photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The sole elevator for public use in the new Judicial and Law Enforcement Center in Douglas County.

Anyone who has visited the new Judicial and Law Enforcement Center more than once has likely heard about — or personally experienced — frustrations with the lone elevator available to the public.

The county’s courtrooms are located in what’s called the “tower,” the brand new addition to the south of the JLEC, which is undergoing a nearly $60 million overhaul. The tower portion opened earlier this month, and the older building is now being extensively renovated.

The elevator is currently the only means for the public and many who work in the legal system to access the second and third floors, where several courtrooms are located.

While people may have added a few extra minutes into their schedule to walk the greater distance from the JLEC’s lone entrance and to wait for the elevator, it’s been more difficult to account for the elevator not working at all, which has sometimes been the case, or for it to simply stop with people inside or to indicate that it cannot move because of “maximum capacity” being exceeded with only one or two people inside.

On one occasion two people who work at the JLEC were stuck in the elevator with no light and had to use a cellphone flashlight to see and to coax the elevator into resuming its journey.

So why not just take the stairs since one’s destination can only be a floor or two up? That’s a question one hears daily in the hallway. The answer is because the stairs are not available.

“The stairs,” the Journal-World has been told by the county’s public information officer, “will be available for public use once additional security measures are installed as part of the ongoing construction project.”

What those security measures are and when they’ll be installed haven’t been disclosed: “At this time, we have not received an estimate from the construction company,” the county said in an email Wednesday.

On Tuesday, as multiple court hearings were scheduled, people paced the hallway by the elevator, which was on the fritz again. Eventually, sheriff’s deputies were able to open up the closed-off stairwell and escort people up to the second and third floors. One judge, before commencing a hearing, acknowledged the elevator malfunction and ascertained that everyone was in the courtroom who needed to be.

When told that the elevator was functioning again, some people wondered aloud about the possibility of it becoming nonfunctional as soon as they stepped inside.

Public bathrooms are not located on every floor, so it’s sometimes questionable whether a 10-minute recess in a court hearing will be enough time to wait for the elevator, locate a bathroom and wait again for the elevator, especially if multiple people have the same idea.

Aside from whether the elevator is doing its job, the Journal-World has also heard comments from attorneys about whether it’s a good idea to have a situation where criminal defendants and victims are facing each other in the small confines of an elevator.

Chief Judge Mark Simpson told the Journal-World via email Wednesday that the stairs would eventually be open for public use.

“The timing depends on availability of materials and labor, but it is a high priority because public access to the courts is foundational to our justice system,” Simpson wrote. “I appreciate the efforts of everyone involved in the work to open the stairway as soon as possible.”

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The recently opened “tower” on the south side of Douglas County’s Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured Monday, Aug. 17, 2026.