KAUFMAN – Construction is under way on a $37 million promise made to voters in 2019.

Excavation equipment is scraping earth to clear way for the Kaufman County Justice Center. County leaders gathered Tuesday to mark the onset of construction adjacent to the county jail and Sheriff’s Department on Hwy. 175. The new Justice Center is expected to be completed in the fall 2022.

“We wanted the building to be dignified, not fancy, not posh, but dignified. And this is going to be a dignified building as it should be because this will be the center for justice for Kaufman County,” County Judge Hal Richards said of the Justice Center.

A parade of elected county officials praised the qualities incorporated into the building’s design: security and safety, environmental responsiveness, accessibility, efficiency, advanced technology and quality public spaces. The Justice Center will house district courtrooms, county courts-at-law, jury assembly and ceremonial space, chambers and court administration, public law library, grand jury and mediation space, district clerk’s office, public defender and adult probation and pretrial.

Funding for the Justice Center comes from a $50 million bond referendum passed by voters in the fall of 2019. A companion project, the Kaufman County Pet Adoption Center, broke ground nearby earlier in April.

The current Kaufman County Courthouse is considered cramped and outmoded for the demands of a modern criminal and civil justice system.

“Everybody here knows the story of the current courthouse and the unacceptable safety concerns we have there,” said Richards.

Said District Attorney Erleigh Wiley: “It’s really an uncomfortable circumstance when victims of crime are in the hallway, many times with the defendant’s family. … That’s an ignition point that we have not always avoided.”

Wiley noted that the DA’s office currently is spread out over three floors. The new building will offer plenty of space to meet the demands of office personnel.

“For us it is going to make a tremendous difference,” she said

Sheriff Bryan Beavers said that upon completion of the Justice Center, his staff no longer will have to load 22-26 prisoners aboard a bus and drive them downtown to the courthouse day in and day out. Instead, they will be led through an en closed corridor from the jail to the courts building. That arrangement “will save me a lot of problems and I guarantee I’ll get to sleep at night a little bit more,” said Beavers.

In his remarks, Precinct 3 Commissioner Terry Barber asked people if they could hear the roar of heavy machinery nearby.

“That’s the sound of progress and growth, and that’s what’s going on in Kaufman County,” said Barber. “We can’t run away from it; it’s been coming a long time. We’ve gotten to the point where it’s on top of us. This (the Justice Center) has been needed for a long time.”