(Monterey County) Grand Jury wants new court building

Aim is to cut costs, public safety concerns

Ahead of a 576-bed expansion at the Monterey County Jail, the Monterey County Civil Grand Jury suggested Friday building an arraignment-specific court at the Natividad Road site to free up transportation costs.

An arraignment is the court proceeding in which a suspect enters a plea.

Until such a court could be constructed, the jury proposed Monterey County stakeholders research legislation that would allow felony arraignments to take place via closed circuit television, thus allowing inmates to remain in jail during arraignment.

Both suggestions were part of the jury’s interim report on “Public Safety and Cost Reduction Considerations” of the criminal arraignment process.

As it stands, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office receives about $4 million annually to transport inmates from the jail to the downtown Salinas courthouse for their arraignments. Doing so involves nine vans, three buses and 10 sworn officers making a four-mile round trip between the jail and courthouse, according to the report.

Monterey County Superior Court is already facing drastic cuts in the fiscal year that starts July 1. Despite closing the King City courthouse resulting in a $200,000 savings, the court system is looking at a $1.6 million deficit as of June 30.

Outside the financial question, transporting inmates is risky from a public safety standpoint, according to the report.

“Any such transportation involves potential security issues such as escape attempts, attempts to separate and injure inmates, or fights occurring among the inmates, while in transport,” according to the report. “The current procedures appear to be unnecessarily costly because there are less expensive alternatives available.”

Acknowledging the restrictions in Assembly Bill 900 funding — which is footing 90 percent of the $89 million bill for the jail expansion — the jury suggested Monterey County seek out additional revenue to build an arraignment courtroom at the jail. All other court appearances would continue to take place at the Salinas courthouse, according to the report.

Alternatively, Monterey County could seek legislation to allow felony arraignments to take place via CCTV, similar to Assembly Bill 2397, by Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D-Oakley). If passed, AB 2397 would allow inmates in counties of more than 4 million population to attend “noncritical” court appearances via audio-video conferencing systems. On March 10, the bill was referred to the Public Safety Committee. Monterey County, in 2010, had just above 415,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census.

Examples of such a system are already in place in Alameda and Orange counties, according to the report.

“Both these counties claim this method is cost effective and minimizes public safety issues inherent in the physical transfer of prisoners from one remote location to another,” the jury wrote.

The jury also suggested felony prisoners of Marina’s traffic court could be looped into the arraignment courtroom or CCTV system to eliminate costs and safety considerations in transferring inmates to Marina for traffic court.

Implementing CCTV should be a temporary measure at most, the jury wrote, noting it isn’t consistent with Monterey County’s recent push for early resolutions to cases.

“It is difficult with CCTV to have counsel for the prisoners at the same location so they can discuss the possible pleas or settlement proposals to be made, if counsel and the prisoner are not both at the jail,” the jury wrote.

With 576 new beds scheduled for completion in early 2018, the jury said the jail population may increase, thus requiring more arraignment hearings and related transportation.

“Additional prisoners at the jail will otherwise create an immediate need for more prisoner transports and increased security concerns, if there is no arraignment courtroom on site,” the jury wrote.

Moving all arraignments to the Natividad Road jail would offer a twofold boon in that it would free up Department 11 in the downtown courthouse for other matters, according to the report.

“Any added operating costs to the Superior Courts are also offset by the court being able to make available the use of the existing Department 11 courtroom at the Salinas courthouse for other types of hearings and trials by the courts,” the jury wrote. “According to the Executive Offices of the Court, there is presently a serious shortage of courtrooms there.”

Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller acknowledged the benefits of the jury’s proposal, but questioned the feasibility.

“We’re totally supportive of the concept,” Miller said. “But it will be difficult to make it happen.”

Obstacles to an on-site arraignment courtroom include cost, state regulations, physical construction and public access, he said. The same could be said for a CCTV system, which was last considered in 2011, he added.

“It’s not so much putting up a row of audio-video conference rooms at the jail,” he said. “It’s not that simple.”

Representatives of the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately return calls requesting comment Monday.

Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter @allison_salnews #salinas.