The latest report from a Lauderdale County Grand Jury repeated past juries’ recommendations to move courthouse employees out of the aging structure. 

“(We) recommend that the Board of Supervisors have all of the employees and departments moved out of the courthouse by a certain date and adequately placed in safer, cleaner conditions until the courthouse is renovated or a new courthouse is built,” the report said. “(We) realize that the renovation of or the building of a new courthouse is not an easy task, but the Board of Supervisors need to be diligent in taking action to move the employees to newer, safer accommodations while they decide what to do with the existing courthouse.”

The grand jury report admitted that they were repeating old recommendations from previous grand juries, saying, “The statements of the Grand Jury Report hasn’t (sic) changed in many years because no changes have been made to correct the issues.”

The jurors asked for windows posing a fire safety hazard be replaced promptly and said some jurors stated their eyes started burning after being inside the courthouse.

Jurors found the staff at the Lauderdale County Detention Facility polite and professional and commented on the cleanliness of the facility. They repeated a previous recommendation to give detectives more space for interviewing witnesses and victims. 

“There needs to be more “suicide” rooms and the foam padding replaced periodically or as frequently as need,” the report said. “The ceiling tiles in the towers showed water damage. The water damaged needs to be addressed and the ceiling tiles replaced.”

Finally, jurors recommended that the air conditioning in the Lauderdale County Annex Building be upgraded.

During their three days as a grand jury, jurors examined 24 witnesses, returned 150 true bills of indictment and 17 no true bills of indictment.