The current multi-tenant federal facility in Springfield, Massachusetts , has significant security problems. It lacks secure and separate prisoner corridors, courtroom holding cells, and prisoner elevators, with the result that dangerous prisoners move through public corridors with members of the public, witnesses and federal workers. Any delays in building on the selected site in Jacksonville, Florida , will require an increase in the project budget. The city already has committed to moving City Hall to an adjacent site as part of a revitalization of the downtown area. The court in Wheeling, West Virginia , is out of space for additional judges, the clerk's and probation offices, attorney-client conference areas, witness rooms, and alternative dispute resolution suites.
Security also is a serious problem.
The Little Rock, Arkansas , court will add several judges over the next 10 years, and there is no space for expansion in the existing building. Currently there are only two courtrooms in the Cape Girardeau, Missouri , courthouse to accommodate six judges and a bankruptcy judge. An additional renovated courtroom is too small for criminal trials. Only one courtroom in the Greeneville, Tennessee , courthouse has a jury room or facilities for the jury. There are no witness rooms, attorney conference rooms, or any spaces available for trial participants.