JASPER — An assessment has found that the Dubois County Security Center is not meeting the county’s needs.
It also found that most of the inmates in the facility have substance abuse problems, mental health problems, or both. And, a majority of them are repeat offenders.
Those problems need to be addressed, the assessors who reviewed the county’s justice system said this morning.
“The majority are repeat offenders and the majority are in there for drug charges,” April Pottorff said, “and that’s telling.”
Pottorff and Joe Fenton, representatives of the National Institute of Corrections, toured the security and community corrections center Wednesday. They also reviewed data and interviewed on Wednesday and Thursday the staff in those departments as well as in other departments in the justice system, like probation, prosecutor, 911 dispatch and the courts.
This morning, the duo presented their findings and talked with officials about the next steps to address the problems.
The security center, which was constructed in 1990, is outdated, Pottorff said. The original capacity of the jail was 46 beds, but has been expanded to the 84 beds that are now in the center. State guidelines stipulate that the rated capacity of the center is 67 beds, and when the center passes that number, the state considers it to be overcrowded.
Fenton said changes are needed so that the different types of offenders can be kept separate to reduce conflict.
The average daily population in the security center in the last 10 years has been more than the rated capacity. The average for this year is 84; the average was 78 for 2016 and 70 for 2013 through 2015.
Sheriff Donny Lampert noted that around 2010 and 2011, the center started doing more evening treatment programs, which he said contributed to the decrease in the population after that. But when the state changed the classification of offenses in 2015, offenses that would have been a higher felony were made to be a D felony. And with that, the state decided that it would not take those felonies into the state system. So those offenders stayed in the county security system.
Fenton noted that the center has seen peak populations that have passed 100 inmates.
“You have to find a place to put those people, and at times, that has been on the floor,” he said.
The security center has space to do more programming to help inmates deal with their issues. That programming would likely help curb the population. However, there isn’t enough staff to move and monitor inmates as they participate those programs. At least eight staff members are needed, Pottorff said, to help handle moving inmates to treatment programs that could be offered at the facility.
“You talk about helping inmates getting treatment,” she said, “but inmates are not getting the treatment while in jail.”
A plan for treatment “begins with admission, you start a treatment plan when they come in,” she said. “When they move into community corrections, they continue that treatment.”
Lampert agreed that more programming is needed in the security center. “We keep continuously being in the same rut. Let’s make a change,” he said. “There are a lot of people in jail. How can we help them help themselves?”
Fenton and Pottorff said the security center is clean and does well with maintenance. The different departments in the system work well together, which is positive. “Everyone shares the goal and wants to work together to help inmates,” Fenton said.
He said the community corrections program is used well. “If you didn’t have this facility, you would have already been building a new jail,” he said.
But, Pottorff said the security center itself is obsolete. “It was obsolete the day it was built,” she said. “There are more modern designs that work better.”
She added that the ability to see inside cells and shared day rooms is limited for staff and that the community corrections center has a better design in which officers can see the entire room when looking in.
”Things are happening behind closed doors and you can’t see,” she said about the security center. “Officers don’t have direct line of sight. Officers can look into a cell through an opening. But they have to go into the cell to completely see everything.”
Pottorff said the facility looks like it was designed by a company that doesn’t normally design jail facilities. “If you go forward with a building, it’s important that you engage someone that has experience with these facilities,” she said.
The facility also needs more space for staff to work. A bigger medical room is also needed.
Pottorff said there are other security issues that she did not want to share publicly; she will discuss those directly with Lampert.
The community corrections center was also discussed some. While it is designed well, the facility has only one entry for public and program participants. Usually, facilities have separate entrances for these groups, Pottorff said.
Also, there needs to be a more controlled place for patting down participants, she noted. Currently, that is done in the lobby, which is where the public also sits. More space for staff is also needed.
Pottorff and Fenton noted that between 85-98 people were in the community corrections each month between October 2016 to November 2017. Those are people that, if the county didn’t have community corrections, would have likely been in jail. Pottorff said that community corrections is state funded. The county may want to look at seeing if it could partner more with the state to utilize the program more. “Maybe you could work with the state so that you add money in this and put more people in this,” which would be cheaper than adding to the jail, she said.
“But it depends on the kind of inmates you have to see if that could be done,” Pottorff said. “So you need to start collecting more data now on your inmates, to see if that could be a solution.”
Fenton said that more data definitely needs to be collected about the population that goes through the system.
“You need a broader set of data to understand your needs,” he said.
At the end of the meeting, the different groups talked about the next steps which included collecting more specific data on the participants in the system and having a more in-depth assessment of the county’s needs.
The National Institute of Corrections was formed in 1974 and is funded through the federal Bureau of Prisons. The resources NIC provide — including technical assistance, programs and training — are free to jurisdictions.
“This is not intended to be an in-depth needs assessment,” Fenton said. “It’s an overall look at what’s going on in your justice system. The jail is why we are here, that you have some crowding issues. But the jail is a part of the justice system. All parts of the justice system feeds into the jail.”
He and Pottorff said the county should form a committee of local officials and community members to look at the needs outlined in the assessment. Fenton plans to have a full written report to the county by January. Those interested in being a part of the committee should contact the county commissioners, county council or sheriff.