Perry County is inviting the public to attend the official dedication and commemoration of the new Perry County Joint Justice Center (PCJJC) located at 400 W. St. Joseph St. in Perryville. Because the original date for the grand opening of the PCJJC planned for January had to be canceled due to winter weather, the event has been rescheduled to 10 a.m. Saturday, March 22.
The approximately 6,377-square-foot basement houses Emergency Management and the Emergency Operation Center, as well as storage for the facility's departments, the mechanical and technology room, and maintenance operations.
The first floor, which is around 38,025 square feet, is the new home for the Perryville Police Department, Perry County Sheriff’s Department, coroner, meeting and training spaces, jail intake and support, employee breakroom, law enforcement locker room, and additional law enforcement support spaces and public restrooms.
The approximately 17,548-square-foot second floor houses the prosecuting attorney’s office, the Perry County Circuit Clerk’s office, and office space for circuit and associate court judges. It also houses court record storage, two large courtrooms with trial capacity, a law library, public attorney-client rooms, jury rooms and public restrooms.
The Perry County Commission and the Perryville Board of Aldermen decided to construct the state-of-the-art facility to better meet the needs of county and city departments and offices housed there while increasing operational efficiencies.
The commission unanimously approved an order in December 2020 to place a referendum question on the April 2021 ballot, asking whether county residents wanted to impose a capital improvements sales tax of half of 1 percent for 20 years to fund a new joint justice center.
On April 6, 2021, Perry County’s registered voters approved, by better than 62.6 percent, the Proposition C.O.P.S. ballot measure, which approved the construction of the PCJJC.
The PCJJC's groundbreaking was held on Jan. 29, 2024, and the project moved swiftly from that day forward. The various departments and courts began moving into the PCJJC after the first of the year.
“It’s impressive, it really is,” said Presiding Commissioner Mike Sauer. There’s nothing like it in Perry County. I don’t think there are a lot of places like it anywhere else. A few new jails have been built in other places, combining a few things, but I don’t think anybody has jails, courtrooms, and all this other stuff in it. We know nobody is doing the sheriff’s department and city police. It’s taken a lot to get here.
