Fulton County officials are in the process of deciding what to include or remove from plans for a new jail.
Fulton County Commissioner Bryan Lewis spoke briefly Monday about the possibility of renovating the current facility for a work release program. He noted Elevatus Architecture – the Fort Wayne-based firm contracted to design the new facility – is looking into what it would cost to renovate the now 33-year-old facility for such a program.
Presently, the county has no inmates on work release.
“Once you change something in that building, the whole thing has to be brought up to code,” Lewis said of the current jail, adding it may be more cost effective to include space for a work release program into plans for the new jail.
If the county opts to include work release into plans for the new facility, Lewis said a separate building specifically for the program would need to be built for the county to be eligible for state funding and grant opportunities. Whether the county decides to have a work release program depends on judges’ support, he said.
The county’s starting point in designing the new jail is looking at what was done in Adams County. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center, also designed by Elevatus, opened in February 2017. It is a 55,970-square-foot facility that includes a sheriff’s office and 911 operations. It has enough beds for 189 inmates, the same bed count Fulton County officials are considering.
“One thing we need to take into consideration is that’s the total bed count,” Lewis said, adding Indiana Jail Standards call for an average occupancy rate of 80 percent to allow for inmates to be properly classified and segregated.
There are several classifications for inmates that require segregation including gender, medical and mental health issues, detoxification, level of offense and disciplinary action. The recommended occupancy for a 189-bed facility would be 151 inmates.
The Fulton County Jail, which opened in 1985, is a 12,363-square-foot facility with 76 general population beds and 11 additional beds for medical, observation or holding. Based on the 80-percent occupancy rate, there should be no more than 61 inmates in the facility at a given time.
Fulton County Sheriff Chris Sailors told commissioners Monday the average daily inmate population for November was 108.
“We’re on track for an average daily population of 116 for the year, where last year it was 93,” he said. “We’re up about 24, almost 25 percent from where we were a year ago.”
Commissioners also discussed plans to include administrative offices of the sheriff’s department and 911 operations into the new facility.
“We’re looking at putting everybody in the same building,” Lewis said. “For that facility to function correctly and for the sheriff to do his job, he has to be in that jail.”
He noted commissioners also are considering adding space for a morgue and autopsy room, as well as office space for the county coroner.
He’s hopeful that in the next few weeks the county has selected a project manager and definitive plans for the new jail. He noted a site hasn’t been selected.
“We’re trying to be conservative, but we don’t want to be like Marshall or Cass County, where six or seven years down the road we’re at capacity again,” he said. “We also don’t want to build too big either. There’s a fine line there and we’re trying to find that.”
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