Fayette County Central Court relocating to county jail
Fayette County Central Court is relocating from its current building on Main Street to one inside the county jail at the end of the month.
Instead of being the starting point for all court cases handled by Pennsylvania State Police, it will now only be used to handle the cases where defendants are already incarcerated in the jail, said Deputy Court Administrator Lori Lambie.
“It will be held right in the jail, so inmates won’t be transported,” she said. “So we’re trying to do a cost saving on transportation and load staffing and all that for the state police and the transports.”
High-profile cases can continue to be held at the courthouse at the district attorney’s discretion, Lambie said.
The county’s district court judges take turns presiding over the court one week at a time, when they’re on call 24 hours a day.
Fayette County had been leasing the Main Street site for the past 10 years. Between the cost of the lease, utilities, security, internet and other expenses, the county stands to save about $100,000 a year, Lambie said.
Other costs, like postage and court staff, should stay about the same for the county.
“We don’t have less defendants because we close Central Court,” Lambie said. “They’re just being spread out amongst the other seven courts.”
For defendants who are not in custody, their hearings will be held in the home court where the charges originated. Those courts will now hold additional criminal days to accommodate the increased caseload, Lambie said.
Weeks before the official changeover, the transition to home courts began with driving while intoxicated cases.
“Come September, when everybody gets their full days, and they’ll have the DA, and they’ll have the (public defender), and they’ll have state police like regularly scheduled, I think it will smooth out,” Lambie said. “Fingers crossed.”
The process of moving the court began before the start of the year, Lambie said. Any move to restructure or relocate a county’s central court requires the president judge to petition the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Final approval rests with the state Supreme Court.
“You can’t just decide you’re going to restructure and move a court,” Lambie said. “It has to go through a lot of chains of command to have it happen.”
The new court is located at 254 McClellandtown Road.
A new judge’s bench has already been built in the prison room where the central court will sit, Lambie said.
That portion of the jail is open to the public, which will be able to attend open court hearings in the same way it could before, Lambie said.
“That’s a right that preliminary hearings or court proceedings are open, so I don’t want anyone to think that since it’s in the prison that we’re keeping people out,” she said.