Planning a new courthouse or renovating an existing one is complex and often takes years. A thorough needs assessment examines current and future space requirements, evaluates existing facilities, and identifies improvement strategies. This playbook outlines the process and tools to help you build a defensible plan.
Key Takeaways
A needs assessment is the first phase of any courthouse planning project and ensures that future designs reflect the court's functional and security requirements.
Six critical steps guide the assessment: assemble a planning team, analyze workload and staffing, assess the existing courthouse, develop a program of requirements, identify improvement strategies and perform a gap analysis
Fentress' CORE tool evaluates existing courthouses across space standards, functionality, security, building condition, build systems, health and wellness, and technology.
A gap analysis identifies the difference between the current facility and an ideal courthouse, then evaluates alternative strategies to close that gap.
Deliverables include workload and personnel forecasts, a program of requirements, improvement options with cost-benefit analysis, and a rationale for funding decisions.
Why Perform a Needs Assessment?
Courts evolve continuously as populations grow, laws change, and technology advances. A systematic assessment helps ensure your courthouse planning addresses these changes effectively.
Engaging judges, court administrators, security personnel, and related departments early in the process establishes a dedicated court planning team. Their collective insights and experience are essential to developing a functional, secure, and well-designed courthouse.
Stakeholder-approved data and analysis provide the evidence needed to support budget requests and secure funding from governing bodies. Decision-makers need concrete justification for significant capital investments.
Evaluating existing facilities reveals gaps in how well the building supports court operations, delivers appropriate security, integrates modern technology, and promotes a well-maintained, reliable environment.
Engaging judges, administrators, security staff, and other agencies ensures the design reflects actual operational needs. This collaborative approach reduces conflicts during design and increases project support.
Six-Step Assessment Framework
A systematic approach to conducting comprehensive courthouse needs assessments
1. Assemble Your Planning Team
At the outset of any court planning project, a cross-functional planning team comprised of key stakeholders should be assembled. This team should include judges, clerks, courthouse security, prosecutors, defenders, facilities representatives, and all court components and related agencies that occupy space in the courthouse or that have a direct or indirect stake in the courthouse project. The team's knowledge of operations and workload drivers is vital to creating a comprehensive needs assessment. The more engaged the stakeholders are in the process, the more the design will reflect the functional needs of the entire court family.
Judges
Court Administrator/Clerk
Prosecutor
Public Defender
Probation, Parole, Pretrial
Facilities Department
Security Personnel
It's important for the court planning team to meet in the early stages to develop a shared vision for the future of the court. This vision is critical to developing key assumptions that will guide the courthouse planning effort, as well as the future design of any project intended to meet the court's needs.
2. Analyze Workload & Staffing
The courthouse needs assessment process involves a detailed evaluation of the historical, current, and projected volume of caseload processed through a courthouse, which in turn drives the needs for judgeships, personnel, court operations, and space. Fentress gathers historical workload data and qualitative input from the planning team to project staffing needs 10-30 years into the future using statistical methods and trend analysis. By discussing workload and staffing trends and developing projections of future staffing and space needs, the court planning team gains a much clearer understanding of the demands placed on the courthouse and the need for additional, or reconfigured, space.
Historical caseload statistics
Current staffing levels
Geographic, demographic, and economic data
Policy changes affecting court operations
Technology implementations impacting workflow
The key is to generate realistic assumptions about how these trends may impact current and future court operations and workload. Statistical methods, such as time series analysis, are used to produce projections of future workload, which help determine projected staffing and space requirements. It is important to blend quantitative data and qualitative insights. The process of planning, funding, designing, and constructing a major courthouse project can take ten years or more and upon occupancy, there should be capacity for the court to grow in the space.
3. Evaluate the Existing Courthouse
Concurrent with the workload analysis, an assessment of the existing courthouse and each component's space should be conducted. Conduct a facility assessment to determine how well the current building meets operational needs using objective metrics to score performance across space standards, functionality, security, building condition, systems and technology. At Fentress, we conduct our assessments using our unique Courthouse Operations and Realtime Evaluation (CORE) tool, which contains a library of over 500 courthouse performance factors and accompanying metrics.
4. Develop a Program of Requirements
After forecasting future personnel needs, the next step is to develop a Program of Requirements (POR) that defines the courthouse’s space needs. The POR translates staffing and operational projections into a detailed listing of required spaces by applying established court design standards and best practices. We also identify key adjacencies—showing how departments and functions should be organized to enhance workflow, efficiency, and collaboration within the courthouse.
