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The members of WQED next On Q. While television cameras have often shown you this side of the Allegheny County Jail.

What brings you here?

You have never seen this until tonight.

As On Q, cameras are granted access to the new jail court for the judge to see them.

That can all be done with the inmate not leaving the institution.

There's a safety factor that involves cost savings.

The judge sees on its face to face.

Although it's, you know, electronic.

And it's a big cost savings for taxpayers.

We take you inside jail court On Q starts now.

And welcome to On Q. I'm Michael Bartley.

Tonight we take you on a unique visit inside the Allegheny County Jail.

Not for the typical report on the lives of inmates, the goings on, and problems inside the jail.

Instead, we're showing you how taxpayers are saving money for a change.

It's all thanks to a relatively new, high tech, security savvy way to keep inmates inside the jai while appearing before a judge.

Some simply call it jail court.

I'm 21.

You had, at the ripe old age of 21, two gun charges, two assult case two possession with Intent deliveries And three others that I don't even know.

You are a danger to society.

Not to mention yourself, Mr Cash.

Actions speak louder than words.

And invoke is one.

Allegheny County Jai inmates appearing before Judge Joe Ranglos while never leaving jail, while the judge never leaves her courtroom.

It's a tragic, serious situation when an inmate escapes through jail.

Court via video conference is not only reducing security concerns.

We're saving incredible money.

It's really a huge efficiency from a court time perspective and a safety perspective.

And while inmates get to court faster, don't be fool.

You don't seem happy after this video conference.

Not at all.

No one gets a legal advantag because of the new technology.

except the taxpayers high technolog that you're using does translate into a safer environment, am I right?

Oh, absolutely.

Cuts down chance of contraband, safety and security of the personnel moving the inmates, the, basically overall safet and of course, the cost savings.

If you're getting out today, you get a non-monetary chance that you'll be out by five, maybe 7:00 this evening.

So be a little bit patient.

And it's just the massive amount of people here.

We have a lot of movement Monday through Friday.

At one in the afternoon, inmates get instructions about what's going to happen.

Some sit quietly nervously stare, some speak up.

But they told me, I mean, I don't know anything about operation, so we're gonna try and get in front of the judge, see what the judge decides.

Chris Moran arrested for disorderly conduct.

Never expected to get before a judge this soon after being locked up just a few days.

The technology stepping it up.

So that way you're not here for three, four weeks waiting for preliminaries or, you know, different or different things like like of that nature.

And over at the Allegheny County Courthouse downtown in room 533.

Are you ready down there?

Judge Jill Ranglos, her staff assistant DA's and defense attorneys also get ready.

Discord shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

And then change to the last great day I do.

Thank you.

Please.

Be seated.

Sworn in.

Now on the record.

Inmates at the jail stand one at a time, in front of a dark wall, looking into a television where they can clearly see the judge and the lawyers at the courthouse.

Judge Frangos does the sam to see the inmate in question, while juggling recommendations and arguments from attorneys.

All the while via remote control.

A small camera on top of the televisions quickly pans back and forth to capture who's talking, and the video connection is made by using the internet, a secure firewall connection so that nobody can eavesdrop.

The only reason we can i because the courts awarded OnQ an administrative order, so that we can show you how this all works.

I lost my kids and Im trying to get them back.

Good for you.

There is high emotion frustration.

While inmates hope it's their day for the judge to reduce bond, their day to get out.

Count one You are charged with retail debt but it is a misdemeanor.

The court agreed 351 compared incarceration five years and $10,000 and count two, 25 year old Amanda Abram of Homestead stands before the camera arrested on an outstanding warrant.

Do you understand the nature of the charges against you in the maximum penalty that could be imposed?

if you become guilty on each cou Yes.

This woman I think she has seven priors on the total of five convictions.

Last one was in 2004.

For part of the criminal complaint, though, raises the ire of Judge Ringo's.

What I just did from the deputy who had an arrest warrant that you were very, very disrespectful.

I was I was angry because I have a baby an I didn't know what was going on.

I didn't want to leave my baby.

It's only her job to execute you.

Yes, ma'am.

And you also understand that she could have charged with some of what was.

So you can continue that behavior would have been within her discretion and aggravated assault against any law enforcement officers.

It was automatic felony charge.

Yes, I feel sorry.

