Warren County’s courthouse needs more security and computers to access the states electronic court records, Mississippi Supreme Chief Court Justice William Waller Jr. told the county bar association Monday.

“If you have any ability to persuade the supervisors, that would be good,” Waller told bar association members gathered for a luncheon at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

In January, Waller met with supervisors, to discuss increasing security measures in the 75-year-old courthouse on Cherry Street. During that meeting, Waller and state court officials told supervisors that security in the building could easily be tightened for about $42,0000 by adding metal detectors and other security measures.

“We just need some basic screening and scanning equipment,” Waller said. “The No. 1 need is to protect you, your clients, to protect the judge and your court personnel.”

Waller also encouraged attorneys to push for several computer terminals in the Chancery Clerk’s office to allow the public to access Mississippi Electronic Courts. Warren County was one of the pilot areas for the electronic court filing process, which began here in 2010.

The system makes court more efficient by allowing attorneys to file documents electronically, and allows lawyers and the public to access them, from any computer at any time.

“We need to have a couple public terminals in the office,” Waller said.

Waller also touted the Warren County Drug Court program, which had 18 graduates in 2014.

“What that means to you, if we took 18 people getting out of say the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, statistically, most of them would be back in jail in a year or two. But with the 18 here, we can safely say that at least 70 percent and usually up to 90 percent are going to stay out of jail. This is a great, great thing for saving money,” he said.

The drug court program had 126 people enrolled last year. As part of drug court, participants are required to pay any outstanding fines to the county. Warren County collected about $50,000 in old fines in 2014.

“This might be a small coincidence, but that’s enough money to buy the security equipment I talked about a couple weeks ago,” Waller said.