Montgomery County, Ohio Juvenile Court Gets Creative in the Snow

Last month, Montgomery County, Ohio Juvenile Court Judge Anthony Capizzi found himself trapped in the heavy Washington, D.C. snowstorm right before a drug court docket of 41 teens and families expected to see him back home.
The story below, from the Montgomery County, Ohio Drug Court Gazette, details how Judge Capizzi and the drug court staff came up with a creative solution to ensure that the teens could continue their recovery without disruption.

On February 12, 2014, Judge Capizzi called his drug court team with bad news: The February 14th docket was at risk of being canceled due to him being stranded in Washington, D.C. The city had shut down due to a snow storm and all flights were canceled. The drug court team desperately searched for a solution, knowing that if the drug court docket had to be canceled, 41 families would have to be rescheduled.
The Montgomery County juvenile drug court team set out to find an alternative to having the cases continued. "Our families already dedicate so much of their time to supporting their youth by taking them to counseling sessions and bi-weekly court hearings, I do not want to further inconvenience them by canceling and having them reschedule,” commented Judge Capizzi.
When presented with the idea of using Skype to bring the Judge to the courtroom, Judge
Capizzi was thrilled with the idea. Working with the court’s data services staff, a plan evolved for the Judge to hold court using Skype through his iPad, and the system was quickly tested. The drug court team was concerned as to whether the Skype program could be set up and operating smoothly with such short notice. Holding court through Skype had never been done in this court before. The pressure was on.
A total of 48 cases, which consisted of 41 drug court youth and seven other cases, were heard by the Judge through Skype. The families were impressed with Judge Capizzi’s willingness to sit in a hotel room in Washington, D.C. and conduct all of his cases through Skype so that they would not have to take additional time off work for a new court date. The attorneys and other court personnel were also happy that court could be held as scheduled.
”Rescheduling a docket this size and trying to ensure that all parties involved with each case are notified is a huge deal. I am very excited that Judge Capizzi was open to trying out this technology. It was cool. All the kids loved it,” commented Katie Brower, Case Manager.
Special thanks to Josh Kirkendall and Ramona Wilson from Data Services for assisting with this event.

Susan Richardson is national executive director for Reclaiming Futures. Formerly, she was a senior program officer in the health care division of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in North Carolina, where she led a three-year effort involving the state's juvenile justice and treatment leaders to adopt the Reclaiming Futures model by juvenile courts in six North Carolina counties. She received her B.S. in Public Health, Health Policy and Administration, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.