An Act To Require Videoconferencing for Civil and Criminal Proceedings for Inmates
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 4 MRSA §1060 is enacted to read:
§ 1060. Videoconferencing
1. Videoconferencing. Each court shall use videoconferencing technology to conduct all civil and criminal court proceedings involving a prisoner committed to a county or state correctional facility, except for a proceeding that requires the prisoner's physical presence in the courtroom.
2. Reimbursement of expenses. Beginning July 1, 2012, annually the Department of Corrections, State Board of Corrections shall determine what, if any, cost savings for counties in the transportation of prisoners for court appearances resulted from subsection 1 for the previous 12 months. If the board determines a county has reduced prisoner transportation costs due to the provisions of subsection 1, the board shall adjust the county's budget under Title 30-A, section 710, subsection 4 to reimburse start-up and ongoing court expenses for carrying out subsection 1 for the previous 12 months for all courts to which the county would have transported a prisoner if videoconferencing had not been used. The amount of reimbursement of court expenses under this subsection may not exceed the amount of transportation cost savings for the reimbursing county.
summary
This bill requires the courts to use videoconferencing technology to conduct all civil and criminal court proceedings involving a prisoner committed to a county or state correctional facility, except for a proceeding that requires the prisoner's physical presence in the courtroom. This bill also requires the Department of Corrections, State Board of Corrections to adjust a county's budget to pay for expenses incurred by a court in using videoconferencing for prisoner court proceedings from savings of the county in reduced costs for transporting prisoners.