Courtroom and judicial chambers requirements
Administrative and support spaces
Security and holding areas
Public spaces and circulation
Technology and infrastructure needs
The POR provides requirements for individual space types, such as courtroom sets, chambers, courthouse security and prisoner holding, office space, and shared spaced. It also includes a detailed list of spaces within each component, the usable square footage of each, and any comments or assumptions that support the effort. During the stakeholder interviews, space-saving methodologies that have proven successful in other courthouses should be considered, including multipurpose spaces and flexible courtroom arrangements.
5. Identify Improvement Strategies
The information from the workload analysis, CORE tool assessment, and POR is then used to develop potential improvement strategies for presentation to the court planning team. An improvement strategy is a series of projects and operational changes aimed at optimizing the space in the courthouse. We brainstorm options such as renovating within the existing courthouse, adding to the building, constructing a new courthouse or combining solutions. We evaluate the feasibility of different strategies by considering cost, operational disruption, and long-term flexibility.
Renovation within existing facility
Addition to current courthouse
New courthouse construction
Hybrid approaches combining solutions
Phased implementation strategies
Improvement strategies address as many space needs and functional deficiencies as possible and accommodate current and future staff. Project feasibility is an important aspect that needs to be considered based on existing facility conditions, detailed knowledge of courthouse operational and security requirements, best practicies for solving space needs, and architectural and construction considerations. Once feasible improvement strategies have been identified, floor plans are created to help visualize how the strategies meet the identified needs.
6. Conduct a Gap Analysis
The benefit of each potential improvement strategy can be analyzed to determine the alternative that best addresses needs and deficiencies. Each improvement strategy is scored and the results are compared to both the building baseline score and the ideal courthouse score to determine the extent to which each improvement strategy "closes the gap" between the existing and ideal state.
Current vs. ideal performance scoring
Improvement potential for each strategy
Cost-effectiveness calculations
Implementation timeline considerations
Risk assessment for each option
The use of performance metrics allows the effectiveness of each improvement strategy to be objectively measured and compared with alternatives. Rough order of magnitude costs are developed for each improvement strategy, which are then used to perform a cost-effectiveness analysis that determines not only the strategy that yields the greatest benefit, but also the greatest benefit relative to cost. In the final analysis, the recommendation deemed most viable is identified as the recommended strategy.
The CORE Tool Explained
The Courthouse Operations and Realtime Evaluation (CORE) tool provides objective measurement of courthouse performance using over 500 courthouse performance factors. We typically apply 200-300 of these factors, as applicable, to each assessment.
Utilizing performance metrics helps identify deficiencies within the existing facility. The CORE tool is designed to focus on the following criteria:
Space Functionality
The extent to which the space properly supports operations in terms of adjacencies, layout, accessibility, and circulation
Space Standards
The conformance of space to the jurisdiction’s applicable design standards, or to “best practices” in courthouse planning if no design guide standards are available
Security
The security features in the facility, such as secure and restricted circulation patterns, prisoner holding areas, and security screening
Building Condition
The general condition of building and tenant space, including the condition of the common areas, lobbies, elevators, stairways, and exterior spaces
Building Systems
The overall condition of the main building systems, and how well they function
Technology
The ability of technology systems to support court proceedings, public interaction, and coordination between court components
Health & Wellness
The amenities of the spaces that promote health and wellness, such as fresh air circulation, daylighting, and cleanliness
As a court consultant to Randall Scott Architects, Fentress conducted space programming interviews, developed a Program of Requirements (POR), and assisted in the schematic design solut...
Service Provided
Stafford County School Security Assessments
Conducted assessments of 14 Stafford County, VA public schools and the central office campus. Provided recommendations for improving security across the district. The final report inclu...
Service Provided
HHS Organizational Assessment and Support
Fentress worked with the Office of Inspector General, US Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate its real property capabilities and to develop more effective business proces...
Let's Talk About Your Courthouse Goals
Whether updating an existing facility or planning a new one, Fentress can help you create a plan that supports justice and community needs.
%20(1).webp?width=967&height=544&name=Our%20Foundation%20(1)%20(1).webp)
.webp?width=1368&height=477&name=AdobeStock_28926843_Preview%201-1%20(1).webp)
