The prosecution and defense of suspected criminals is an inherently social activity.

John Friend, clerk of the Douglas County District Court, said he can’t follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines to limit gatherings to 10 people for a jury trial – which require 12 jurors, plus a judge and other court staff, before adding in prosecutors, defendants, witnesses and any members of the public.

“We are in uncharted waters,” Friend told the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, which added an emergency agenda item on Tuesday to discuss COVID-19 preparations with representatives of each county department.

As of Tuesday, state courts in Nebraska remained open, even as some courthouses began enacting restrictions and some courtrooms already adjusted to the new reality of the coronavirus pandemic.

Judge Horacio J. Wheelock was telecommuting Tuesday, using a screen on the bench to hold court from his dining room table, as he self-isolated after he traveled to Europe last week. The Nebraska Judicial Branch has issued an order that declares anyone who has traveled outside the U.S. in the past 14 days to be at elevated risk to transmit the coronavirus and thus barred from participating in in-person judicial proceedings.

Douglas County officials were preparing for how the administration of justice would look as the pandemic continues, anticipating both the courts largely remaining open for business and scenarios where only critical court proceedings are being conducted.

Public Defender Tom Riley said that his office will buy each of its attorneys a tablet computer to conduct interviews with clients and other business, both due to access restrictions in the Douglas County Jail and to telecommute if that becomes necessary.

Riley said law enforcement officers, jail staff and public defenders are the ones who will still come into contact with arrestees, regardless of how long the pandemic continues. Bond hearings, for example, will continue being necessary – or else the jail would face a critical capacity issue.

“We’re prisoners of our own system, so to speak,” Riley said.

Changes need to be made to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus. Mass arraignments, for example, don’t follow guidelines from the CDC on mass gatherings or social distancing.

Riley said that he, County Attorney Don Kleine and Corrections Director Michael Myers are working together on solutions.

Those measures include:

• Postponing misdemeanor cases where the defendant has been released on bond;

• Generating a list of people in jail on low-grade offenses who are likely to be pleas, so they can be moved through the system;

• Encouraging more releases on recognizance when the cash bond amount would otherwise be low but could still pose a barrier;

• Exploring videoconferencing for noncontested bond hearings;

• Coordinating with the Judicial Branch to encourage more consistent policies on pretrial hearings, which vary among judges.

“We’re not necessarily on the same team, but we’re in the same swimming pool,” Riley told the board. “There is a lot of agreement on the low-hanging fruit.”

Contested hearings pose a real challenge, Riley said, because of the need to have confidential conversations with clients. Lawyers also have to review discovery so a client can make a plea decision, and that often has involved hours in close contact with the client.

Another concern: If justice gets delayed too long, some defendants will simply choose to plead guilty to get out of jail sooner, especially given that incarceration could mean a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19.

“I don’t want that to be a significant factor in whether somebody goes to trial or not,” he said.

Prosecutors are working to limit their contact with the public as well, Kleine said, but it’s been challenging, especially with three jury trials scheduled next week.

Kleine said it would be “irresponsible” to expose jurors to the risk of virus transmission, given that those citizens are simply trying to fulfill their civic duty. He said speedy trial rights need to be balanced against public health.

“We want to continue serving the public,” Kleine said.

Myers said the jail is working to grow its technology capacity to increase visitation and access to public defenders. He said before the outbreak, he would have never dreamed of handing an internet-capable tablet to an inmate.

“But that’s exactly what we’re planning to do,” Myers said.

In addition to technology upgrades, Myers said he’s asking the contractor working on jail renovations to accelerate work to finish units to add bed capacity – so that space would be available if it’s necessary separate inmates who fall ill with COVID-19.

Jail staff obviously can’t work from home, but a worse-case scenario would see Douglas County Corrections operate at about two-thirds of its staffing, Myers said.

“Doing that for a prolonged period would be a huge stress on our staff,” he said. “It would cause them to continue to engage in great personal sacrifice.”

The plan would be to lockdown units, essentially operating in a night shift mode 24/7, similar to how the jail operated last summer when its population spiked, although that used rolling lockdowns where staff moved from unit to unit allowing inmates to move around and exercise.

“We are doing everything that we can to be as careful as we can without grinding everything to a halt,” Myers said.