Remote Hearings for Prisoners

During the pandemic, we got accustomed to doing certain court proceedings virtually—initially under authority of the Chief Justice’s emergency orders (which Shea discussed here), and later by statute, under G.S. 7A-49.6. That law allows “proceedings of all types” (with some exceptions and caveats) to be conducted using an audio and video transmission. The Department of Adult Correction (DAC) has issued new guidance on its process for scheduling virtual proceedings. Their General Counsel’s Office asked me to help spread the word about it to court officials.

The full DAC memo is available here.

The crux of the memo is a request for court officials to send all requests for virtual proceedings to a centralized email address, rather than contacting the particular DAC facility at which an inmate is housed. That email address is SVC.DAC_Writ_Office@dac.nc.gov. Email is strongly preferred, but the memo includes a fax number and U.S. mail address if needed, along with a point of contact for additional assistance.

Remote hearings can be useful in many circumstances, but they can often be particularly beneficial for inmates. As I drove to Boone this morning for the quarterly meeting of the Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission, I passed several DAC inmate transfer buses on I-40. I couldn’t help but think of the time, risk, and expense involved in moving inmates around our large state.

A remote proceeding won’t be appropriate in every situation, but the broad authorization of G.S. 7A-49.6 could, for example, help make shorter work of a straightforward sentencing or jail credit correction—things for which the inmate’s right to be present could often be satisfied through an audio-video transmission. (Errors related to some things, like court costs, can be changed outside of the defendant’s presence. See State v. Arrington, 215 N.C. App. 161, 168 (2011) (“[P]ayment of court costs does not amount to punishment, [and] therefore, the imposition of costs on defendant outside of his presence did not infringe upon his ‘right to be present at the time sentence is pronounced . . . .’”).) The parties should of course be careful to abide by any local rules related to remoted proceedings, and to comply with any notice and procedure required under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. G.S. 15A-830 through -839.

Finally, the availability of remote proceedings could also help satisfy the letter and spirit of G.S. 148-10.5, which directs DAC to work with law enforcement, the district attorneys’ offices, and the courts to develop a process to identify all outstanding warrants for inmates and resolve them whenever feasible. Inmates will sometimes be hesitant to leave a prison unit for fear of losing a work assignment or program placement and the related opportunity to accrue earned time. The ability to resolve a charge remotely might mitigated that concern, and perhaps maximize the opportunity to serve additional time concurrently.