-to-court staffing and travel costs. Others in the criminal justice field warn that virtual trials remain imperfect, and warrant special consideration before expansion.

Several West Virginians involved in the corrections and criminal justice fields appeared before the West Virginia House of Delegates Courts Subcommittee for a meeting Thursday morning. These individuals were invited to “give us their expertise” on addressing “inefficiencies” in West Virginia’s court system, said Committee Chair Del. Phil Mallow, R-Marion.

Last year, the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) transported individuals more than 1,370,800 miles between its 18 prisons and jails and state courtrooms for in-person court proceedings, according to WVDCR Assistant Commissioner Scott Patterson.

This cost the state approximately $3.4 million, and required nearly 82,000 hours of staffing from corrections personnel, Patterson testified at Thursday’s subcommittee meeting.

In 2020, WVCDR staffing and travel expenses for court proceedings were just a fraction of the 2024 figures. For example, South Central Regional Jail transported individuals about 94,000 miles last year, but just 2,600 in 2020. That was thanks to the wider usage of remote hearing technology.

“We have the capability to do many of these hearings by video,” Patterson said. “That’s a huge cost savings.”

The softening of pandemic-era public health restrictions brought a resurgence of in-person hearings.

Patterson said certain legal proceedings, like evidentiary hearings for criminal trials, have been and must be conducted in person. But he advocated for other proceedings, like bail hearings, to move virtual.

Rodney Miller, executive director for the West Virginia Sheriffs’ Association, echoed Patterson’s perspective. For law enforcement officials, he described transporting individuals to court proceedings as a “personnel drain.”

“With the transportation of inmates to the courthouses, one, it’s a burden on [the WVDCR] to bring them here. They’ll have to come back and get them,” he said. “It also is a burden on the counties, because the counties will have to have staff sitting with those inmates and monitoring them.”

Miller said different counties implement court transportation policies in different ways, based on local needs and capabilities. The West Virginia Legislature can pass policies modifying court operations, but those policies are first interpreted by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, then implemented by courts on the local level.

That can mean law enforcement officers have to spend extra hours accompanying defendants to meet the needs of the court, according to Miller.

“There are policies in place, as I understand it,” he said. “But still, you have authoritarian figures that do the way they want to do in their locale.”

Justin Hershberger is a public defender for Monongalia County. He told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that remote conferencing technology can work for “smaller issues” in the court, but can cause hiccups for longer hearings and criminal proceedings.

When a defendant is in the same room as their counsel during a trial, they can quietly ask them questions or provide comments throughout the process.

But defense counsel often joins remote hearings virtually, Hershberger said. That makes it harder to communicate with a defendant, and can require the entire trial to be put on pause if an individual wants to speak with their lawyer.

“If a client, a criminal defendant, has a question during a hearing for their attorney, we can’t answer that without everybody leaving the room and us having a discussion with our client,” Hershberger said. “We can be as prepared as we can, but sometimes our client wants to whisper something to us.”

Allowing attorneys to participate in a hearing from the same remote location as their client could rectify some of these issues, but it would move the onus of travel time and mileage onto defense attorneys, Hershberger said.

For Monongalia County, “our jail is an hour and 15 minutes away,” he said. “So, for us to travel to the jail and be present with our client, that’s a whole half a day.”

From his experience, Hershberger also said in-person hearings generally take less time and “run smoother,” because there are fewer pauses to allow for confidential conversations between a defendant and their attorney.

Regardless, defendants are constitutionally entitled to attend “all critical stages of the proceeding” in person, he added. Hershberger said it is the state’s obligation to uphold each resident’s constitutional right to a fair trial.

“They really need to focus on and make sure that they’re not running afoul of any constitutional right to be present in person,” he said.