page_title: Brevard County, Florida
section_title: Courts
hierarchical_section_title: Brevard County, Florida / Government / Justice system / Courts
caption_attribution_description: English: Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Justice Center
context_page_description: Brevard County is located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 543,376, making it the 10th most populated county in Florida. The official county seat has been located in Titusville since 1894. Brevard County comprises the Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located along the east Florida coast and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.
  With an economy strongly influenced by the John F. Kennedy Space Center, Brevard County is also known as the Space Coast. As such, it was designated with the telephone area code 321, as in 3-2-1 liftoff. The county is named after Theodore Washington Brevard, an early Florida settler and state comptroller.
  A secondary center of county administrative offices was built beginning in 1989 in Viera, Florida, a master planned community in an unincorporated area. The county offices were developed to serve the more populous southern part of the long county.
context_section_description: The county has centralized most county and circuit courts in Viera which try a variety of cases including felonies, misdemeanors, traffic, and domestic. The courthouse in Titusville provides the venue for circuit and county cases arising in the north part of the county while the courthouse in Melbourne is the venue for county cases arising in the southern portion of the county.  An elected State Attorney prosecutes criminal cases for the State of Florida. Indigent defendants can be represented by the office of the elected Public Defender. The 18th Circuit Court includes Seminole County as well as Brevard and covers not only the court itself but the State Attorney and the Public Defender. In 2008, the public defender had a staff of 45 lawyers in Brevard who handled about 24,000 cases annually.
  The County elects a sheriff, directly responsible to the courts but also to the state for the enforcement of state laws. Police chiefs, appointed by their cities or towns, perform the same function locally. There is no overlap in jurisdictions. Some volunteers work alongside paid professionals.
  Most municipalities are located on at least one waterway. This has resulted in the county and seven cities having a boat or access to one to aid boaters, or to enforce the law in the water in their jurisdiction.
  The county jail is a 1976 facility which rapidly became overcrowded. Voters rejected expanding the jail on four occasions. The sheriff solved the problem by the construction of a large but less expensive "hardened tent" to house non-violent offenders. Crowding reached its peak in 2007 at 1,988 inmates, 300 over capacity. The budget for the facility was $42 million in 2010. There were 1,585 residents. Costs for feeding and housing was $72 per inmate daily. There were 475 staff members.
  The county jail retains inmates awaiting trial or those who have been sentenced to a year
  or less. Longer sentences must be served in state prisons, such as the facility in Sharpes for young men.
  A unit of the Coast Guard, homeported at Port Canaveral, plays a role in preventing illegal immigration and is an interdictor of drugs in the area.
  The States Attorney's Office sponsors the Victim/Witness Services. This provides advocates to alleged victims of violent crime and their families. The advocate helps the family understand the legal system as they navigate through it. They also seek out financial assistance
  or counseling they might need. In 2005 they helped 8,448 alleged victims in Brevard County.
caption: Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Justice Center in Viera
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