Prison-rules video conferencing

Like any self-respecting journalist I`m no stranger to courtrooms.

Fascinating places. Terrible smells of cheap liquor and sweat ferment in airlessness, lots of bad noise, magistrates farcically elevated, condescending, sadly and blissfully mistaking fear for respect. Defence lawyers grind justice to a halt. Constant postponements, adjournments, reappearances, orderlies summonsing people with shouts deafening all those waiting nearby, some of them never appear, everything gets dragged out, names slip off the bottom of the roll...

Overriding all this is the awful thought that a large portion of our reluctantly relinquished tax money goes towards perpetuating this circus.

So naturally my attention was grabbed last week by reports of the successful 'virtual courtroom` pilot projects in the Durban and Pinetown magistrates` courts.

Designed to make the process of awaiting-trial prisoners` court appearances more efficient, virtual courtrooms involve the inmates appearing before magistrates via video conferencing facilities without leaving prison.

Initiatives like prison-court video conferencing should lead us, I hope, to consider the vast number of ways that video technologies can be put to use.

Dave Glazier, junior journalist

The risks, costs and time involved in transporting prisoners to court run deeper than one might at first imagine. According to The Star newspaper, Westville Prison alone transports 500 alleged offenders to court every day.

Each one has to be checked out of prison, transported to the courthouse, checked in, handed over to the police, escorted in and out of the courtroom, shoved in front of a magistrate, signed out, and then taken back to the slammer.

Those of us who`ve witnessed first-hand the competency level of the average SAPS officer will appreciate how much time this whole thing probably takes.

Initiatives like prison-court video conferencing should lead us, I hope, to consider the vast number of ways that video technologies can be put to use. Behind the steel bars of a jail cell would have been one of the last places I`d have imagined to find them.

The possibilities with video technologies are endless. But more importantly they are practical.

For instance, someone told me this week about a cr`eche, OptiBaby, where parents can drop off their babies and toddlers in the morning, and monitor them from their office over the Internet via streaming video.

You even hear of people who set up cameras in their houses in order to check over the Web if their possessions are being stolen, and to help identify the thief when goods are stolen.

What an advantage to have constant watch on little Timmy while you`re at work, and to have video records of those trying to pillage your house. How many court orderlies will breathe a heavy sigh of relief when they find out they no longer have to bundle tattooed hard-noses into a truck.

It seems most kinds of human interaction can now be performed remotely. Some day it will be all kinds.

But don`t get too optimistic about the possibility of the virtual courtroom ever being put into widespread practice. I seem to recall Mr Balfour once telling us how he was going to make South African sport great again. We all remember what happened there.