Not what?

You need to apologize to the deputy.

I'll apologize to her.

I'll try to help you here by explaining to you, you need to adjust your attitude.

In order to to help yourself through the process.

Yes.

There, yes I agree.

Abraham is granted non-monetary release with conditions that she has to report into the court.

Once a week.

She then agrees to talk with us in the hallway of the jail.

You're getting out of here today?

Yeah.

In the past.

Have you had delays with the courts?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

You have to sit in here until your court hearing.

Did you even know this existed?

No, no.

While this quick video court appearance turned out fine for Abraham, remember Mr.

Moran, who praised this new hig tech system for its convenience?

If you want someone in your life to walk into prisoners, you're certainly.

Carol, will be right back.

I have see the court's backlog caused Marion's appearance to be delayed to the next day.

Peter, now on one five, six, seven, he complains to a jail guard while being taken back to his cell.

I wonder why did you give up?

I get to speak with her.

I don't know anything.

I wasn't paying attentio I didn't even get to speak to.

That's what I was saying.

So I don't know what happened with that.

I can't answer that for you.

For now.

Video conference jail court mainly handles bond motions, which means inmates want their bond reinstated after they were arrested on outstanding warrants for, among other reasons, not showing up for a court date.

And while this technology brings quicker appearances for inmates, it doesn't bring any judicial advantage.

Why didn't you hear?

I just made it and they messed up.

I mean, I have some family troubles and I had two date mixed up on that one.

But Jason Faulkner was arrested on an outstanding warrant for missing his court date.

Well, unfortunately, it was just Bulger.

Yes, well, you had the court date.

You ust appear, no matter how long, you can just continue whatever all the good issues are, daughters, x, y Yes.

maam.

All right.

It's.

No, it's just a missed date.

I just missed the date.

And I'm not the kind of lawyer you did.

I need to go back and look at two others.

That's not all right.

5,010% with the rate increase.

so he could hav gotten released, but he refused.

So I'll just sit and wait till my court date.

I won't give the city no money.

So you're going to sit here?

It's only a month from now.

And they want ankle bracelet.

I can't handle my minor in my my movements.

You'd better be in jail then.

And have an ankle bracelet.

Yes.

Okay.

I mean, the Commonwealth they make the rules as they go.

Not very happy with that decision at all.

You have no light, no right, n rights or laws in this country.

Some people might think it benefits the inmate, but, not in your case.

Not really.

You just don't get to go to the other side, you know get outside of the jail house.

No fresh air.

And it.

I get that it's quick.

Speedy jail warden Ramone Rustin, who pushed t establish video link jail court, says it's too early to establish exact cost savings.

For now, Ruston put the yearly savings to taxpayers so far in the neighborhood of $400,000.

Basically, the courts have agreed that a lot of their, issues that with the courts can be dealt with, by the inmates remaining on site rather than have to be transported by the sheriff's department up to the courthouse and actually waiting in a bullpen for the judge to see him.

That can all be done.

With the inmate not leaving the institution, there's a safety factor that's involved.

Cost savings.

And the judge sees them.

It's face to face, although it's, you know, electronic.

It's, you know, it's live.

You know, they have their proceedings done, they have their day in court, you know, within a matter of minutes versus all that transporting time and everything.

Rusto shows us some of the contraband smuggled into the jai by inmates and their visitors.

Plastic knives, toy guns, drugs hidden in shoes, lighters and homemade shanks.

He's always worried that any movement of inmates to the outside and back again could bring trouble.

Another reason, he says inside jail court is a benefit.

It's a big deal, security logistically, because every tim we have to move an inmate out of a building, we have to call him or her off the pod.

They have to be escorted down in case they have to change their clothes.

You know, they have to be searched all along too.

Then they got to come back to the jail, be searched again.

You know, uncuff, unshackled and searched.

You know, searched by our correctional officers.

Dress move back upstairs and hopefully they don't have any contraband on them all along.

So it's an intense, procedure that every inmate goes through every time he or she asks to move.

Does she have a whole new dress?

And I just shows.

Obviously, you get resistance from the inmates.

They probably want to get dressed up and get out of here now, because a lot of the inmates know they've got to sit i another holding cell for hours, and there's a likelihoo that they won't even be heard.

Allegheny County Criminal Court judges go on a rotating basis to hear a video.

