A $500 court video conferencing system set up at the El Paso jail could potentially save the county thousands of dollars a year in prisoner transportation cost, but it is not being used.

Since the system was installed in 2010, only the jail magistrate has used the equipment and that is mostly on weekends for arraignments.

El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles has repeatedly said at county meetings that he has tried to implement video conferencing in an effort to reduce inmate transportation cost, but there has been "some reluctance" from county and district judges to use it.

"We bring an excessive number of prisoners Downtown to respond to the request of the court – and that is costing," Wiles said.

The Sheriff's Office spends about $4,000 a year on fuel on 200 bus trips to transport inmates from the East Side jail annex to the Downtown jail and vise versa, said Assistant Chief Tom Whitten.

The $4,000 does not include detention officers' hours of labor and the fuel cost of several trips a day to transport one or two inmates between the two jail facilities. Two to three detention officers are needed to transport and escort state prisoners to Downtown per trip.