The Portage County Action Team is observing its fifth anniversary with a win.
For years, PCAT members have been lobbying county leaders to send out emails and text message reminders to jurors and defendants. The county court system’s outdated computer system wouldn’t allow such reminders, but an update is in the final stages thanks to a push from PCAT and the Portage County NAACP.
Portage County Common Pleas Court Judge Laurie Pittman said a text reminder protocol for jurors should be up and running in six weeks. The county’s IT department anticipates text message and email reminder systems for defendants should be online in about six months, she said.
“We’re trying to get into the 21st century,” she said.
PCAT started in 2020 when Portage County NAACP Criminal Justice Chair Kathy Kerns and ACLU of Ohio Senior Organizing Strategist Melekte Melaku met at an ACLU Cleveland town hall about pretrial detention and pretrial justice.
The pair formed PCAT, which the ACLU sponsors, to support bail reform legislation and broader criminal legal system reforms. In past years, the PCAT has lobbied Ohio legislators in support of pretrial justice, launched a Civic School public education program, held bail reform teach-ins and virtual voter empowerment town halls, and shed light on criminal/legal fines and fees.
Members include the county NAACP chapter; community activist Frank Hairston; county Treasurer John Kennedy; Arie Goodman of the Ohio TroubleNation group Advocates, Allies & Activists; Kent State University students; League of Women Voters (Kent); the drug treatment organization Open United Recovery; and others.
Partnering with the NAACP, LWV (Kent) and Advocates, Allies & Activists, PCAT last year co-sponsored a program outlining the power and scope of county sheriffs. They have also sponsored a Know Your Rights community forum and another about gun laws.
Melaku and Kerns spoke with Portage County Municipal Court Judge Kevin Poland, who mentioned that electronic pretrial reminder systems might significantly reduce the number of defendants who fail to show up for court.
“This is an idea that has been used in other courts, and it’s an idea that we’ve talked about for some time,” Poland said. “When someone fails to appear, then our only option is to issue a warrant for their arrest. They get picked up, they may be held for a day or two or three days, which could put their job in jeopardy, which could cascade to a whole slew of ramifications.”
People shouldn’t have to spend time behind bars simply because of nonappearance, Melaku said.
Pittman said she prefers pretrial email reminders because, in her experience, people change their phone numbers more often than they do their emails. Email, or maybe even snail mail, may be more effective and cost-efficient options, she said.
Melaku, though, said that it is an assumption that people regularly check their email. And Poland noted that no system will work well if defendants provide incorrect phone numbers and/or email addresses. It happens, he said.
The new reminder system, in whatever form or forms it takes, can’t launch soon enough for either Melaku or Kerns.
Kerns said electronic reminders do more than help defendants keep their court dates and reduce instances of prosecutors, public defenders and court staff having to reschedule those dates. Such systems would also benefit the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, whose deputies would potentially be dispatched less often to execute warrants for nonappearance, she added.
“It’s just a win-win, right? Who loses?” Kerns asked. “Every little tiny medical office has a text reminder system. Everybody has text reminders now. You don’t need to be a big corporation to have that.”
PCAT also supports the ACLU’s efforts to waive pretrial electronic monitors, overreliance on cash bail and what Melaku terms “the criminalization of poverty at the municipal and county level.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Judge Laurie Pittman’s name. The article has also been updated to credit the Portage County NAACP explicitly for its role in the text message program.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.