The Prosecutor’s Office and Covid-19

Like all organizations, Covid-19 has drastically changed how the prosecutor’s office is able to run. For about four months, all jury trials were postponed, which meant that defendants lost their right to a speedy trial. This loss of rights means that many people were sitting in jail for longer than they would have before Covid-19. Additionally, all hearings occurred over an online video conference application similar to Zoom called WebEx. All defendants who were not in custody had to call in either through their phone or through a computer. This change in the way defendants were appearing is a disadvantage for them in some ways because people with less advanced technology were harder to hear or see which was frustrating for the judges to handle. One thing that I have noticed throughout my couple of months sitting in hearings is that the judges mood can seriously affect the decisions that they make. Having a frustrated judge often correlated with rulings that were less favorable to the defendants. Therefore, this form of online appearances often seemed to further disadvantage people who were unable to afford the good streaming technology. 

However, this form of online appearance also had some advantages for the court. It allows for people to have a specific time to appear in front of the judge, rather than a time range. Before Covid-19, defendants would be told to appear at 9am and their actual appearance  could happen anytime between 9-12. With this online method, they would be given a specific time and (usually, when court was running on time) they would appear at that specific time. Additionally, this method allows for attorneys to appear virtually as well which cuts down on travel time. This also allows for defense attorneys to try cases in many different courts throughout the day because they can just appear virtually rather than in person. 

Covid-19 has significantly changed the way courts operate which affects the way that the prosecutor’s operate in court. However, Covid-19 has not significantly changed the way the prosecutor’s office operates. Everyone still comes into the office, no one wears masks, and ,although big group meetings are limited, they still happen.  This leniency in following CDC recommended guidelines is a huge risk for the office to take. If someone in the office were to test positive for Covid-19, the whole office would have to be shut down and sent home. Since prosecutor’s are not allowed to take the case files home, this shutdown could essentially be a shut down of the judicial process in Elkhart County.