The Union County Courthouse in Lake Butler sees all kinds of legal cases, hearings and appeals.
But despite the severity of cases heard in its chambers, the small rural county courthouse has never had the necessary funds to ensure maximum security within the courthouse building.
Now, after years of persistence, the county has finally received a $1.2 million grant to make the needed changes.
“It was never a matter of whether we should enhance and increase our security measures here, just how we are going to go about doing it — and how we are going to go about funding it in a small, financially strapped county,” said Union County Court Judge Mitchell Bishop.
Union County is the smallest county in Florida, with an estimated population of 15,228. What many people don’t know is that one-third of that population is incarcerated, according to Union County Clerk of Court and Comptroller Kellie Rhoades.
Located just on the county line separating Union and Bradford counties is the Union Correctional Institution, which houses 1,486 male inmates convicted of serious felonies and considered high-risk. Just two miles away, in Bradford County but visible from the windows of the Union Correctional Institution, stands the Florida State Prison, housing several death row inmates.
In addition to these two institutions, the county is also home to the Reception and Medical Center, which is located five miles from the courthouse. The Reception and Medical Center receives all Department of Corrections inmates in Northeast Florida who need medical care.
The Union County Courthouse is the setting for post-conviction hearings, appeals and hearings regarding additional crimes and acts of violence that occurred within these facilities.
The current safety procedure in place at the courthouse only focuses on inmates, and not everyday visitors or employees. When a Department of Corrections inmate comes in for a hearing, the department itself provides additional personnel as well as various security instruments, Bishop said.
But with the new renovations and security enhancements set to take place, every person coming into the courthouse, regardless of their status or the reason they are there, will need to go through a security screening.
This screening will include a metal detector, and an X-ray machine with security personnel staffing the entrance, Bishop said.
While the county’s local courthouse sees a lot of felony cases and state inmates, it also hears cases involving families and children — individuals who aren’t being convicted of felonies, but rather are dealing with other legal issues during vulnerable points of their lives.
As a result, the county’s goal is to make the courthouse a place that is safe for each individual who walks in, no matter circumstance.
“We are the face, we are the name of those traumatic things that are happening,” Rhoades said.
While many people still may not see the need for changes like this in a small place like Union County, Bishop said that no place is safe from violence.
He said his selling point for the county commission’s support with this grant was built on a workplace violence incident that occurred in Lake Butler in 2013.
A shooting spree that resulted in the death of four individuals, including the offender himself, appeared in an FBI report on mass shootings that occurred in the U.S. from 2001-2018, Bishop said.
“The most shocking thing to the county commission was when I had them turn to a particular page [of the report], and they saw Lake Butler was on the list,” he said.
Although the security enhancements are necessary in light of a rise in gun violence in the country today, some Union County residents may miss the feeling of an open courthouse.
Lake Butler attorney John Maines IV said, “It’s a luxury to have that [an open courthouse] in a small town.”
Maines served as Union County’s assistant state attorney, working on the second floor of the Union County Courthouse for many years.
Captain Lyn Williams of the Union County Sheriff’s Office said he feels it will take some time for visitors to adjust to the new safety protocols, but that because things have changed in the nation today, “there’s a need for security.”
In addition to the security enhancements, the courthouse is also undergoing a multitude of other projects. Just recently an emergency operations center was added to the sheriff's office, and the county is getting ready to break ground on a new county jail within the office, said Bishop.
Additionally, some cosmetic changes were made to both wings of the courthouse that house the sheriff’s office and the office of the clerk of court.
Furthermore, the courthouse is in need of a new roof due to damage caused by Hurricane Debby in 2024. The courthouse is also working toward obtaining grant funding for new windows for a section of the courthouse that is turning 90 years old this year.
The last thing on the list is a new air conditioning unit, but that will come on the completion of all the other projects, Bishop said.
While these renovations and enhancements will bring much change to the historic courthouse built in 1936, it will be seen by many in Union County as a time of comforting change.
“You read in your books about the cases that have been argued in the U.S. Supreme Court or some of our highest courts in the land, but all those cases started out somewhere,” Bishop said.
That somewhere includes Union County, within the walls of the 90-year-old courthouse located on West Main Street. That’s where it begins, and every citizen in that courthouse deserves to feel safe, regardless of why they find themselves there.