43
Youngstown judge calls end to video arraignments ‘shocking’
Photo
Judge Kolby
YOUNGSTOWN
A municipal judge has described the decision by Mahoning County Sheriff Randall A. Wellington to cancel video arraignments from the county jail as “shocking.” Wellington wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to the three municipal judges here that he would be forced to cancel the initial appearances of inmates by video from the jail he operates, effective Feb. 6, because of a 3 percent reduction in his budget this year.
With 37 deputies still laid off and two prisoner-housing units still closed due to insufficient funding, “I have no choice but to redirect the deputies that supported that function to other required tasks within jail operations,” the sheriff wrote.
The sheriff’s budget this year is $14.1 million.
“In today’s technologically advanced day and age, we will be forced to revert back to the Dark Ages, when the physical transport of prisoners was the only way to accomplish the arraignment process,” wrote Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly in a Jan. 13 memorandum to city officials.
Because of the need for 20 to 30 inmates to again be physically present under extremely crowded conditions, court security staff will have to be increased, and city police will have to transport prisoners daily from jail to court and back to jail, Judge Kobly wrote.
“I fear that the elimination of video arraignments is going to cost the city of Youngstown more in the long run than anyone could have anticipated,” Judge Kobly wrote.
The judge’s memorandum did not offer any estimates of the costs to the city for extra court security or for city police to transport inmates to and from court.
“With the unrealistic budgetary restraints that have been placed on this office, we are being forced into an especially difficult situation,” the sheriff wrote.