Court video conferencing still a question

The jury is still out on court video conferencing. Defendants may not have to go to court to be arraigned, they can just be video conferenced in. WCAX TV reports that the courts have tried out the system for about a year and a half now. It's a pilot project in a multi-year program that could allow all detainees to be arraigned either by Internet or videoconferenciing. Lawmakers say they hope that videoconferencing arraignments will cut the yearly cost of transporting some eight thousand detainees to and from the court for arraignments. Bennington County Attorney Erica Marthage says the test has been a nightmare. She says defendants have not been able to communicate privately with there attorneys and, she says, "Sound problems, technological things, it is difficult for me to imagine that this saves the state money or resources in any fashion." She says defendants are often told not to say things in open court that they blurt out to their attorneys.