Visitors to the old courthouse in Midland, Texas, have to submit to the whims of armed guards if they want to get past the front door. They are forced to empty their pockets, strip off their belts, and remove jewelry and watches until they can walk through a very sensitive metal detector without setting off an alarm. This is the treatment people entering the front door get regardless of whether they are reporting for jury duty or filing a deed. It's easier to board an airplane.
We learn from Bob Campbell's MR-T article about some of the details of the new courthouse and the $29.2 million expenditure to date, as well as the projected October 1 opening date.
What we won't learn until it opens is whether the new building is going to be user friendly, or will everyone entering the building be subjected to the same humiliation as they are at the old building. In other words, where will the guard house be? One would hope that if the Sheriff's department's job is to protect the courts against that one in a million risk factor, then the guards can be placed outside the court rooms and people using other parts of the building won't be bothered. We'll see.
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