Pulaski Circuit Court Judge Michael Shurn continues to push for increased security at the courthouse. He told the county council and commissioners last week that violent outbursts in and around the courtroom, as well as other county offices, are becoming more and more frequent. “Seems like weekly now, we’re having security coming,” Shurn said. “So security remains an issue. What you’re going to do, I don’t know, but it’s blowing up more and more.”
Council President Jay Sullivan had one idea. “I think it might be beneficial and it’d serve a lot of purposes and I’ve talked to the sheriff about it already, and that’s moving the courtrooms down into the Justice Department, the basement of the jail,” Sullivan said. “We could put them in the Justice Department. You have all the security there.”
Judge Shurn wasn’t too thrilled with that idea, though. “There’s some dignity to it all,” he said. “If you’re going to have high-profile trials and stuff, that’s why they created a courthouse. That’s why they created it. We’re going to be in a basement where the morgue used to be? You’re going to have to remodel that completely, and you’d still have to have the same security for that, people coming through metal detectors.”
“That’s right,” Sullivan replied, “but it’s already there. It’s in place.”
Shurn has been calling for the installation of a security checkpoint with a metal detector in the courthouse. Commissioner Mike McClure questioned how helpful that would be in preventing violence. “It doesn’t happen until they’re already in here,” McClure pointed out.
“Well, they don’t bring a weapon in,” Shurn explained. “I mean, they can go ballistic, but it’s the issue of if they have a weapon.”
“Have they found a weapon on anybody in here?” McClure asked.
“Yeah, I’ve taken pigstickers away from people before,” Shurn replied. “I had no idea because you have no idea what they’re carrying in. I know people carry in knives and all sorts of deadly weapons.”
McClure also felt the courthouse may be reaching the end of its useful life, and the county may have to look into replacing it in the coming decades. Sullivan pointed out that option has been explored, along with the idea of building an addition to the courthouse. Both those ideas have been shelved, due to the potential cost.
