To quantify the benefits of video technology within the Butler County court system, one would have to talk about convenience and security as well as dollars and cents, contends a top court administrator.

The far-reaching benefits are the foundation for the pending expansion of the program from the criminal system to the family court system, said Deputy Court Administrator Tom Holman.

Within the next two months, a fourth courtroom will be added to the list of spaces where hearings can be conducted via computer cameras.

"It's the right direction," he said.

The technology has been in use in Butler County since 2003, when district judges' homes were equipped with videoconferencing to arraign defendants after regular court hours. Then, in 2006, the practice expanded to the Butler County Courthouse, where one criminal courtroom in the county Government Center in Downtown Butler was video-linked with the prison next door.

Mr. Holman said using the system avoided the cost involved in moving a prisoner from the jail to the courtroom. In moving a prisoner, "Someone must prepare the prisoner for transport on the jail end, and then sheriff's deputies have to bring him to the courtroom and watch him there," he explained. It's a process that can take upwards of a couple of hours.

Videoconferencing was found to work well enough to expand it to a second criminal courtroom. Some 80 to 90 bench warrant hearings are conducted by videoconferencing each month, and the technology is in use daily, Mr. Holman said.

Also, a third courtroom, on the fourth floor in the old courthouse building, is equipped with videoconferencing that is compatible with the state correctional institution's communication system. It is most often used for child dependency hearings with state inmates. It also is used for juvenile court hearings.

The use of technology within the family court system still will interface most often with jail inmates.

"There's always somebody in jail," Mr. Holman said, wryly. "Now, we can conduct a hearing in family court without removing someone from the security of the jail."

While some people liken the system to the free webcam Skype program, Mr. Holman said the county can't use the free technology because it's not smooth enough.

"We can't have the disjointed nature of some digital processing programs that allows jumps and shakes. We need a smooth stream of data so there are no distractions," he said.

The hardware and software together costs about $5,700 per courtroom, and it is a one-time expenditure, he said. The equipment is operated in the criminal courtrooms by the judge's law clerk. Either a law clerk or tipstaff will operate it in the family courtroom, he said.

County commissioners gave the go-ahead for the expansion of the technology into family courts last month.

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