By vincent todaro
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK — The township’s municipal court has begun using teleconferencing as a way for judges to communicate with prisoners without them having to be picked up and physically brought to court in East Brunswick.
The video system, which the court began using less than two months ago, allows the judge to talk right from his bench to the defendants while they are still in jail.
Most of the prisoners are located in the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, and would normally be brought to East Brunswick by a county sheriff’s officer, according to Eve Shapiro, the township’s court administrator. After they are finished with their court appearance, if needed, they would be brought back to the jail by an East Brunswick officer.
The video system negates the need for that. "What we found is that it’s a security issue," Shapiro said, adding that the officers no longer have to worry about prisoners trying to escape or harm them while being transported or escorted.
"It’s more efficient and cost effective," she said of the program.
The township’s police department no longer has to worry about having officers available to transport prisoners, and can thus use them for other purposes, according to Mayor William Neary.
In addition, the video conferencing system makes the court appearances more timely.
"We always had a problem getting prisoners on time to court," Shapiro said.
"Basically what we’re doing is, when we have someone who’s incarcerated because of a warrant we’ve issued for his arrest, we used to transport them to court on the next court date," she said. "Now we set up a video teleconferencing system, and they don’t have be transported."
Instead, the prisoners who are unable to post bail are brought to a booth in the workhouse of the county jail.
"In that booth, they have the video conferencing set up; they have a camera and TV," she said.
In fact, if the prisoner needs a public defender, that is arranged and is also handled with the video conference system. The public defender is able to talk to the prisoner via a private line.
Shapiro said the system is used for charges filed by East Brunswick police. Among the more common charges are contempt of court, failure to pay fines and other unanswered charges.
She said the prisoners often wind up in jail after being arrested by another police department. Sometimes they are arrested in East Brunswick and held at the county jail, as the township only has a holding cell.
The prisoners are able to enter pleas through the video system, and the judges are able to sentence them, she said. The township has never actually conducted a trial over the system, however.
Municipal court is held four days a week in East Brunswick, and the video conferencing is used Mondays and Wednesdays, according to Shapiro. The system is only needed for about 15 to 30 minutes each day, she said, depending on the number of prisoners and whether they need public defenders. Neary said East Brunswick is one of the first municipalities in the county to use the system.

