In 1971, voters elected Mayor Ralph Perk, who accepted the police department recommendation to move to the proposed Justice Center.

[1] A suburban location was considered for the facility, but county officials found it was cheaper to demolish two older structures next to the Justice Center.

Determined to avoid cost overruns on the structure, Jail II was left without stone cladding—which made it clash with the three buildings beside it.

[1] Jail II was harshly criticized by Steven Litt in The Plain Dealer as "straight out of 1984" and for clashing with historic structures in the nearby Warehouse District.

[3] The atrium helps resolve ground-level changes at the site, and connects the Courts Tower, Police Headquarters, and Correction Center (Jail I) structures internally.

[3] The bases of both the Cleveland Police Headquarters and the Correction Center are deeply recessed with a regular spacing of bays and perimeter columns.

[6] In 2013, Cuyahoga County officials commissioned a study from Osborn Engineering to assess the condition of the Justice Center Complex.

But county officials emphasized that no alternative site had been identified, and no budget proposals or even preliminary architectural discussions had occurred.

The season opens with a general description of day-to-day lives inside the complex and then focuses on specific felony cases being handled and occasionally tried in the building.

Several of the audio recordings take place inside the complex and feature the host, Sarah Koenig, discussing and interviewing those involved in the cases.

The distinctive black steel tube-like public art on the courthouse plaza outside the main entrance cannot be mistaken for any other building in the world.