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Have a Question?
- Why do we need a new courthouse?
The Superior Court is quite simply out of space. From 2000 to 2008 the number of criminal cases in Maricopa County jumped from 26,000 to more than 41,000 per year and is expected to grow to 56,000 per year by 2016. With court space beyond capacity now, more courtrooms must be built to avoid a catastrophic logjam in the justice system. The current downtown Phoenix court will soon be unable to support the safe transportation of in-custody defendants, and the juror pool needed to handle all of these new cases is outgrowing the jury assembly space.
- How much will it cost?
$340 million. More than $261 million had been put aside by the County, with the remainder made up by suspending other County capital projects.
- How many courtrooms will it have?
Originally it will have 22 courtrooms when the building opens. Space on other floors is being saved to add ten courtrooms later as the need arises.
- Why spend money on building floors that don't have courtrooms? Wouldn't it be better to save that money?
All the space will ultimately be needed. It's far better and much less expensive to make accommodations for future growth today, rather than retrofitting the building later.
 Why aren't the judges' chambers next to their courtrooms?
Many new high-efficiency courthouses around the country are going to a “collegial” approach, locating judicial offices together on an office floor. This not only promotes communication between judges and staff members, but it also allows the court to assign judges to different courtrooms, depending on the type of case they are trying at a particular time. For example, a judge may try a capital or high-profile case in one of the large courtrooms to allow enough seating for the media, victims and their families, defendants’ families and other interested members of the public. When the judge is handling a case that does not require as much public seating, the case and the judge will be assigned a standard courtroom.- Will there be a cafeteria inside the building?
Yes. By their very nature, courthouses are high security areas. Everyone entering - whether witness, defendant, attorney or juror - must go through a screening process each time they enter the building. A cafeteria will save thousands of hours of wait time per year by reducing the number of people who must leave and re-enter the building each day.
- Will the courthouse be designed with the needs of the victim in mind?
Yes. Arizona law requires that courthouses be built to minimize contact between victims’ family and witnesses, and defendants’ family and witnesses. Victims’ viewing rooms in the back of each courtroom and a victims’ meeting space will be provided on the lobby level next to a law enforcement waiting room for peace officer witnesses. This will make the courthouse a safer and more dignified place not only for victims, but for everyone.
- Are “extravagant” materials, such as marble, travertine and terrazzo being used in this building?
All materials used inside and outside the Court Tower are common to the construction industry and have been carefully selected to range towards the higher end of durability and the moderate range of cost. Travertine is one of the most common and highly durable stones in the construction industry. It will be used only in the elevator lobbies and the main docket wall. Terrazzo is a floor material used in lobbies and other high use areas of airports, schools, courthouses and public buildings throughout the country because it is durable and easy to maintain. There is no marble in the courthouse.
- What would happen if we didn’t construct this building?
The need for more space would still exist. Without additional courtrooms, criminal cases would simply take longer and longer to process and resolve, imposing substantial costs upon the taxpayers and additional hardships on victims, police officers and other witnesses, defendants and everyone else involved. By some estimates, each additional day added to the County’s average trial length costs taxpayers $1 million in additional costs per year to house, care for and transport prisoners to and from court. The growth of criminal courts would also require that civil and family courts be moved out of downtown Phoenix.
- Will this courthouse have better security than the existing ones?
The new facility will employ “best practices” recommended by the National Center for State Courts and other experts for sorting, securing and moving prisoners to and from the courtrooms by building an underground central holding facility and holding cells adjacent to each courtroom. These cells will hold over 1,000 in-custody inmates at a time and allow for the proper separation of males and females, adults and juveniles, gang members, etc. The state-of-the-art secure holding cells will be safer for the transport deputies and the public.
- Why take money from other capital projects for this? Shouldn’t the County have bonded for the cost of the building?
Unlike many other governments, Maricopa County does not finance its operating or capital costs by borrowing. This “no debt” policy has kept county property taxes low and helped it avoid the full scale budget crisis that other governments now face. However, it also requires the Board of Supervisors to make tough financial decisions. This was one of them. Addressing the crisis in the justice system had a higher priority than other capital projects
- Given the current economy, is this the right time to spend money on a new building?
It's actually a very good time to build. The economic slowdown has resulted in much lower than expected commodity prices. For instance, copper, rebar, cement and structural steel prices are significantly lower today than a year ago. It is also good timing for the participating local contractors and businesses who will be able to avert or reduce planned layoffs.
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