7/21/2006
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Mayor, Sheriff tab funding source for 200 more jail beds
$1.5 million funding solution clears way for purchase of beds at Marion County facility; Move brings total cells added between 2003 and 2007 to more than 700
INDIANAPOLIS – Mayor Bart Peterson and Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson today announced a funding solution that clears the way for the purchase of 200 more jail beds to ease the ongoing problem of jail overcrowding in Marion County. The funding plan must be approved by the Criminal Justice Planning Council and Indianapolis City-County Council.
City-County Council President Monroe Gray has endorsed the move and said he will ensure the funding plan is heard and voted on at the next City-County Council meeting on August 7.
To cover the $1.5 million cost of leasing 200 additional beds now available at the privately operated Marion County Jail II facility at 730 E. Washington Street 200 new beds, the city will structure a $1 million loan using city fund balances from the sanitation service district fund, and the Sheriff will contribute $500,000 from the county's jail commissary fund.
The purchase of new beds at Jail II is in addition to the 125 beds that are currently opening up at the Marion County Jail after the transfer of non-violent female inmates to the privately-run correctional center, Liberty Hall. An additional 125 beds are set to open at Liberty Hall by the beginning of next year, bringing the total number of new jail beds infused into the system since 2003 to more than 700.
The plan will pay for leasing beds at Jail II for six months. The half-year jail bed contract will provide time for more efficiencies to be instituted in the Marion County court system to speed up trials and the transfer of inmates from local jail cells to state prisons.
While approval from the City-County Council and the Criminal Justice Planning Council is pending, the Sheriff will move forward with making arrangements with Community Corrections of America, the company that operates Jail II, so that the jail beds are ready to come online immediately after the funding is appropriated by the council.
"Through the bipartisan efforts of the Criminal Justice Planning Council, we have spent more then $15 million to fix our broken criminal justice system and speed up the entire judicial process. That work on long-term, system-wide solutions must continue," Mayor Peterson said. "But right now, we need to work together to do everything humanly possible to quell the early release of dangerous criminals back into our community, and these additional jail beds should provide some relief in the short-term."
"We have worked long and hard on this issue of jail overcrowding in a very bipartisan way, and the purchase of 200 beds at Jail II is another example of that," Sheriff Anderson said. "We all have to do our part system-wide to address this very serious issue."
Peterson agreed, reiterating that the entire criminal justice system must do more immediately to speed the progress of fixing systemic problems.
"If cases remained clogged in the judicial system due to inefficient use of court space, and if we continue to let convicted inmates languish in our jail before shipping them off to state prison, we'll fill up these 200 new beds and be right back where we started. That can't happen," the Mayor said.
Last month, 477 inmates were released early from the jail because of crowding – the second highest jail release total in at least six years.
The Mayor made clear that funding the 200 new beds will have a direct financial impact on the county's cash-strapped budget heading into the 2007 budget cycle.
"The purchase of these jail beds makes a difficult financial situation even tougher," Peterson said. "But without question, this is the right thing to do. Public safety is the number one priority. We need these beds in place immediately, and we must continue to push ahead with getting our criminal justice system running more efficiently and effectively. That is the best way to solve jail overcrowding."
Council President Monroe Gray agreed noting, "If we can reduce the average length of stay in our jail by just 10 percent, we could end early releases from jail."
The Mayor thanked members of the Criminal Justice Planning Council, including and Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, Marion County Superior Court Judge Cale Bradford, Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler, Sheriff Anderson, City Controller Bob Clifford, Council President Gray, Public Safety Director Earl Morgan, City-County Council Minority Leader Phil Borst, Marion County Public Defender Dave Cook, and City-County Councillor Mary Moriarty-Adams for their hard work and dedication to fixing the criminal justice system.
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