Changes to Pierce County jail and courts in COVID-19 pandemic ‘evolving day by day’
Suspended jury trials and fewer people being booked into jail are some of the early ways the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Pierce County’s justice system.
Attorneys and other legal professionals have been working from home when they can.
People called for jury duty are being excused.
Those booked into jail are being checked for symptoms.
Some have asked for further action in Pierce County and across the state to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in courts and behind bars.
Changes to the courts
Pierce County Superior Court has suspended jury trials through April 24, except for two already underway at the County-City Building that are expected to finish in a day or two.
At least one civil jury trial that was underway has been recessed for 30 days due to the pandemic.
A letter from the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association Tuesday asked the court to immediately “issue an order canceling or suspending in-person appearances. Proceedings that cannot be canceled or suspended should be held telephonically or by utilizing other virtual means.”
The state Supreme Court later ordered most in-person court proceedings suspended statewide.
“We believe those orders are more consistent with the known best practices in preventing the spread of COVID-19 than the current procedures in effect” in Pierce County’s Superior Court, the letter said.
Later Tuesday the court issued emergency orders making additional changes.
“The court’s primary goal is to not compel anyone into our facilities while still completing our essential functions and forwarding justice in agreed upon matters,” a press release said.
All out-of-custody matters are continued until April 24, as are in-custody matters with the exception of scheduling of first appearances, arraignments, pleas and sentencings.
In those matters courts will have discretion, but pretrial release motions and pleas and sentencings of people that are anticipated to be released within 30 days of the hearing will take priority.
Judges are being asked to consider telephone or video hearings in criminal matters through April 24, and civil bench trials will be held voluntarily, possibly by phone at the court’s discretion.
Therapeutic courts are being suspended or are on recess.
Pierce County District Court has also made changes.
Monday it said all trials and all in-person criminal proceedings will be continued and rescheduled and that in-custody arraignments and pre-trial conferences will be done by video conference.
Hearings for permanent restraining orders still will be heard in-person for now, and the District Court’s press release noted that it “reserves the right to schedule any criminal matters in cases involving threats to public safety.”
Anyone with a court date who has symptoms of the virus must let that court know.
Lawyers working remotely when they can
Both the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office and the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel said employees are working from home when possible.
“Our office is encouraging people to do that if it is feasible for their specific job and schedule,” Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Adam Faber said Monday via email. “At the moment, new jury trials are the only hearings that the courts have postponed ... . All other hearings — including arraignments, omnibus hearings, pre-trial conferences, trial readiness hearings, and bench trials — are staying on schedule, so our attorneys will still need to handle those.”
Faber went on to say: “The different parts of the criminal justice system are working well together to decrease exposure. Our office met with judicial officers and defense attorneys this morning to discuss different ways to reduce close contact and face-to-face interactions.”
Phone calls and emails will be used more for “things like plea offers and negotiations, rather than having lots of people working elbow-to-elbow” at the courthouse, he said.
As for public defenders, DAC director Michael Kawamura said in a statement Tuesday: “... effective today the majority of the Department of Assigned Counsel staff will be working from home if feasible and will participate in rotating in-court coverage of essential functions.”
Asked about their clients at the jail, he wrote: “... it does seem that precautions are being taken at the Pierce County Jail to protect the health of our clients there.”
Changes to who gets booked into jail
Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said the jail has restricted bookings to those that are mandatory. Felony suspects are still being booked.
“Domestic violence, DUIs, some of those are mandatory, required by law,” Troyer said.
Examples of bookings that aren’t mandatory are shoplifting, reckless driving and other misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors, he said.
Asked about warrants for people who fail to appear in court, Troyer said there are “some bail bonds people that are upset that we’re not taking those people. ... We’re aware that that’s costing them money. The ramifications on the back end are too big. We need to keep the population manageable. There are a lot of people losing money every day.”
There were 941 people in the jail Monday, he said, compared to 1,049 at the same time last year. Its operational capacity is 1,166.
A nurse is screening everyone booked into the jail for coronavirus symptoms, and inmates also are being screened if they move from one section of the jail to another.
Troyer noted that things are “evolving day by day, hour by hour.”
There are no confirmed cases at the jail yet, though some argue it’s certain that the virus will spread throughout Washington’s jails and prisons.
Advocates ask state to protect the incarcerated
Columbia Legal Services, the American Civil Liberties Union, Disability Rights Washington and other organizations sent letters to the governor and the state Department of Corrections on Monday.
They asked for various steps to protect the incarcerated, including the release of people who are especially vulnerable due to age and medical issues and those who are already within six months of being released.
“Prisons and jails are particularly ill-suited to address the current pandemic,” the organizations said in a press release. “People live in close contact with one another, social distancing is difficult, hygiene services and essential medical equipment is in short supply, and medical treatment is not easily accessible. Once COVID-19 breaks out, it will likely spread quickly through our prisons.”
The letters also asked that community custody officers refrain from putting people in jail for alleged violations.
Nick Straley with Columbia Legal Services told The News Tribune: “Jails all over the state are utterly unprepared for the public health crisis that we anticipate is going to occur. ... They need to immediately begin reducing the number of people in the jails and allow them to seek appropriate health care in the community.”
Straley said he wasn’t aware of any cases of the virus in the state’s jails, but that: “It’s inevitable that it will occur, and once it does, it’s going to create an incredibly dire situation for people in custody.”
He argued that people with warrants for failing to appear in court or other low-level issues shouldn’t be arrested right now.
Asked about how the coronavirus is affecting the rights of those awaiting trial, such as the right to a speedy trial, Jaime Hawk with the Americans Civil Liberties Union noted some people in jail now could end up serving more time than their standard-range sentence.
“The court at any time can review cases and the bail amounts that they have set, under these circumstances in this extraordinary time,” she told The News Tribune. “... We’ve got to get these jail populations down.”
Law enforcement and prosecutors also have a role in that, Hawk said, when it comes to who is charged, who gets warrants and who is confined.
Asked about court proceedings done by video, she said she has civil liberties concerns about them but that “under these circumstances and in this difficult time, it is a reasonable sort of accommodation to keep everybody safe and the risk of infection down.”
She anticipates a backlog of cases when jury trials resume.
“The courts are doing everything they can to stay on top of these cases,” she said. “It’s just going to ripple on, and just really be an ongoing challenge for several months.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
