People link whitepaper visual collaboration for judiciary

Whitepaper | Judiciary

Visual Collaboration to enhance

Effectiveness of the Judiciary & Enablement

of Fast Track Justice

Introduction

Worldwide, tele-justice has emerged as a secure way of carrying out legal procedures. By

installing a video conferencing system at the courthouse as well as the prison facility,

defendants can participate in all legal procedures without law enforcement having to shoulder

the dangers associated with jail-to-courthouse prisoner transit.

Peoplelink conferencing systems allow judges, legal professionals, court officials, inmates and

witnesses to seamlessly communicate face-to-face in real-time, as if they are in the same room.

Speedy and hassle free trial of those cases where the accused in custody is of high

profile and incur high transportation cost or have high security risk in transportation.

Fair trial of sensitive cases like child molestation or crime against women etc. where

the physical presence of accused may intimidate the victim or witness.

The facility of Video – recording of the proceedings is a step towards achieving the

objective of paperless court.

About PeopleLink

Founded in 2007, PeopleLink has emerged as India's first ISO 9001-2008 certified Video

Conference Company. It has marked an exponential 108% growth Y-o-Y from the past 5 years.

A pioneer of modern video technology, PeopleLink, after accomplishing its pan India coverage

is now expanding its Global operations. Its range of offerings includes next generation Video

technology and Audio Video peripherals across a wide range of focused industry verticals.

PeopleLink offers the most robust customer / partner service in the Industry today. PeopleLink

has a strong and agile partner network to connect with our esteemed partners across 25

countries globally.

For more information, please visit www.peoplelink.in

PeopleLink technology is now a part of an academic curriculum of United States for their post-

secondary students of Computers & Information Technology. PeopleLink features under Easier

Collaborations for video, audio and data sharing with ease to the remote participants.

http://www.peoplelink.in/

Video Enabling the Courtrooms & Correctional Services

The security of the government employees and the public is a top priority in the judicial and law

enforcement agency. Apart from this the law enforcement agencies have to arrange for alleged

offenders to be transported between its prisons and the state’s criminal courts for pre-trials.

However some unforeseen challenges can arise when funding manpower and vehicles which

are often in short supply, or if prisoners escape on the way to their trials. Increasing the security

of government employees and the public is a top priority in the judicial and law enforcement

community. Video Conferencing solutions optimize time and resources by eliminating the

requirement for defendants, victims and judges to sit in the same room during preliminary

proceedings creating a protected legal and penal environment.

The deployment of videoconferencing solutions in Tele-Justice tends to increase the efficiency

of criminal justice system by helping the judiciary, police, and prisons department by speeding

up the judicial process, saving manpower with increased security, while realizing discernible

time and cost efficiencies.

Videoconferencing solutions in judicial systems are primarily used for:

Speeding up the adjudication process

Eliminating the extra costs for transportation, housing and security concerns that are

incurred by moving inmates to and fro from jails and courtrooms

“Video-conferencing in Phase II will go beyond routine remands and production of under-

trial prisoners. It will be used initially for recording evidence in sensitive cases and gradually

extended to cover as many types of cases as possible. To effectively assist in recording

evidence, a document visualizer will also be necessary in all district court complexes” –

Supreme Court of India (e-Committee) Report

Judges can be enabled with various Peripherals like Document Visualizers to view & Record Evidences. Convict connecting to

these Smart E-Courts from the custody.

This Diagram is to represent a possible solution / scenario. Images used do not signify any particular partnership and are purely for a concept representation purpose .

COLLABORATING THE PRISONS & CORRECTIONAL SERVICES WITH THE JUDICIARY

Video Enabling the Judiciary to connect to the Convicts, Attorneys and Other Subject Experts Like Medical Practitioners, Insurance Teams etc. to assess & impart their expert views to ensure more efficient legislation.

Subject Experts connecting with the Judiciary to

present their Views

The possible call flows between the Judiciary and the Correctional services must remain

flexible enough to accommodate various case scenarios. A Software Video conferencing

platform enables the flexibility and a distributed architecture for the Courts to deploy

visual collaboration for achieving higher productivity by addressing more number of

cases in a stipulated time.

“Presently, an exercise is being undertaken to assess the viability of a software

based solution for video-conferencing. If this solution is found viable, it will be used to

connect all district court complexes with all Central Jails and District Jails. Failing this,

leased line connectivity with Studio based VCs will be utilized” - Supreme Court of India

(e-Committee) Report

Court Complex

Prison Complex

Court Complex

Inmate 1 | Prison 1

Inmate 2 | Prison 2

Inmate n | Prison n


GENERIC CALL FLOW BETWEEN THE CORRECTIONAL SERVICES AND THE JUDICIARY

Ideal Court – Prison Communication for Conducting Virtual Trials

Possible Court – Multi - Prison Communication for Conducting Virtual Trials of several convicts associated with the same Case

Automation of the Court Complexes

“Regarding technology in the courtroom, this includes a range of hardware and

software made available to assist the parties in presenting their case to the court,

including for instance video conferencing, electronic evidence presentation software,

overhead projectors, scanning and bar-coding devices, digital audio technology and

real-time transcription” – European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)

The E-Courts aims at ICT establishments of the lower courts of the country in their

functioning .This envisages deployment of hardware, software and networking to assist

District courts in streamlining their day-to-day functioning. Key functions such as case

filing allocation, registration, case work flow, orders and judgments will be IT-enabled.

