County Budget and Finance Director Rodney Rhoades (center, in inset) poses as an inmate during a final "dry run" of Jail Plea on Dec. 4 to visiting state District Judge Webb Biard. Standing in as Rodney's defense attorney is state District Judge John Roach Jr. (right), who helped spearhead the project through the county's Growth and Vision working group. Assistant District Attorney Coleman Sylvan stands on the far left of the inset video.

A Technological Jump Streamlines Agreed Guilty Pleas from Jail

The county's Jail Plea program began a series of mock runs in mid-November to test video links from the jail to the courts, thanks to some hard work and smooth cooperation between the District Courts, the District Attorney's Office, the Sheriff's Office, the District Clerk, Community Supervision and Corrections -- and our Information Technology folks, of course.

Jail Plea takes a similar approach to the county's video arraignment program, but its function brings about the final disposition of a felony case in any of the county's state district courts. The idea is to free up the number of Sheriff's deputies it takes to transport and watch over prisoners for simple plea hearings.

The new program could initially process a dozen or more cases a week and, once equipment is installed in all the district courts, the number could climb dramatically. The video arraignment program, for example, processed 6,387 people in Fiscal Year 2006 - the first year of operations. That number grew to 8,085 people in Fiscal Year 2007 -- a 26.6-percent increase.

Eventually, the system will accommodate video link-ups in each district court, allowing judges to process plea hearings from the bench with virtually no interruptions. Long term expansion of the process could include misdemeanor courts, plus other district court proceedings such as pre-indictment pleas, parole revocations, video-conferencing and testimony from law enforcement officers - even out-of-state witness testimony in trials.

The Dec. 5 debut of Jail Plea resulted in 10 prisoners formally entering their pleas (with their defense lawyers standing next to them) in a 45-minute time span. That same process in the courthouse may well have taken four to six hours to pick up, transport and distribute those inmates to different courtrooms. Court documents are shared by fax and email, and then the hearing itself takes place live with both ends connectively wired for sound and camera.

Jail Plea is the result of the county's Growth and Vision working group, spearheaded by state District Judge John Roach Jr., and coordinated through county Budget and Finance Director Rodney Rhoades. The group also included representatives from different county departments and elected officials, and meets periodically to bring in new techniques and technology to use your tax dollars more efficiently. The initial set-up of Jail Plea cost less than $1,000, since the group tapped county resources and equipment already available.

The group is also responsible for bringing in a second new program -- Jury Call -- that will allow prospective jurors to call in before their Monday jury call to see if they need to report in person. Eventually, this service may be expanded to allow the Jury Services staff to make automated calls out to prospective jurors to pass on that kind of information and save unnecessary trips from across the county to McKinney. Jury Call is expected to debut in this coming spring.

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