FORT SMITH — Sebastian County is implementing a text notification system for courts that judges expect to reduce the county jail population.
Tammy Luper, business analyst for the county, said Wednesday she hoped the eCourtDate text notification system would go live either by the end of that week or this week.
The system notifies defendants in criminal cases in county circuit and Greenwood District Court of appearances they have coming up through text messages. They will also be notified if their court date gets rescheduled.
“That should keep them informed and give them no excuses to not appear,” Lu-per said.
The Quorum Court approved appropriating $2,499 to purchase the eCourtDate software at its meeting Oct. 19, along with an additional $1,100 for a separate product meant to assist with transmitting the text messages, Luper said. Jeff Turner, county administrator, wrote in an Oct. 13 memo to the Quorum Court that these are yearly costs.
Rachel Sims, district court clerk for Fort Smith, said the city is due to implement the same eCourtDate text notification system in the Fort Smith District Court within “the next couple of weeks.”
Gunner DeLay, circuit judge and chairman of the Sebastian County Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, said people who are arrested on warrants for failure to appear in court are a “chronic issue” with the county court system and jail.
“Part of the problem has been that a good number of criminal defendants don’t have a permanent residence, that the only thing they have in their possession is a cellphone,” DeLay said. “And so, they don’t have calendars or day planners or things of that nature that they can keep up with important dates, such as court dates.”
DeLay said reducing failures to appear should lead to a corresponding drop in the jail population, although he could not say how much.
Greenwood District Court Judge Michael Wagoner likewise said reducing the number of people arrested on failure to appear warrants by helping to remind people of their court dates would allow more beds at the jail to be reserved for more serious cases.
The Coordinating Committee has discussed text notifications for defendants in prior meetings. The Sebastian County Quorum Court established the committee in August 2017 to find ways to reduce the jail population and improve the justice system.
Among the solutions are drug, veterans and mental health courts; a crisis stabilization unit; alternative sentencing and diversion programs; special accelerated court dockets; and electronic monitoring and signature bonds for nonviolent felonies.
Data provided by Turner on Wednesday shows the county circuit court issued 948 warrants for failure to appear this year through Oct.
31. The Greenwood District Court issued 588 such warrants during that same time. The Sebastian County jail has 356 beds.
Luper said the text notifications will include the type of court event assigned to the defendants, such as an arraignment, hearing or trial, as well as the date, time and location for the event. They will also have a link through which the defendants can access a portal with additional information including how to get to the courthouse in which their event will take place. Data on the defendants, including their phone numbers, and other information will be provided to the system by court management software.
Defendants will be contacted initially when added in the system, which will give them the opportunity to opt out of it, according to Luper in an emailed statement. Defendants will be notified when the court event is added and get further reminders seven days, three days and one day before their court date.
Both DeLay and Wagoner said the new system won’t replace how their courts have been notifying defendants of upcoming events such as written notices sent to their addresses of record, according to DeLay.
Wagoner said while there are people who might still not appear in court after getting the text notifications, many people actually forget to show up.
“So any little bit that we can help to avoid issuing failure to appear warrants is great,” he said.
Wagoner said the Greenwood District Court doesn’t issue failure to appear warrants on first appearances in court as a general rule unless it’s a violent case.
Thomas Saccente can be reached by email at tsaccente@ nwadg.com .