Marshall County Superior Court No. 2 Judge Dean Colvin asked the commissioners this week to assist him in improving the video conferencing system between the courthouse and the Marshall County Jail.
A system was put in place years ago, but it’s time to upgrade, according to Judge Colvin.
“Over the last several years, we’ve run into a couple of issues with the video conferencing as a result of, as I like to call it, planned obsolescence with the regards to technology,” said Judge Colvin. “We’ve worked through the lifetime expectancy of the video conferencing and we’re having technical problems with video conferencing. We need to address those and bring them back up to date and back up to speed.”
In 2014, 725 hearings were utilized by way of video conferencing. It is also used by the Indiana Department of Corrections to conduct hearing that has saved the county money.
Judge Colvin also said various types of technology is used in the courtroom.
“Photographs, video, audio/video – many of you know by looking at the news a lot of what’s going on in law enforcement now is the use of video cameras and surveillance films. Those sort of things are becoming very prevalent in the courtroom these days. We have to have the capability in the courtroom to make those tools available to make those types of presentations to the court or to the jury.”
Research for this project has been ongoing for the past several months, and Judge Colvin asked the commissioners to approve a recommendation to upgrade the equipment with ESCO Communications in the amount of $149,950.
The commissioners approved moving forward in obtaining a contract with ESCO Communications. That contract will be reviewed by County Attorney James Clevenger.
