Roof leak spawns flooding at juvenile courthouse, jeopardizing court, jail operations

Harris County's Juvenile Justice Center, an eight-story courthouse in downtown Houston that houses several courtrooms, county offices and a jail with about 200 juveniles is flooding from a roof leak, county officials said Monday.

Officials said the juveniles who are behind bars are not in danger, but the situation is perilous because the courthouse has become the lynchpin in the way suspects, both adults and juveniles, are processed in and out the county's jail complex, the largest jail in Texas.

The courthouse at 1201 Congress became the center of Harris County's criminal justice system over the weekend when it was overtaken by court officials and the district attorney's office to maintain Houston's 24-hour magistrate courts.

Typically, people arrested across the county see a judge before being processed into the jail, which means low-level offenders and those who can bail out, are not jailed. If the magistrate courts stop working, the jail complex, which holds between 8,000 and 10,000 inmates would swell with suspects who are unlikely to get to court until the storm waters start to recede.

The magistrate courts, which usually are housed on the first floor of the 20-story criminal courthouse at 1201 Franklin, were moved over the weekend to the smaller courthouse a block away after the basement and first floor of the main courthouse flooded.

With news that the juvenile courthouse began flooding Monday, there is concern over how to keep the local criminal justice system on track.

Harris County District Clerk Chris Daniel said courtrooms and offices in the smaller courthouse are seeing massive flooding but the juveniles who are behind bars are not in jeopardy because of the way the building was constructed.

"It's bifurcated," he said. "It's one building, but it's split in two."

He said the concrete block construction of the jail has insulated it from flooding, while the less secure roof over the courtrooms and the floors on each of the eight stories are waterlogged with sections breaking off and falling down.

"Floor by floor, the water is coming in and flushing out the tiles of the floors above, letting water flood the next floor," he said. "Because it's collapsed in enough places, water is just free falling from the eighth floor to the rest of the floors."

Daniel said County Judge Ed Emmett has been made aware of the situation and the county's Facilities and Property Management agency is working on the problem.

"If we don't do something soon, it'll be toast," Daniel said.

Daniel also said the county's main chiller is not working so there is no air conditioning in the humid offices and courts. He said the juvenile jail has generators that run air-conditioning for the people behind bars.

Juvenile Judge Mike Schneider confirmed the reports and said county officials are trying to get a handle on how bad the damage is.

"Apparently, parts of the roof collapsed," he said. "And there's flooding on parts of all nine floors."

He confirmed there were about 200 juveniles in the jail at last count.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said early Monday that the main jail complex, which is on the other side of Buffalo Bayou from the courthouses, is operating smoothly.

brian.rogers@chron.com

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