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Many industries have been reluctant to embrace the digital revolution, but the law is one of the biggest luddites in the bunch.<\/p>\nMany industries have been reluctant to embrace the digital revolution, but the law is one of the biggest luddites in the bunch.<\/p>\n
This is why I was pleased to learn recently that New York City is using a computerized system to send offender reports to judges before court dates<\/a>. Computers!<\/p>\n After tearing through 50 million pages of paper over the last decade, the city made the switch a year ago. There\u2019s no printing piles of paper and running them all over town — and there are no more papercuts. Just as important, the initiative has improved the timeliness of information coming before judges.<\/p>\n If only this achievement could be more widely copied.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Courtrooms still overflow with piles of paper. Briefs and motions in many cities and states are still filed on dead trees and the system has been amazingly slow to adapt to this handy tool called the Internet. Working in this field, one sees the remnants of the 20th century everyday (people still fax things!<\/em>), but one of the most striking examples for me recently was the visiting procedure at Sing Sing prison in New York.<\/p>\n Upon arrival at the prison, visitors are photographed using a Polaroid camera — a wonderful, but discontinued, technology. The Polaroid gets a sticker nametag that matches the nametag worn by visitors. It goes in a drawer until you leave. When you leave the prison, the Polaroid is matched to the nametag, ensuring that you\u2019re the same person who entered, and you\u2019re free to go. As you walk out, you see a trash bin piled high with polaroids and you shed a tear for your artist friends who are hoarding the last rolls of Polaroid film (and for the environment… and your tax dollars).<\/p>\n Yes, prisons need tight security, but Polaroids — and thousands of pages of copy paper, and faxes <\/em>— are a waste of time, money and –mostly importantly — our planet\u2019s precious resources. Taking advantage of modern technology also helps the system run more smoothly<\/a> and makes it possible for people caught in the system to find critical documents with a web search.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve written before about inspiring green initiatives in prisons<\/a> and for released prisoners<\/a>. To address global warming, and the crippling budget shortfalls across the country, it\u2019s time our courts, cops and jails swear off their paper addiction and go green.<\/p>\n