Jail caught two weeks at a time every six months.

Judge Rango says this system brings increased efficienc to the overall judicial system.

It used to be we had to do the same thing with all of the inmates at the jail.

They would first be transported to the bullpen, which is in the Family Division building.

Then they get walked across the Bridge of Sighs and held in the holding cells.

In this building, one at a time.

Brought upstairs before the judge may have noticed, we have four very slow hydraulic elevators that are about the size of most people's closets.

You have to wait fo those elevators for a long time.

So the delay in court proceedings by bringing these individuals up and down can take a judge a whole afternoon to hear motions where this wa you can do it in half an hour.

I'm just a nervous wreck inside my initial impression was that because it is such an immediate deal over at the jail, they can get to their hearing faster, maybe the next day, as opposed to waiting because of the back up in the court system.

So I, my impression was, I think some of them thought they had a legal advantage, but after watching for several hours, that's not the case, is it?

I don't think there's any substantive difference between the outcomes.

By having this done on vide conference, I really think that the results of the hearings were the same.

And the time that it takes to do the hearings, it certainly is much more expeditious to do it by video.

I'm coming up five areas to hear, on for sentencing, one for trial.

Three quires one of those which do you can leave?

Yes, it does for that it 35,000, 38,000.

Now, now, what have I had to these two warrants I'm here on now.

I had the dates mixed up while video conference jail course already links up with other counties.

Expansion plans include magistrates court and holding extradition hearings online, while suspects are held clear across the state or out of state.

Those magistrates are miles away and these inmates are moving to preliminary hearings and arraignments.

Any time an inmate is outside of the confines of the jail, that's a breach of security.

One of the other uses that we now employ is for people who are bein considered for a state program.

Those people first have to go to the state facility in Camp Hill to be evaluated for that program.

Used to be they then had to be brought back to Allegheny County to be officially sentenced if they were accepted into that program.

That's a long drive and a lot of cost, becaus whenever you send the sheriffs, you send them in pairs.

And if it's beyond a certain distance, it's an overnight stay.

So they have hotel expenses, meal expenses and so on.

Now we video conference and sentence them that way, and they don't ever have to come back here in Allegheny County.

Is everybody aware that you have an opportunity to get out today?

It depends on your own personal history.

How many times you've been arrested, how many times?

Jail administrator William Mystic, who runs the system day to day, predicts there will be many more cos saving secure internet hookups.

We are going to move to video visits, make it more convenien for the families and children.

We also, currently do video visits, as in someone can be at their home computer, not necessarily at home, but maybe somewhere close t their home in the neighborhood.

If we have a county facility o the, with the county internet, connections we may be able to do.

And if you violate your word, you've lost my trust.

That will be it.

You'll stay in jail.

You won't get bond in these cases.

You understand?

While the county's judicial system is often under fire for backlogs, cost overruns, jail overcrowding security problems and the like, finally, says the Warden, the system can take credit for embracing technolog to better serve the taxpayers.

We're at full strength now and looking to expand.

It's been a proposal.

Taylor, now on the jails drawing board for quite some time with a lot of cooperation with the courts.

The courts really want to see us do it.

So we got it going.

And while at the courthouse I spoke with several attorneys, prosecutors, defense attorneys, none had any criticism of the over the internet jail caught some saying it saves them time too.

But what about the sheriff's department?

Do fewer inmate transports mean fewer jobs for deputies?

You might be surprised with the answer.

Sheriff's Department Administrator Lieutenant Michelle Terry joins us now.

And let me just get this right out there.

When this first came about, okay?

You'r you're not going to take inmates out of the jai for certain court appearances.

There had to be grumbling with sheriff's deputies thinking fewer hours, fewer jobs because, listen, they do the lion's share of the work.

They do the work.

When when an inmate has to g from the Allegheny County Jail over to Grand Street to the courthouse, you have deputies doing that really careful, high stress transport.

And when they're talkin about expanding this jail court, maybe fewer jobs.

What's the feeling downtown?

Well, the feeling at first was grumbling.

But over talking with the sheriff and everything we decide that we accept new technology.

You know with the new technology it'll have a direct impact on our vehicle maintenance.

It'll help us save gasoline.

Well, you know, the judge is talkin about going to a magistrate and a county, let's say a, you know, 100 miles away and so forth.

