BANGOR – Criminals might not slow down during this coming January, but criminal court will.

Due to training and installation of new computer software, the Penobscot and Piscataquis District Attorney’s Office will be doing very limited criminal prosecutions during January and part of February, according to District Attorney R. Christopher Almy.

“We will virtually be shut down for about a month,” Almy said. “Everyone in the office needs to be trained on this new system. We will be doing only very, very limited prosecutions such as hearings for people who are arrested and in jail and we will be doing a few arraignments.”

People facing felony charges will escape a January indictment, but their cases will be moved to February, he said.

District attorney offices across the state are getting the new software, which will eventually tie all the prosecutors’ offices together with police agencies, the courts and the Department of Corrections.

“Right now we don’t store conviction data on the computer. To find out prosecution background we have to get it from the Bureau of Identification, which takes time. With this system we will be able to type in someone’s name and find out if they’ve ever been a victim or a witness and we’ll be able to better track people who are out on bail or probation,” Almy said. “It’s really going to enhance our ability to efficiently prosecute people.”

So far Penobscot and Piscataquis counties have spent about $50,000 on the new system, which covered the licensing fees and training. That money came from federal grants from the Violence Against Women’s Act, Almy said.

Additional costs will most likely be the responsibility of individual counties and Almy estimates it may cost about $20,000 more to complete the installation of the system.

The new software is part of the state’s order requiring shared data between prosecutors, police officers, corrections and the courts.

“This is a step toward the day when we all can share information,” Almy said.

Ideally, when the entire system is up and running statewide, police officers will be able to find out by using computers in their cruisers or at the police station whether a suspect has a protection from abuse order against them or whether they are under bail or probation restrictions.

“We’ll be able to track a case from the time of arrest, to the time of actual charges being filed with the court, to the actual conviction and even to the execution of that sentence at the jail,” Almy said.

“We’ll be able to punch in someone’s name who might get arrested here and find out immediately that they are under bail restrictions from another criminal case in Somerset County, for example, and we’ll be able to do it efficiently. It should really help streamline the process of criminal prosecution.”

During the installation and training process, criminal trials will not be scheduled in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. Trials scheduled after the end of December will not go forward until February or March.