Meetings Steering Committee(Folders 1-2)

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Staffinq: The Circuit and District Courts consist of seven (7) Circuit Court Judges and five (5) District Court Judges, with a total staff of 89 additional positions. This includes 31 direct judicial staff, and 58 staff in administrative, clerical and program support functions. Facilities: The Sub-Committee noted that two courtrooms and support offices are presently maintained at the Court's Annex for criminal pre-trial matters. A hearing room and Court support offices are provided at the Marion County Juvenile Department for the processing of the juvenile caseload. Downtown, the Courthouse contains chambers and judicial offices for twelve Judges and the court's administrative and clerk's office facilities in support of the Bench. The Courthouse also contains ten courtrooms and a jury assembly room. Due to a lack of space in the courthouse, older court records are contained in a remote site located in the basement of the Senator Building. The Sub-Committee noted that, when a Courthouse is well designed, it may be operationally e~cient to contain fewer courtrooms than judicial positions. In such a situation, courtrooms can be designed for specific purposes (court trials, six member jury trials, twelve member jury trials) with the Judges using whichever courtroom is available which best meets the needs of the matter being heard. However, it is not a practical option when the judicial offices and courtrooms are not properly laid out to accommodate uses in this manner. The present Marion County Courthouse does not efficiently allow for this practice, resulting in a need for a direct link of chambers and judicial offices to a particular courtroom. Two judicial offices do not presently have courtrooms assigned or associated with their facilities. While the Court is able to accommodate this physical layout at the present, due to courtroom facilities at the Court's Annex, it is not a structure which can be perpetuated as the number of Courts continues to grow. Therefore, with additional judicial positions being created, additional courtroom facilities, as well as the judicial offices, will be required for the Courts. The other primary area of concern is the jury assembly room. The present jury assembly facility is located on the 2nd floor of the Marion County Courthouse and has a seating capacity of 49, based upon fire marshall regulations. The average jury panel is in excess of 150. On most days, the number of jurors required to report to the courthouse exceeds the stated capacity of 49. Further, the location of the jury assembly room places an additional and often unnecessary burden on the courthouse elevator system, and exposes potential jurors to inadvertent contact with lawyers, litigants, criminal defendants, police officers and others with whom the jurors should have no contact outside of the courtroom. Page - 3