Case status orders, judgments will be available on the web and made accessible to

litigants, advocates, and general public.

Keeping the court scenario in mind wherein there is a requirement of several AV devices

to view and record the body language of the judge & Inmate, evidence recording using

document cameras or playing CCTV footages as part of the Proceedings, This hence

calls for video-mixing feature to have several simultaneous feeds from each location to

enable a fair and fast judgement.

Visually collaborated Courtroom conducting Virtual Trial

Inmate connecting with the Court for his trial over Video Call


VIDEO LINK BETWEEN THE COURT ROOM & PRISON FOR VIRTUAL TRIAL

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims

and the offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of satisfying abstract legal

principles or punishing the offender. Victims take an active role in the process, while

offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, "to repair the harm

they've done. Inmates are often involved in several recreational activities to showcase

their talent in handicrafts and art etc.

Video enablement of such recreational activities can lead towards conducting virtual

seminars, lectures, anger management classes, yoga etc. they can also display the

talent by auctioning their handicrafts in the market to assess their possible ventures

after the release to earn their living.


VISUAL ENABLEMENT OF VIRTUAL AUCTIONS TO RECOGNISE THE TALENTS OF INMATES

Video visitation

Technology that allows the inmate and visitor to communicate via videoconferencing.

Under the old method of face-to-face visitation, inmates were transferred from their

housing area to the visitation area, while visitors often had to walk through the facility.

With video visitation, inmates will use a video visitation station located in their cell or

cell block, while visitors can use an corresponding station elsewhere—or even use their

computers from home. This greatly reduces the amount of manpower needed to

conduct visits by reducing the movement of inmates; reducing inmate movement also

reduces contraband at the facility.

Video visitation by design eliminates the public from having direct contact with inmates.

Usually video visitations stations are placed in visitor areas for the visitors, while

inmates have stations located in day rooms or within the cell block areas. By placing the

stations in such a manner, inmate and visitor movement through a secure correctional

facility is reduced or even eliminated. Visitation through the internet completely

eliminates onsite visitors. All of these systems also free up correctional officers' time for

traditional security duties, reduce the number of correctional officers required for the

visitation process, eliminate infrastructure dedicated to the traditional visitation

process, reduce contraband infiltration and reduce the possibility of inmate

confrontation.

“Extensive use of video conferencing facilities be done” – Supreme Court of

India, (Policy & Action Plan)


COLLABORATING THE FAMILIES OF THE INMATES AT CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

Video Visitation Room for Families

Inmate Video Visitation Kiosk

Video mobility for on the fly Availability

Video-conferencing enables connectivity of more than one courtroom during a trial, and

enables the use of more than one application. The system provides a simple user

interface, which makes it easier for all the users such as judges and court staff, to

operate and maintain the judicial video conferencing system. The video conferencing

equipment is mobile so it can be moved from room to room, and connects to the court's

existing data infrastructure. Through video conferencing, timely actions and decisions

can be taken during a trial.

“Special arrangements in court hearings might include, for instance, live audio

or videoconferencing of the hearing of a vulnerable person so he/she is not obliged to

appear before the accused” - European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)

Desktop PC Connectivity


VIDEO ENABLING A TRIAL WITH AVAILABITY FOR THE STAKEHOLDERS TO JOIN ON THE FLY

Live Inmate Virtual Hearing

Smart Phone / Mobile Connectivity

Laptop Connectivity

Nyaya Panchayats

A Nyaya Panchayat is a system of dispute resolution at village level in India. Nyaya

panchayats can be endowed with functions of civil and minor criminal jurisdiction in

collaboration with the Gram Panchayat. To enable justice at the rural part of the country

the basic requirement is of a video solution which can operate at low bandwidths

considering the Infrastructure availability at the rural parts. Courts will be able to dispose

a majority of RTI applications, minor litigations etc. over a Video call to clear off the

pending cases and thereby providing uniform, fast track justice to the applicants.

Conclusion

There is a major shift globally to extend the use of Video Conferencing for Cost, Time &

Threat Optimizations, specifically in the Judicial & Legislative Systems. With various

authorities like Supreme Court of India, The Federal court, European Commission for

Efficiency of Justice mandating it in their Strategic Plans. Courts are moving ahead to

increase their operational efficiency by processing more cases and alleviate security

and logistical problems for courts, law enforcement and corrections by decreasing

transportation requirements, enable justice for all, fast track courts to offer quicker

justice etc.

A wider deployment across all the courts is expected to be rapid with increasing

government adoption in the coming years and the need of streamlining & automating

the court complexes to optimize their operations.

Law

People link whitepaper visual collaboration for judiciary