Former golf course chosen as new Vigo County jail site; question of funding now goes to county council

The commissioners submitted a request to the Vigo County Council to appropriate $510,800 for 22.21 acres near the rear of the former golf course. The request is to be considered at the council’s May 14 meeting.

“We didn’t take a vote. The consensus of the Board of Commissioners is to request the Vigo County Council appropriate the money for a jail site and a sheriff’s department site,” said commissioners President Brad Anderson.

“We are asking the council to let loose of money we have for acquisition of the property,” Anderson said.

The county has a fund that was appropriated $3 million by the council in March of 2017 from the county’s Economic Development Income Tax. More than $1 million of that fund is still available, said Vigo County Auditor Jim Bramble. The county has a $2.25 million contract for a jail design with DLZ Architects, and that contract is paid as work is completed.

Anderson said site acquisition is contingent on appropriate zoning and utility service. The site is in the city limits of Terre Haute and would require a rezoning for a jail.

An informal telephone poll of City Council members on Wednesday evening showed initial support for the former golf course site.

County commissioners were working on a deadline Wednesday, as the county the day before had told the U.S. District Court that the commissioners would select a jail site by May 1 in order to draft a resolution for consideration by the council in mid-May.

The county also promised a supplemental update to the court once a site choice was made and a resolution provided to the council. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson entered a brief order Wednesday giving the county until May 8 to file that update.

Anderson said the county will need about 17 acres for a new jail and sheriff’s department, leaving room at the site for future expansion or construction of other buildings if needed.

“The price was good. The utilities are all very close,” he said, adding the sheriff’s department will be able to transport people to the Vigo County Courthouse quickly from the proposed site.

“Nobody got exactly what they wanted. We still like the [former International Paper site] where we wanted to put it in the first place, but were not able to get that done,” Anderson said.

“We didn’t feel the downtown campus location was right for us with all the new things we are doing downtown, with beautification, with Return to the River ... it would be nice to have an open area to that,” Anderson said.

The current jail building, Anderson said, will still be used for the Vigo County Dispatch Center as well as a holding site for people to appear daily in court. Additionally, the building can be used for storage.

“We have some storage, some buildings we would like to get rid of and move our storage up there for all the court records ... that could be stored there,” Anderson said.

“This is something we had to get done for the courts — the location,” he said.

Now, he said, the next step “is up to the Council.”

But, Anderson added, if the funding is not approved and the jail project stalls, “maybe we all spend the night in jail.”

Jail plans

Commissioners were considering parcels at the golf course site, at 2900 S. Indiana 63; and on the former Honda dealership property on the southwest corner of First and Ohio streets. In the last instance, that property would have been intended for a parking lot while a new jail would have gone on the current government campus.

County officials have said that once its jail land is purchased, it will then take 90 to 180 days for a final jail design for that site. The county is working on a jail designed for 501 beds with 140,000 square feet.

The county’s consultants estimate a $60 million construction cost requiring an annual debt service of more than $5.62 million.

Annual operating and utility costs for a new Vigo County Jail are estimated to cost more than $6.89 million, an increase of more than $2.56 million over the current jail’s costs.

The lawsuit

In October 2016, Indianapolis-based attorney Michael Sutherlin filed the class-action lawsuit against on behalf of inmate Jauston Huerta and all current and future inmates of the jail, claiming the jail population regularly exceeds a 268-inmate cap set in 2002 to settle another class-action complaint regarding overcrowding.

Sutherlin — later joined by Kenneth Falk, lead attorney for the ACLU in Indiana — alleged unconstitutional conditions in the jail.

The county conceded the existence of unconstitutional conditions, and it and the inmates’ attorneys agreed on remedies, with Judge Magnus-Stinson formalizing those remedies in a court order in late February.

The federal court retains jurisdiction, with Magnus-Stinson monitoring Vigo County’s progress on building a new jail. The county is required to provide the court with monthly updates on its progress.