Albemarle courts to get new security precautions

Manned metal detectors, a one-way door and more restraints for inmates.
In 2009, the Albemarle County courts will be instituting new security precautions to ensure that the buildings are as safe as possible.
A month after taking office, Albemarle Sheriff J.E. “Chip” Harding said he contacted the Virginia Sheriff’s Association about how to get a security assessment done for the local courts. Over a matter of months, Harding has been meeting with deputies, commonwealth’s attorneys, clerks and judges to get feedback on the recommendations from the survey.

Harding said the security modifications would be phased in starting this month.
“Some of these changes affect the public,” Harding said. “There was a concern about having a grace period to warn people to what is coming.”
Pre-existing metal detectors in both the general district and circuit courts will be manned when court is in session starting this year. Harding said he expects that running the detectors while the courts are in session will add 45 to 50 hours of manpower per week to his staff’s workload.
General District Judge William G. Barkley and Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins both agreed to try bringing inmates into court with full restraints, Harding said. The restraints go one step further than the standard ankle shackles and handcuffs by anchoring the handcuffs to a waist chain.
In general district court, Harding said the restraints would reduce the opportunity for inmates to interact inappropriately with others in the courtroom while they are waiting for their cases to be called.
Mark Wayne Shifflett, 46, was sentenced in November to 15 months in jail after pleading guilty to assault and battery and threatening a witness in the general district court. Before a preliminary hearing Aug. 21, Shifflett approached his alleged victim from a credit card theft and hit the man on his back while Shifflett’s hands and legs were shackled.
Harding said a table skirt also would be added to the defense table in the circuit court so juries don’t see the restraints and draw conclusions as to the defendant’s culpability.

Court-specific changes

The door between the clerk’s office and the general district court also will become an exit-only door for most people in January. Harding said the doorway tends to get clogged up between defendants visiting the clerk’s office, lawyers stepping out of the courtroom to meet with clients and deputies transporting inmates in and out of the courtroom. Inmate transport will continue to take place through this door.
Harding said the general district court also would have a window installed for the deputies.
“If the clerk hits the panic button, we can look to see what happened before we bust in there,” Harding said.
The general district courts also will be re-keyed. Harding said the keys that have been given out in the past haven’t been carefully tracked.
In the circuit court, Harding said, he wants to add a panic button to Higgins’s office and the clerk’s office, as well as cameras in the courtroom that could be monitored from the renovated juvenile and domestic relations court building. The judge’s bench in the circuit court also will be made bulletproof.
Some of the changes that have been requested in the circuit court might not happen due to financial concerns. Harding said Higgins has requested a backup generator for the circuit court so that late-night trials can continue despite a power outage. However, Harding said the county has told him a generator would be costly.
The renovation of the juvenile and domestic relations court building on High Street is expected to be completed in April. Harding said no security changes have been planned for the Levy Opera House, where the juvenile courts for Charlottesville and Albemarle currently are being conducted. The renovated court will meet most of the concerns addressed in the security survey.

Paying for it

Harding said he would need a total of 90 additional hours of staff coverage a week to add all of the security measures, but that doesn’t mean his office will be hiring.
“We’re trying to pull off doing this without asking for extra staff,” Harding said.
The Sheriff’s Office currently has 18 full-time and three part-time staff members. Deputies are responsible for court security, delivering civil paperwork and inmate transport.
In order to free up more staff for court security, Harding said he might reduce the amount of time deputies spend doing civil service and eliminate traffic direction outside of three of the county’s high schools and one of its middle schools after the current school year.
If his deputies are pulled from directing traffic at some schools, Harding said he would offer a traffic trainer to the school division. The sheriff said he sends about four or five deputies in the morning and again in the afternoon to direct traffic for about 15 minutes each time. Staffing the intersections at the four schools with a deputy costs the school division about $52,000 a year.
Harding said he might be able to free up deputies by relying more on the reserve unit, a group of 32 people with firearms and training who can handle certain events for the office. The reserves are estimated to save $250,000 a year for the county in manpower costs. The sheriff said he is hoping to increase the volunteer unit to 40 members this year.

The costs for the general district window, keys and other small physical changes to the courts will come out of $45,000 that the county has set aside for maintenance and repair work for all county-owned buildings, said Bryan Elliott, assistant county executive.
“These are pretty small-dollar-item repairs that need to be done for the courts,” Elliott said.
Estimates for some of the items, including bulletproofing, have not been completed.
The county is waiting on the results of a space assessment for the courts to be taken into consideration as part of its capital improvement plan. Elliott said the larger court expenditures recommended through that assessment, including courtroom cameras, would be brought up during the capital improvement plan process.