During the day-to-day drama in his courtroom, Judge Robert Bruce Spencer Jr. would peer over half-frame reading glasses as he heard cases from speeding tickets to landlord-tenant disputes. “When those glasses would slide to the tip of his nose, lawyers and defendants knew there was going to be trouble,“ said his son, Robert Bruce Spencer III of Powhatan County.

A plan to build a $100 million regional jail for Brunswick, Dinwiddie and Mecklenburg counties would alleviate the need for inmate space in all three localities dealing with overcrowded and inadequate local jails, local officials said. The regional jail, which has been in the planning stages for nearly four years and was originally estimated to cost $150.2 million, will help the counties save money and will make the jail system more efficient in all three jurisdictions.