Where? How big? Budget? Monroe County still has no plan for new jail

Weary of all talk and no progress toward building a new Monroe County jail , Sheriff Ruben Marté and his staff challenged county officials in charge of the project to stand in their shoes.

Here, Marté said. See if you can figure out how to safely house 230 prisoners in an unsafe, falling-apart facility with no extra space.

The afternoon of July 11, the sheriff, chief deputy, jail commander and members of his staff presented the three commissioners and seven council members with real-life scenarios from a typical day at the jail earlier this year.

They reviewed a graph projected onto a screen that showed the classifications for all 230 people housed at the jail that day.

Inmates are evaluated as minimum, medium or maximum security. Men and women must be segregated. Sex offenders must be separated from others. People with serious mental and physical health issues — who make up 40% of prisoners locally — have to be away from others. People who are violent or cause disruptions can’t be in regular cellblocks. Juveniles can’t be within sight or hearing distance of other prisoners.

The jail population was 230 that day, fewer than the cap set in a 2009 lawsuit settlement in which the ACLU threatened to sue the county unless a new and bigger jail is built.

The jail commander handed over an interactive pointer and challenged the elected officials to match the people in the jail with the available cellblocks and resources.

After a half hour of scrutiny and failed attempts, they couldn’t do it. There were 30 prisoners with nowhere to be because of classification realities.

“That whole exercise was to get you to see that with this kind of population, it is just not manageable,” chief deputy Phil Parker said, unless the county builds a jail with more than 400 beds . Jail consultants have recommended up to 525. They say "functional capacity" of a jail should be 80% of available beds.

“We have been here a year and seven months now and we are still here talking about this," Parker said. "We are barely closer to construction than we were on Jan. 1, 2023.”

Long delays, no progress 15 years after ACLU agreement

Fifteen years since the 2009 handshake with the ACLU, there’s still no site, no agreement on bed count — 300? 500? — and no financial plan to pay for the project. Plans for the new jail have stalled, more than once .

ACLU director Ken Falk agreed to put off pursuing the lawsuit as long as the county is actively moving toward building a facility to replace a nearly 40-year-old jail with living conditions the ACLU described as “inhumane, unsanitary, dangerous and harsh.”

Last week’s jail presentation reminded commissioners and council members they can’t choose to do nothing. Plans must move forward. The sheriff highlighted a portion of the 2009 deal with the ACLU.

“The parties further agree that should Monroe County construct a new jail with a larger capacity this agreement shall terminate when the inmate population is moved to such new jail.”

A committee of elected officials and county government stakeholders coordinating ideas for a new jail met regularly for nearly two years before the commissioners disbanded it in the spring of 2023 for lack of progress.

But they had accomplished one goal, putting forth a timeline forecasting the new jail might be completed in 2026. The site was to be secured by the end of 2022, the design and funding package would be completed in 2023 and construction was scheduled to begin this year.

None of those things have happened. During Thursday’s joint meeting, Parker said the opening of a new jail is at least five years out, maybe longer.

He said no one involved in the jail discussions since Marté took office in January 2023 would have expected such lack of progress, that “a year and a half later, we’d be sitting here stuck in the mud,” Parker said. “It’s really time we start making some decisions.”

Marté said dangerous conditions at the current jail keep him awake at night, worried a jailer or inmate could get hurt or killed.

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“Please take this to heart. We’ve got to move. We know what we’re talking about. We live this every day. I implore you to please, please act now.”

Whatever happens and when, taxpayers will bear cost

People working in Monroe County could soon be paying more in income tax to help fund the new jail.

In June, the county’s financial advisor suggested officials increase the current 0.01% public safety local income tax to the maximum 0.2% allowed by law.

The tax hike would raise an additional $8 million a year for the jail project.

During their June 25 meeting, county council members reviewed cost projections and financing options for a new jail and a possibly adjacent justice center.

But the first half hour of the meeting unfolded as a 9-part dramatic parody performed by people who oppose the county’s plan for a new jail. A group called Care Not Cages advocates refurbishing the current jail and redirecting the millions of dollars for a new facility toward programs to help people instead of incarcerating them.

Each participant, some wearing costumes and one pretending to be a cow whose farm became the jail site, used their three minutes of public comment time to portray a character from 2044. The theatrical performance looked back two decades, updating current county officials in charge of the jail project how “successful” it was.

Their tone was sarcastic and mocking. County council president Trent Deckard thanked each one for their comments when their three minutes were up.

The price of the jail project can’t be determined until county officials decide where to build the jail, how big it should be and whether courts and related offices will be co-located at a site that hasn’t even been selected.

After several years of studies, meetings and visits to newly built jails in the state and around the country, the county commissioners last month relegated the job of deciding the scope of the project to the county council.

During a June meeting in Ellettsville about a proposed site just northwest of Bloomington, commissioners’ president Julie Thomas said the size of the jail will be determined by the council since they will decide how much to spend.

Up until then, the commissioners had been visiting other jails and discussing bed count, jail size and amenities during their meetings.

But Thomas batted the bed count decision to the county council, saying since they will determine how much to spend they should decide how big to build.

Parker, the sheriff’s department chief deputy, is tired of what he called the “no-budget-no-bed-count, no-bed-count-no-budget” debate that's at the core of the current standstill. "The time to act," Parker said, "is now."

Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Where? How big? Budget? Monroe County still has no plan for new jail