The Marshall Liberal Government has committed $15 million to overhaul audio-video link technology within South Australia's justice system.
The extra money comes from the State Government's $1 billion stimulus package, to get our economy back on track in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first stage of a major upgrade is already complete, with new AVL facilities up and running within the Youth Court with work across other sectors of the system to begin within months.
"As recent events have shown, we need to have a level of flexibility within our criminal justice system to ensure matters can still be heard, even when we can't have everyone involved in the one location," Attorney-General Chapman said.
"Given the age of our existing audio-video infrastructure, now is the time to be upgrading our technology so we can have access to state-of-the-art facilities.
"Already, the upgrades have been rolled out in the Youth Court, with new equipment to be rolled out within a further eight court rooms within the next month."
Attorney-General Chapman said the move was also supporting local employment and local business at a time of great need for South Australian business.
"I'm pleased to say that this is helping to support South Australian jobs and economic stimulus, with considerable involvement from local IT suppliers and tradespeople," Ms Chapman said.
Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services Corey Wingard said the money will fund additional AVL units in both Corrections and SA Police.
"Eighteen additional AVL units will be rolled out across our prison system helping save costs associated with prisoner transport requirements and speed up the court processing wait times," the Minister said.
"Within SA Police, AVL units will, where possible and appropriate, allow for civilian witnesses or police officers to participate remotely in criminal hearings."
Attorney-General Chapman said ongoing upgrades were set to take place in other metropolitan and regional courts over the coming 12 months.
These upgrades will improve the efficiency of our justice system in alignment with the Government's Justice Agenda, which can be found here: https://www.agd.sa.gov.au/sites/default/files/government-justice-agenda-sa-may2020-update.pdf
