The Franklin County Courthouse in Winchester, Tennessee was completed in 1936.FEDERAL COURT SITES TARGETED FOR CLOSUREHere are the court sites in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama that the federal government is considering closing, ranked in order of likelihood. The government ranked 60 federal court facilities in 29 states that could close based on categories including cost, usage and location.City RankGadsden, Ala. 22Florence, Ala. 27Selma, Ala. 44Opelika, Ala. 48Dublin, Ga. 9Athens, Ga. 28Waycross, Ga. 29Valdosta, Ga. 41Statesboro, Ga. 56Jackson, Tenn. 16Winchester, Tenn. 20Cookeville, Tenn. 36Columbia, Tenn. 39Source: The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The federal government is considering closing dozens of courtrooms across the country, many located in small, rural communities, as part of an effort to cut costs.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show 60 federal court facilities in 29 states could be on the chopping block. Most of the courtrooms are in buildings that house other federal agencies including in post offices and many are located in remote areas. Critics say closing them could make it more difficult for people to get to court proceedings.
Six of the 60 court sites that could be closed are in Arkansas. Texas and Georgia each have five courts on the list of possible closures. Officials even are considering shuttering the location where judges hold federal court in Alaska’s capital city, Juneau.
There are 674 federal courthouses and facilities around the country, according to David Sellers, a federal courts spokesman. The 60 sites being considered for closure do not have a resident judge. Instead, judges based in larger cities travel to these smaller locations as needed.
In the documents obtained by the AP, the court facilities that could close were ranked based on a variety of categories including cost, usage and location. Of the 10 facilities that seem most likely to be eyed for closure, two are in Arkansas, two are in South Carolina, and the rest are spread out among West Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Virginia, Georgia and Maryland. A facility in Beaufort, S.C., tops the list, followed by the federal court site in Parkersburg, W.V. and one in Harrison, Ark.
“The federal judiciary is going through an aggressive cost containment effort because the money Congress has provided for the operating expenses for the courts has been essentially frozen the last three years,” Sellers said in an email.
He said a significant portion of those funds are used to pay rent for federal court facilities and pointed out that the court system is at the beginning of the process of reviewing which courthouse facilities could close.
A committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body for the federal courts, in February asked the 13 circuit judicial councils to review the list and recommend whether to keep the courts without resident judges, Sellers said. They’re supposed to get back to the committee by mid-April.
The committee will then review the recommendations and forward its report to the Judicial Conference, which could decide whether to close any of the court sites at its September meeting, Sellers said.
He said it’s too early to speculate how much could be saved or how many jobs could be lost by the possible closures.