around here they don't even take the shackles off in court, at least not all the time. I was in traffic court last year (it was for expired license plates if you can believe that, let them slip by 6 days and got pulled over and written a ticket, anyhow I got off after paying for the new sticker /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ) But they evidently don't have a just traffic court day and there were all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons going through the court that day. I watched 2 different men, one for assaulting his wife and another for trying to knife somebody brought before the judge in the red prison jump suit and still handcuffed or shackled!
I thought it was scary to mix the 2 types of things at first, but on later reflection I decided that it helped to keep someone's rolling through a stop sign in perspective if he was preceded by a guy who had tried to kill someone...
As far as how much it costs to bother with a trial for someone obviously guilty... I'm happy to pay for this jerk, so the next guy who might actually be innocent can get the same treatment.