Justice center construction nearing halfway mark

The construction site at Crook County’s new criminal justice center is filled with familiar sounds saws, grinders, hammers and the rumbling motors of heavy equipment.

Outside the structure and throughout the shiny steel-framed interior, dozens of workers are busy erecting a structure that will provide a much-needed new home to a host of criminal justice organizations.

According to County Commissioner Brian Barney, who is helping oversee the project, the building is about 47% complete and on target for completion next June. If all goes as planned, the building will be fully occupied toward the end of next summer.

The criminal justice center is made possible by voter approval of a $35 million bond measure in November 2020. The building, like the courthouse, will stand three stories tall but its 68,680 square feet will nearly triple the approximately 23,000 square feet of space currently available for criminal justice services.

The first floor will house the Crook County Sheriff’s Office and the County Juvenile Department. The District Attorney’s Office and Victim’s Advocate office will occupy the second floor and public defense will be housed on the third floor. The top two floors will also feature a courtroom of at least 10,000 square feet in size.

“Now, everything is all together,” Barney remarked.

Construction began about one year ago. Most of the interior framing is complete, and some of the HVAC and electrical installation is finished.

“We are getting close to dry-in,” said Project Superintendent Roger Snow of Kirby Nagelhout. “By about October, we should be completely dried in – windows, all the WRB (weather resistant barrier), roofing, then working our way down with insulation and drywall.

Around that same timeframe, motorists can expect to see the outside of the structure take shape. Some of the initial exterior finish work will likely begin within the next six to eight weeks, Snow said.

“I think in the next couple of months, you will see more huge jumps,” Barney adds.

Once completed, the justice center will solve several issues facing the local criminal justice system, one of which is security. At the current courthouse, incarcerated defendants typically enter the courtroom through the same accesses used by the public and criminal justice personnel, creating potential safety risks.

“We tried to keep it three-level secure,” Barney said of the new building. “We needed to secure the in-custody defendants – separation of them from everyone – and separation of the general public from the staff.”

The building will feature holding cells on each floor for adult and juvenile inmates, and during court appearances, they will be escorted on a secure elevator and enter from a separate and secure location.

“The only time they are with the public is when they are in the courtroom,” Barney said.

Another problem the justice center will solve is space. The juvenile department, district attorney’s office and other justice system staff have outgrown their current locations, and the new building is expected to provide plenty of room in which to operate.

“It has been pretty tight over at the courthouse,” Barney noted. “It’s pretty small for the growth Crook County has had.”

In addition to solving these issues, the justice center will provide a long-awaited transition from an iconic but aging building to a new and improved facility that meets current county needs.

“We are looking forward to maintaining this new building,” said Nick Lilly, Crook County’s Capital Projects and Facilities Director. “It’s going to be the flagship building of Prineville. Not to take anything away from the old courthouse but this will be the most sophisticated, up-to-date, cutting-edge-technology building that Crook County will have in its fleet.”

Editor: Jason Chaney, Central Oregonian
https://www.centraloregonian.com/news/justice-center-construction-nearing-halfway-mark/article_0ec6021e-41fc-11ee-b6fa-37d6b12d291f.html