The grand jury is an integral and essential component of the American judicial process. Unfortunately, providing appropriate accommodations for the grand jury is not a high priority in many existing courthouses. How does a courthouse demonstrate its recognition of the grand jury’s importance? And can anything be done if you need to improve upon existing conditions? This can be addressed during the courthouse planning process.
Secret agents in the pursuit of justice
The grand jury process has always fascinated me. Grand jury decisions are frequently mentioned in sensational cases in the media, and they are dramatically described as a significant step in bringing criminals to justice. Once the grand jury decides that there is enough evidence to get an individual to trial, things must be heating up! What an important job it is to be a grand jury member, to be at the virtual center of the judicial process. Like secret agents, their identity is unknown, their proceedings are discreet, and their decisions will markedly enhance the pursuit of justice.
No respect
Nevertheless, I have been designing court spaces and evaluating courthouse conditions, including grand jury suites, for quite a few years. It never ceases to amaze me that the suite where these deliberations occur only sometimes reflects the vital work that goes on inside. Sometimes, the accommodations in older courthouses are little more than an oversized closet—not facilities that display respect commensurate with critical decision-making.
How does the process work?
There are usually between 16 and 23 jurors who sit on a grand jury panel, typically for several days per week and up to twelve months in some jurisdictions. Alternate jurors may also be present. The jurors’ job is to examine the evidence and hear the arguments presented by the prosecution to determine whether cases should proceed to the next step—a trial. They could consider several separate investigations in a single day!
Interestingly, no judge is involved in the proceedings unless a procedural issue arises. Otherwise, the judge is merely informed of the grand jury’s decision. The prosecution team presents the evidence in exhibits and recorded testimony, sometimes by witnesses. The proceedings are recorded by a court stenographer or an electronic recording device, and the records are sealed for confidentiality.
As would be expected, this process could be draining, both physically and emotionally.
What makes a well-designed grand jury suite?
A grand jury suite should include all the spaces and facilities necessary to complete the task comfortably. The suite's focus is the hearing room that must seat all grand jurors, ideally in a tiered arrangement for better visibility. The jury room should contain a small bench for the jury foreperson and a desk area for the court stenographer when needed, both at the front of the hearing room. Seating for a witness should also be provided at the front of the hearing room.
A small break area and dedicated restrooms are essential for comfortable isolation during long grand jury sessions. An office for prosecutors to coordinate and plan the evidence presentation should also be included in the suite as a desk for a security officer. Separate waiting rooms for witnesses and a holding cell for prisoners brought in to testify complete the core facilities.
The grand jury suite should be inconspicuously located in the courthouse, near the prosecutor’s office, and adjacent to the secure circulation path to allow safe transport of prisoners to testify. The suite’s perimeter should be acoustically sealed to prevent sound transmission. Infra-red “scramblers” can also be used in the hearing room to prevent remote listening devices from picking up the proceedings.
The grand jury suite in the following plan depicts a nearly ideal layout for a newly designed suite.
Why doesn’t the grand jury suite always get the respect it deserves?
Through many years of on-site courthouse inspections, I have found that the predominant reason that a grand jury has been relegated to deficient space in an existing courthouse is that it has lost its original, well-designed space to construct an additional courtroom required in the courthouse. Since the grand jury space is relatively large and connects to secure circulation, it is a prime candidate to be renovated to provide an additional courtroom. When this replacement occurs, there is typically no other suitable space in the courthouse to relocate and provide a true grand jury suite. Even when available, funding to complete both projects may be limited.
As a result, the grand jury is left to conduct its crucial business in uncomfortable conditions. I have seen grand jury spaces in older – particularly historic courthouses – squeezed into tiny basement spaces with no more than a conference table. In these situations, the jurors must use the public restrooms and are provided with no break areas. Grand jury spaces like this are not outfitted with tiered seating or necessary support spaces.
The grand jury suite shown in the following photos lacks support facilities and is disorganized and poorly maintained.
In some instances, courtrooms are used for grand jury proceedings in the absence of suitable space. Unfortunately, this solution can interfere with the courtroom's principal use.
A lack of respect sometimes comes back to bite you.
In addition to the deficient accommodations in the following photo of a grand jury suite, this basement room also proved problematic for maintaining confidentiality. As the deputy prosecutor with whom I toured the space explained to me, the suite was on a narrow public hallway near a second point of controlled access to the courthouse. Public traffic passed by the suite sufficiently close to the door so that jury discussions could be faintly heard in the hallway. This required an extra guard to be stationed in front of the door when the grand jury was in session to keep people from stopping and listening to the proceedings.
Solutions? They are hard to come by, but there are a few
There are two problems inherent in providing an appropriate grand jury suite in an existing courthouse where one is not already in place:
- Grand jury suites require much space, and available space is often allocated to high-priority uses like courtrooms or judge’s chambers.
- Grand jury suites, due to the need for isolation of the proceedings, do not lend themselves to being shared as part of a multi-purpose facility such as a training room or lunch room.
To provide an appropriate grand jury suite, sufficient space must be made available in the courthouse by reducing the amount of space allocated to other functions. This is difficult but possible. Creative solutions could include courtroom sharing, a greater emphasis on alternative dispute resolution, collegial chambers, and file room reduction by implementing electronic case filing. These are just some techniques that can be employed to reduce space requirements.
In fact, using exactly this approach, we were able to improve the basement grand jury suite, which was prone to confidentiality issues.
Following my site assessment, the court decided it was time to correct the deficiency. Only recently, there had been an apparent expansion space in the courthouse. However, with the recent adoption of electronic case filing, the clerk’s office found that the need for file space was diminishing. As a result, we established a time frame for when there would be a sufficient quantity of space to construct a suitable grand jury suite in what would become a sizeable vacant file room on an upper floor of the courthouse.
A simple answer
Maybe the answer to the question, “Why doesn’t the grand jury suite always get the respect it deserves?” is more straightforward than I may have thought. Perhaps, given that the grand jury is such a secretive group of people, one might conclude that it is never discussed, even if there is displeasure with their space. Maybe, like actual secret agents, even their complaints remain classified.
