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<p>Luzerne County&#8217;s prison population is still below capacity after years of overcrowding, but officials aren&#8217;t sure if the trend will continue this summer, county Manager C. David Pedri told council.</p><p>The administration is concerned there is no county court trial list for July and August, he said.</p><p>&#8220;If we are not able to move cases through trial, how do we continue to keep the population low?&#8221; Pedri said during Tuesday&#8217;s county council meeting.</p><p>The prison holds inmates both serving sentences and awaiting adjudication.</p><p>County Councilman Stephen A. Urban questioned if the courts are &#8220;going to take a two-month vacation.&#8221;</p><p>Michael Shucosky, the county&#8217;s court administrator, said Wednesday the court will hold only special criminal trials during the two months, such as those involving homicides and other high-degree felonies.</p><p>Scheduling criminal trials during the summer has become increasingly difficult because parties involved often have planned vacations, including attorneys, witnesses, experts who must provide testimony, and prospective jurors, Shucosky said.</p><p>Instead of being forced to continue proceedings due to scheduling conflicts, court officials opted to shift the focus and concentrate primarily on non-jury trials, guilty pleas and negotiated plea bargains during the two months, he said.</p><p>Court officials expect a large number of cases will be resolved through this effort, allowing some inmates to get out of prison or start serving sentences instead of awaiting adjudication. Many minor cases result in guilty pleas with a sentence of time already served, Shucosky noted.</p><p>&#8220;It is not accurate to say there&#8217;s going to be a vacation from criminal prosecutions. Rather we see summer as a chance to address a high volume of cases in an expedited manner,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The average inmate population at the prison on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre was 471 in May, according to Pedri&#8217;s latest monthly report. The facility has a capacity of 505. Pedri has largely credited the below-capacity numbers to a prison population task force committee created in September to target overcrowding.</p><p>Urban pointed out the prison housed 88 inmates in May for failure to attend court proceedings.</p><p>Pedri said the public defender&#8217;s office is partially addressing the problem with a new automated system that notifies defendants of court hearings through text messages, email and calls. However, failure to appear is still an issue with those who have no legal representation, he said.</p><p>Urban blames the court because it does not post court hearing schedules online or outside courtrooms. Pedri said he and court officials have been discussing plans for both.</p><p>Shucosky said the court mails hearing notices to all defendants and legal counsel. Court officials support efforts to publicly broadcast court schedules, but they cannot proceed until the county updates its website and provides funding for computerized notification boards or terminals in buildings, he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Urban </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_urban-Steve-cmyk.jpg</photo0><caption0>Urban </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County Court summer schedule questioned