Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

I had a moment of confusion this morning at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, when I hopped on one of the building's infamous elevators.

The normal, dark wood paneling with the flimsy metal borders and carved graffiti interior had been replaced with shiny metal.  The dark gray flooring had been replaced with a pinkish tile.  It looked space-aged compared to the previous bucket of bolts that had been the trademark of the inefficient transport system that we have all come to know and hate at the CJC.

The little floor monitor thingy that (on days when it was working) told elevator occupants what floor we were stopping on no longer utilized the glowing red, digital numerals found on 1990's-era alarm clocks (and timers for bomb countdowns in spy movies).  It had been replaced by a cool new video monitor that showed the floor we were on, superimposed over an image of the CJC!  

It was all very exciting.  In the two years and five months since Hurricane Harvey, we are finally seeing some exciting signs of improvement!  I almost felt like I was in the elevator of someplace fancy, like a bank or some other place that cares about safety and efficiency.  I wasn't used to such luxuries at the Criminal Justice Center.

Of course, we didn't really need for the repairs on the CJC to make the elevators prettier.  I think that pretty much all of us would settle for an ugly elevator if it, you know, worked.  I've heard many people complain about the number of elevators not running on any given morning, but I've yet to hear someone say: "Sure these elevator work fantastic, but they are so aesthetically hideous that it ruined my entire criminal courthouse experience today."

Making the new elevators pretty and modern is pretty much akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the H.M.S. Titanic.  Two years later and all of the felony courts are still splitting time between the CJC and the Civil Courthouse because many of the courtrooms aren't ready for occupancy.  Absolutely nothing has been done to alleviate the backlog of defendants waiting in lines just to get in the building every morning.  In an obvious gesture of surrender to the masses, the County has constructed some sort of temporary covered walkway for the lines that form outside every morning.  

The building has become the architectural version of a mullet.  Space-age elevators on the inside.  Civil War-era shelters in the front.

I'm trying to figure out how this went down during the construction planning.

Contractor # 1:  I assume our first priority is to get the courtrooms up and running as quickly as possible?  Or maybe restructuring the entry to increase the efficiency of getting people in and out of the building?  Or getting the elevators in working order so that we don't have so many frequent breakdowns?  

Contractor # 2:  No.  First off, we've got to make the elevators look cool as shit. 

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by the aesthetic elevator improvements.  After all, the first major step they took in the post-Harvey rebuilding efforts was to install a Fuddruckers in the basement of the Civil building.

I've heard from some insanely optimistic people reliable sources that the building is supposed to be back to "normal" by August of this year, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Maybe it would go a little faster if the powers that be realized we don't need a pretty building.

We just need one that works.

By the way, the over/under on when a disgruntled defendant smashes the glass on one of those fancy new floor displays is six business days.   I'm taking the under.

Justice Displaced

As most of the regulars strongly suspected, we are getting word that the Harris County Criminal Justice Building may be shut down for up to a year due to damage sustained from Hurricane Harvey.  As I wrote in my last post, this was almost exactly what happened in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.

As this is being written, prosecutors are packing up their personal effects from their offices, as we did during Allison.  This will likely be followed with trustees from the Harris County Jail and D.A. personnel boxing up and moving the files, computers, and other government property from the Office.  The same will have to be done for the PD's Office, the Courts and the Clerk's offices.  In 2001, I found myself loading and unloading boxes out of big panel vans, side by side with inmates.  In all actuality, it was kind of fun.

But things are much different than sixteen years ago. In May of 2001, the D.A.'s Office moved back to 201 Fannin (where we had all moved from in November of 1999).   I'm not sure what the status of that building is, so I don't know if it is a possible temporary shelter for the displaced prosecutors or not.  It is my understanding that the District Attorney's Office is currently operating out of the Harris County Law Library on the upper floors of the old jury assembly building.

In 2001, the Courts all relocated back to 301 San Jacinto.  All things considered, it was a fairly smooth move.  Some courts were doubled up into the same room, but it wasn't bad.  The atmosphere was relaxed and there was a camaraderie between prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, and sometimes, even the Defendants.

But now, 301 San Jacinto holds the Juvenile Justice Center -- the heavily damaged Juvenile Justice Center.  As of this writing, it doesn't look like that particular structure provides a feasible solution for housing 22 District Courts and 16 County Courts.  There have been rumblings of potentially having some trials in the nice and shiny Civil Courts building, but that is said to be meeting heavy resistance from the Civil Court Judges.  If true, I can't say that I blame them.

Holding criminal dockets (and trials) in buildings not designed for criminal cases causes problems with security.  There are no jail holdovers for in-custody Defendants, which creates issues of how to keep everyone safe and secure.  Problems abound.  Despite that, there is an urgent need to get the Courts back to some semblance of normal as soon as possible -- especially for cases where there are people incarcerated and awaiting trial.  Many have already been in custody for months (if not over a year), awaiting their trials.  Last Monday (during the storm), I had originally been scheduled for trial on a case from April of 2016.  That case (and many more like it) isn't getting any younger.

As of this writing, we have been told that dockets are tentatively scheduled to resume on Monday, September 11th.  I'll believe that when I see it.

As I see it, there are two potential positives that can come out of the days to come.

The first is an opportunity to make some meaningful improvements to the structure of the CJC.  We bypassed this opportunity in the aftermath of Allison, and I hope we don't do so again.  There are things that can be done that are short of a full-blown do-over.  Courts can be moved to lower floors.  Accessible stairwells can be made between floors.  I don't know that anything could have been done to stop the damage to the CJC done by Hurricane Harvey, but I do think things can be done to help the day-to-day disasters that we deal with in that building under even the best of circumstances.

The second positive is the bonding experience that we are all about to have (whether we like it or not).  Things are about to get more casual, and thus more real around whatever place ends up holding our courts.  That's a good thing.  I can promise that every prosecutor, judge, defense attorney, clerk, coordinator, court reporter, and bailiff who was around during Allison can tell a host of stories of the year during "flood conditions."  They weren't always pleasant experiences, but they created the memories that each of us will have when we finally wrap up our careers.

Now those stories that began with "During Allison . . ." are going to start with "During Harvey . . ."  The days, weeks, and months ahead are not going to always be pleasant.  We'll get through them, because (as my Dad always told me) "you've just got to."

When it is all said and done (and you're back in your regular office and court), you'll be proud to be a survivor of the experience.