Courthouse metal detector use varies across Minn.

Posted at 4:02 PM on December 19, 2011 by Michael Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts

By Elizabeth Dunbar

Among rural Minnesota counties that have metal detectors for their courthouses, most only use them for certain court cases and do not have a permanent staff person dedicated to overseeing the metal detector.

Chisago County bought a new metal detector for its courthouse a few years ago and paid about $4,000 for it, Sheriff Rick Duncan said.

Duncan said it's used so infrequently that the cost of staffing it just comes out of the sheriff department's regular budget, and he did not have a breakdown of how much Chisago County has spent staffing it in the past year. But he said if it were specifically billed, staffing it would involve paying two sheriff's deputies an overtime rate of $42-$44/hour each. One deputy monitors the people going through the metal detector to see if they set off the alarm; the other visually inspects purses, briefcases and metal items court visitors remove from their pockets.

The cost of staffing a courthouse metal detector varies greatly based on how often and for what purpose it is used. Duncan said if it's used for an entire trial, it might need to be staffed for long hours as visitors, attorneys and jurors go in and out of court.

Related
MPR News: Metal detectors not a given at Minn. courthouses

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Southern Minnesota public defender office to close

Posted at 1:11 PM on November 7, 2011 by Mark Steil (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts

The latest stop for the down-sizing of Minnesota's public defense system is in the southern part of the state. The Fairmont Sentinel says a public defender's office serving four counties from the south-central Minnesota city will close.

Public defender's represent people in court who can't pay for their own attorney. Budget cuts have made life tough for those lawyers. Detroit Lakes attorney David Stowman chairman of the Minnesota Board of Public Defense, says the system is "struggling". He says budget cuts means the average state public defender works about 70 percent more cases per year than is recommended by the American Bar Association.

MPR News reporter Jessica Mador reported on the system last year, finding that one public defender figured his caseload meant he could spend about 12 minutes per client per day.

Stowman says one thing which may help ease caseloads a little is the legal system's growing reliance on electronic communication. For certain courtroom proceedings, he says, public defenders in some cases may be able to appear through a video hookup and save the driving time.

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