Huntington County officials debate possible tax increase to finance overcrowded jail

Darren Bates, of Data Pit Stop, spoke along with Tina Stevens, accounts deputy from the county auditor, to tell the commissioners about a recent law put into place by state legislators. This law allows the commissioners to put a special income tax in place to help pay to build a new correctional facility.

Bates explained that the condition of this law is that they are only allowed a maximum rate of .2 percent for up to 20 years. In other words, for every $10,000 of someone’s taxable pay, $20 would be taken out of their paycheck.

He said this would generate $75,000 per year for a maximum of 20 years, if they do decide to go with the maximum rate. The thought behind this rate allowed by the state is that this amount of money may help at least fix the jail if not build a new one, which Bates said for Huntington County it may be enough to build a new one.

“Maybe that will at least help you fix your jail, and if you’re small enough maybe it’ll help you build a jail, it all depends on the county size,” he said. “The example would be Allen County Fort Wayne could never build a jail with that little bit of money because Fort Wayne is huge. But Huntington County, it sounds like Huntington County it might fit them.”

This information was brought in as an option as the commissioners go about trying to find a solution. Other options that Tom Wall mentioned they’ve been reviewing include temporary housing or portable jails. He wanted to ensure the county that the commissioners are taking the time to find the best possible option for the community.

“I think it’s awareness for the citizens of Huntington County of what dilemmas we have ahead of us -- that we didn’t just wake up today and say we’re gonna build a new jail because we want to... we’re doing our due diligence to study this, to see what the rates are, how long we have to go with this … I hate to see taxes go up, but I’m not gonna stand here and hear that criminals are out on the street because we don’t have a place for them in jail,” he explained.

The issue at the core of the jail overcrowding goes back to the state not taking in level 6 offenders..

Sheriff Terry Stoffel said on Monday they had 52 Level 6 offenders, so if the state were to take those offenders back, the jail would be okay on space.

Since Bates said he has worked with 75 of the 92 counties, Stoffel asked if there was any talk at all about the state taking Level 6 offenders back.

“Since the state has allowed you to change the structuring of the taxation because of a problem they created -- and that’s fair because essentially they have thrown it back on the citizens of Huntington to take care of the problem which they created with these Level 6’s -- is there any talk at all about them taking the level 6s back since the (Indiana Department of Correction) is basically empty down there … have you heard anything about this,” he asked.

Bates explained that as far as he could tell from what he’s heard, this would not happen any time soon and encouraged everyone present to continue badgering the state, asking them to fix the problem.

As of now, the county has had to transport prisoners to other facilities to aid with the overcrowding, but Wall said other facilities are dealing with the same issue and are getting full too.

“The sheriff is doing an awesome job getting the prisoners transported to other counties but i’m telling you, they’re getting full too. Pretty soon they’re gonna get a call saying we aren’t gonna take them anymore. And then what are we going to do?” he added.

In addition to the already present issue of overcrowding, Chief Deputy Chris Newton said projections of future crime rate also shows that the jail needs more room.

“If we build a facility even right now before we add onto our jail, by the year 2035 we’ll have to add an additional 126 just because of the projections with the crime rate and it’s not just us, every county is facing the exact same projection,” he said.

John Hacker explained that the future state of the county has to be kept in mind when making the decision with financing a solution to the jail.

“As I look at the jail situation, Huntington County is going to build a new jail someday. I won’t say it’ll be now or next year or whatever, but you gotta decide whether you’re going to be part of the future or going to be part of the past when you’re looking at this jail situation,” he said. “And what’s needed is getting all of the chains of command together and say this is what we need to do. I don’t think you’ll have any problems with the community, they know that we need something and what are they going to settle with in crime in this county?”

A decision on the special tax increase must be decided by October 31 if they hope to implement it by the first of next year.

The next commissioners meeting will be held on September 4 at 8:30 a.m.