BLOOMINGTON — The Monroe County Board of Commissioners is asking the County Council to approve raising the current income tax by 0.2 percent to help pay for the new jail project.
At a work session Wednesday, Commissioner President Julie Thomas said the council would need to issue a $200-million bond, raising the current income tax rate to 2.2%.
Part of the request for the increase comes over concerns there isn’t enough money to fund the new jail and house a new criminal justice center, which would relocate the county prosecutor’s office and courtrooms to the same site.
“These two things cannot be done, we believe, without the imposition of the statutorily allowed 0.2 percent and the bond of 200 million,” Thomas said.
Thomas also rejected a request to renovate and repair the current jail.
“The current facility is not repairable,” Thomas said.
WHERE DOES THE JAIL PROJECT STAND?
Debate over the future Monroe County Jail has been back and forth for over a year.
The Monroe County Jail currently operates under a 2009 settlement from a lawsuit by the ACLU, which claimed the crowded conditions at the jail are unconstitutional.
As part of the settlement, which has been extended numerous times, the county must build a new jail.
There have been countless security incidents inside the jail.
In June, two inmates already in the jail for violent crimes, were charged with escaping their cell and beating fellow inmate to the point he had to be sent to the hospital.
In September, a gas leak forced the start of the facility’s evacuation plan, putting inmates on lockdown until the leak was fixed.
In July at a joint meeting, Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté warned county councilors and commissioners that the jail is at it’s breaking point.
“The staff at this point is at a maximum of what they do right now, and they are tired,” Marté said. We all want a clean, safe, and humane jail.”
In May, a jail feasibility study conducted by Fishers-based engineering consulting firm, RQAW, suggested that the county build a new facility that could house 450-500 beds while also having space available for future expansion.
The current jail fits 258 beds, but after classification of inmates, puts the jail threshold at 206. The original jail capacity was 128 beds before transitioning to a double-bunk system in the 1990s.
INTIAL PLANS FOR A NEW JAIL
According to the jail feasibility report, a new Monroe County Jail would cost upwards of $99-million for design, construction, and furniture expenses. Should plans call for a facility that would also house courtrooms, the prosecutors office, and probation department, the total cost could reach upwards of $150-million.
