BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Monroe County Commissioners could pick a site for the location of a new county jail as early as late August.
Sharing calculations for the potential added costs of delaying a decision, commissioner Penny Githens said the county can't afford to wait any longer.
“We cannot continue to put this off,” Githens said. “We need to figure out where it’s going. We can’t move forward without it.”
Throughout the jail site search, commissioners have looked at three possible locations: Fullerton Pike, the old Thomson Consumer Electronics plant site, and the North Park property on Hunter Valley Road near Interstate 69 and State Road 46 on the northwest side of Bloomington.
Right now, commissioners are focused on and leaning towards the North Park property.
NORTH PARK
The North Park site is the only site proposal that is outside of the city limits and is expected to cost the county just over $11 million to purchase.
Githens expects a rezone of the property would be approved quickly, preventing additional expenses from delays.
One restriction on the North Park site, however, is the seller of the site wants construction on a new justice center campus to start within one year of the start of construction of the new jail.
Commissioners already received phase I of a report examining the site, with that report focused historical use of the property and an inspection of the site. The commissioners approved phase II of the report, which conducts an environmental study.
“We have not yet selected a location because we are still waiting for some more information," Monroe County Commissioners President Julie Thomas said. "The Phase II environmental report has not come in yet.”
The report results could be available to the county within the next few weeks.
While the North Park site appears to be at the top of the leaderboard for potential jail sites, commissioners still have numbers for the two other properties:
FULLERTON PIKE
The 87-acre Fullertron Pike property on the edge of the city limits on the southwest side would cost $10 million to purchase.
The Bloomington City Council denied a rezoning request for the property in December.
If commissioners took a second attempt at selecting the property, it would require another rezoning request to the city—one that isn't guaranteed to be approved and could add up to another year of delays.
Those delays could cost up to $10 million, meaning the cost of just the property alone would be $20 million.
THOMSON
Since Monroe County already owns the Thomson property, Githens estimates it would cost roughly $1 million to purchase additional smaller properties surrounding the site, and another $6.5 million to remove debris and reroute high-voltage power lines—tasks that require approval from Duke Energy and add a minimum of two and a half years of delays.
The costs of those delays could top $25 million and push the total cost of just the jail site to $32 million.
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.
Just last week 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.
“I implore you: please, please, please, please act now because there’s nothing else we could do,” Marté said.
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.
