Disorder

Iowa City attorney Jim McCarragher will never forget the time he was in the Johnson County Courthouse when an adoption was taking place.

The family was gathered, all dressed up, when the hallway elevator opened and out came a sheriff's deputy with a jail inmate, “this gruffy guy in shackles”, he said.

“Not only does it ruin it (the family moment), but does that present a potential threat problem? Yeah,” he said.

That is a microcosm of the concerns court and county officials have with the 110-year-old courthouse: It is lacking in adequate security and space.

Johnson County officials have spent the past few years discussing the idea of building a criminal justice center that would include new jail and court space. The overcrowded jail often gets a lot of the attention because dozens of Johnson County inmates are held in other counties each day, which cost Johnson County taxpayers $1.3 million last year.

A committee that includes county officials and representatives from the criminal justice community, including McCarragher, has been studying the justice center plan and is preparing to ask voters to approve a $39 million bond issue to build the facility. A vote is expected in November 2012.

Stressing the courthouse needs will be a big part of the campaign.

Security is the most pressing concern at a building that is used for everything from criminal trials to mental health hearings to divorce and child-custody cases.

“I can't think of tensions being higher in any other building in the county,” county Supervisor Terrence Neuzil said.

Yet there is no metal detector or secure entrance to the building because the layout of the courthouse, built in 1901 and remodeled a few times, does not easily allow for one.

The front entrance is not handicapped accessible and, once inside, stairs start almost immediately, leaving little room for a security setup. A metal detector has been used at the back entrance for a few sensitive trials, officials said, but it's a short hallway shared with public restrooms.

Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said it's not uncommon for people to get caught in the courthouse with a knife, although it's typically a result of absentmindedness rather than malicious intent.

In 2005, a sheriff's deputy broke his ankle when a man he was going to arrest ran away, an incident courthouse workers blamed on a lack of security. A couple of months later, a sheriff's deputy was assigned to the courthouse, and now two work there. They do not, however, regularly screen visitors.

Of Iowa's five most populous counties, Johnson County is the only one without a metal detector.  The other four – Linn, Polk, Scott and Black Hawk – also scan items like bags with a machine.

The areas outside the Johnson County Courthouse's six courtrooms also are small, and that leads to little separation during breaks between people involved in court proceedings.

“I have definitely heard from victims, from witnesses who are concerned, even from jurors,” Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said.

There is virtually no room for attorneys to meet privately with their clients. On a recent busy morning one attorney was sitting on a radiator talking with an apparent client.

There also is no separate entrance for people in custody, which creates situations like the adoption McCarragher saw of inmates being in public areas.

Judges also have expressed concerns about the ease with which someone could gain access to their chambers, said Carroll Edmondson, the district court administrator who oversees Johnson County.  A committee that convened a decade ago determined that proper security would only be achieved through a new facility, he said.

The lack of space also has created storage problems. Older files are kept at three outside facilities because the Clerk of Court office is full, and on Tuesdays and Thursday two employees spend their work days getting files, Clerk of Court Lodema Berkley said. Files and court notes are even stored underneath desks, she said.

The county could use another district court judge to help ease a busy caseload, officials said, but there's no room for anything more than the six existing courtrooms.

Lyness said several major civil trials are scheduled for this spring, and a few are expected to last two to three weeks. As a result, some criminal cases without the demand for speedy trials are being pushed back months, she said.

Two architecture firms are working on a preliminary design for the justice center. The plan right now is to renovate the courthouse and jail, which are near each other south of downtown, and to build a new facility behind the courthouse and to the south.

How exactly the courthouse, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, will be used is unclear.

Edmondson and Lyness said they hope to get at least one new courtroom. Other goals are for a secure main entrance, a way to separate inmates from the public and more space for people and storage.

Whether the public agrees the courthouse issues, and those of the jail, are worth spending $39 million to correct remains to be seen. Supporters acknowledge it will be tough to get the 60 percent voter approval needed for the bond. A bond issue for a new jail failed in 2000.

Also, the $39 million is not expected to cover all of the needs but should take care of the immediate concerns, Neuzil said. The full project could be done in phases.