Local officials expect new jail in two years will relieve current over-crowded conditions

The Decatur County Jail was originally built to serve 66 inmates. Accommodations were later made to increase that number to 85.

Decatur County Prosecutor Nathan Harter reported these numbers to the public last week. Harter said he recently received a call from Decatur County Jail Commander Tony Blodgett in regards to concerns about the current jail overcrowding. 

Harter explained there have been conversations as to what the jail population should be, while also focusing on keeping the community safe and making the criminal justice system function more efficiently.

“We’ve taken some big steps toward making that right here in Decatur County,” Harter said. “We’re on pace to build a new jail. It’s due to be finished in approximately two years, and it’s going to house 246 people if it’s built as currently planned. I have made no secret of the fact that I think it should have been built for 300 or more based on our arrest numbers and our conviction rates and our need to include in that facility treatment beds and space for nonprofits, churches and so on, to also be present in the facility and help our inmates get their feet back under them.”

With approximately 145 inmates in the Decatur County Jail as of last week, Blodgett said they weren’t projected to hit such numbers for another five years.

“The jail that we’re building is designed to be built for a 20-year plan,” Blodgett said. “The company that we utilized to predict how far or how much we needed to build, in a graph that they had provided to us 2-and-a-half years ago, the numbers that we’re sustaining in Decatur County Jail now we weren’t projected to hit until 2023. We’re well above the projection of that, so I think that we’re certainly going to need 230 beds, or more than the 246 beds well before the projected 20-year lifespan of the jail.”

Blodgett also spoke about searching for solutions.

“Me and my staff have been working for the last 18 months to find numerous ways to try to take care of the problem until we get a new jail,” Blodgett said. “Some of those ways are through community corrections placement, some of those ways are through various different bonds, and some of those ways are to call other counties and see if they can host or house inmates for us.”

However, currently, Blodgett said they’ve yet to find any Indiana counties willing to house Decatur County Jail inmates. Blodgett said while there has been a lot of effort put in by everyone to build a new jail to help deal with the accommodations, those efforts won’t come to fruition for another two years.

“Myself and the judges and the prosecutors have been in conversation for approximately the last 18 months to try to keep the inmate population in Decatur County at an acceptable level,” Blodgett said. “We talk every two or three months. I call and we kind of review the list and there is constant debate as to who should and shouldn’t be here based off not just the danger to the public, but also the overcrowding issue and the things that come with that. We’re constantly trying to weigh the two.”

As of now, the jail overcrowding could cause safety concerns for both inmates and Decatur County Jail employees. Blodgett said typically there are four to five active guards on duty.

“The most difficult part is providing services and trying to keep the morale of the inmates where it needs to be and where they’re safe,” Blodgett said. “When we start putting more people into a room than there’s supposed to be, tempers start to flare and personalities start to clash and it becomes very difficult for us to control, if not almost impossible to control. So, that’s the daily struggle over here is trying to keep everybody calm and keeping the jail safe, keeping the inmates safe and staff safe.”

Similar to Blodgett, Harter said between now and when the new jail is built, discussions are needed in regards to who is in the jail and who is not and how those decisions are made. He added that discussions are also needed to help the public and political leaders understand the decision-making process.

The county prosecutor said in many jurisdictions, numbers usually work to show approximately 15 percent of individuals with ongoing criminal cases sit in jail.

“We have around 1,800 open cases – 1,850 open cases – and we have 145 people that are in the jail with a lot more out on pre-trial, house arrest, as well as post-conviction house arrest, probation and so on,” Harter said.

Harter mentioned there are some questions pertaining to the ratio of open cases to the number of those incarcerated at the local jail and whether the ratio should change and if they’re jailing too many people.

“I would submit to you that we are not,” Harter said. “I really don’t think that we are. Part of my job every day is to analyze whether somebody ought to be in jail or whether they ought to be at home with some level of supervision because they’re not going to hurt themselves or other people.”

Harter believes they are arresting and holding the right people. He also indicated the number of misdemeanants being held in the local jail is small. Harter listed off a number of serious cases at the jail, such as individuals with cases involving murder and child molestation.

“As you go through the list, you don’t find many people you’d like to have released in your neighborhood in Greensburg or out in Decatur County,” Harter said.

There are also systemic issues about what needs to be done to ensure people being held are being held constitutionally and safely, and law enforcement morale and public safety perception remain strong, Harter said.

“I think that’s a valuable conversation for us to have,” Harter said. “It’s one that the public deserves to be part of.”

As for Blodgett, he extended a message to Decatur County.

“I think we’re well on our way with change,” Blodgett said. “All officials are looking at the process extensively – they really are. I think my one message would be to the public to become more informed and more involved in the process. There’s been a lot of options put out on the board. Currently, there are discussions about building a temporary facility at the jail to get us through to the new jail, and of course, that costs money. My message would be more to the public to make sure they try to understand what they can with what is going on at the jail and what the options are, whether it’s to increase the capacity or release more people.”