That's that has to be i the sheriff's department budget.

Yes, it is.

Definitely it is.

But in the past two years, we've been, under budget and with the, Let me try to figure out what the, we're we're under budget even though we are understaffed and we always try to stay on to of everything, you know, with, keeping the prisoners secure keeping the prisoners arrival, making them arrive on time and everything.

So we always try.

And so is the bottom line with jobs.

If, if, if this jail court expands to more than just bond hearings, is, is there still enough work for that many deputies?

Definitely.

We have enough wor with the advent of new judges, hearing officers, we have well over 25,000 warrants that need to be served in Allegheny County alone.

So with the redistribution of deputies, that will simply just augment our current understaffing situation.

And they do an incredible job, you know, away from when when I was inside th jail for the for the jail court and it was over, we went to take some pictures on the way to intake court, which is right next door.

And then there were some transports to the courthouse.

It's not an easy job.

No, it isn't, and it requires a lot of paying attention.

You know, it requires a lot of driving skill.

We're driving all day, every day.

So.

And we're responsible for ourselves.

We're responsible for the prisoners and everything.

So that takes a lot of worry off of us.

And then the escap aspect of a prisoner, you know, I mean, we have to we go from one lock facility, a long time ago, we still let prisoners out right on Grand Street, and it would be two deputies, and we would just make sure that they get inside the building, have to stop passerbys.

So now we go from one secure location we go to another secure location with only the inmates that have to go to court.

So the initial aspect of the bond hearings and the new video court, we no longer have to do that.

So that's a saving and we can even think of that.

So your was your first impression.

Wow.

Okay.

Keep some of them in there.

Yes.

Keep some of them in there.

Because I tell you there's plenty of them to go around.

You know there's different aspects of court.

So therefore there's alway people coming to court, people that are in court that are getting their bonds are revoked and we have to take them back.

So we don't feel that the video court will result in layoffs.

You know, anything.

It'll just help us t let deputies be redistributed.

Not to mention Sheriff Mullin.

And you were telling me as well, the sheriff's department itself, even in the way you serve warrants.

Now, because that's a huge jo with the sheriff's department.

You use high technology now to even to do that.

Yes.

We have what they call Jnet.

It's our justice network.

It enables the deputies and detectives to get photos on the spot of individuals that they're looking for, do a criminal history on those peopl right there in their vehicles, either before they go in the house, or they can do it at their desk, and they don't even need a dispatcher right now.

So we have on the spot technology right there.

What we can do is everything's just now, you know, we can go in that house.

If someone comes to the door and we're saying, are you John Doe?

And they say, no.

And we look at a picture and that's him we just arrest that individual and even use email for advance notice on warrants and so forth.

Yes, we use emails for, our writ district.

What happens is an individua come into the sheriff's office wanting us to survey paper the plaintiff will provide us with the address of the individual, and they can provide us with our E with their email address.

And as soon as a deputy serves that paper, they can and they can put that into the computer.

And that person can know firsthand knowledge that that person is.

So we have to have I have about 30s left.

But everybody's under pressure right now, especially in this economic climate, climate.

You have to save some money and technology does that.

Yes, yes.

And we welcome technology.

We're not afraid of it.

We welcome it.

And when and if the video conferencing does bill, the Allegheny Count Sheriff's Office will be there to serve the Allegheny County residents.

Thank you so much, Lou.

Already a pleasure.

It's a nice day.

Thank you.

All right.

Andy.

Okay.

Now let's, take a quick look at some of the other stories we have coming up this week.

The countdown is on for th digital television conversion, but if you buy a fancy new TV, what should you do with your old one?

Tomorrow night at 7:30 On Q, explains how you can safely recycle your old television.

Also tomorrow we had Sharon, Pennsylvania, where singer Tony Butala, one of the original Lettermen, shows us where the new vocal group Hall of Fame is being built.

It all happens tomorrow night at 7:30.

Have you been to the On Q website?

You'll see details about upcoming episodes On Q Special reports and documentaries.

You can find info from past episodes and even watch some of them online.

It's also the best wa to contact us with story ideas, comments, and requests all on our website.

WQED.org/OnQ and have them do it for us tonight.

For all of us here at On Q, I'm Michael Bartley.

Thanks for watching tonight.

Good night.