The Wabash County Jail is above its rated capacity 100 percent of the time and has been since at least 2016. Staff Photo by Rob Burgess
The lawsuit filed earlier this year regarding overcrowding in the Wabash County Jail continues after the court asked for additional evidence of class certification.
The lawsuit was filed in February in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana South Bend Division by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on behalf of Wabash County Jail inmates Jerry Copeland, John Whitt and James Dutton against Wabash County and Wabash County Sheriff Ryan Baker.
On Monday, Ken Falk, legal director at the ACLU of Indiana, said they had sought class certification in the case, but that they “had not presented enough evidence to demonstrate that.”
“But they gave us the opportunity to submit more evidence which we are in the process of collecting. So, the case is definitely proceeding,” said Falk.
The ACLU of Indiana has filed overcrowding lawsuits in more than a dozen county jails, including six ongoing cases in Allen, Gibson, Henry, Marshall, Vigo and Wabash counties, and one case open for monitoring in Monroe County.
“It is funny because I’ve done 20, 30 jail cases. I’ve done so many that I’ve actually gone back now to do second-generation (lawsuits) against people I’ve sued before. And almost invariably, no one is surprised, I mean no one comes in and says, ‘We have a perfect jail. What are you talking about?’ Everyone knows there’s a problem, but no one gets elected to office saying we need a spanking new jail,” said Falk.
The Wabash County Jail regularly houses more than 100 persons and the membership of the proposed class is constantly changing as prisoners enter and leave the facility. The current jail was constructed in 1979, with some renovations in 2006. The jail contains 72 permanent, operational beds. The jail is linear in structure, with various sized cell blocks containing individual cells and a small area outside of the cells that contains tables and chairs, known as a “day room.” The cells that are designed to house more than one prisoner have two beds, arranged on top of one another like bunk beds.
Under Indiana law, county jails are periodically inspected by Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) jail inspectors. The most recent inspection of the jail was conducted in February 2019. At the time of the February inspection of the jail, the DOC’s jail inspector noted that on the day of inspection the jail exceeded its rated capacity and that there was not a bed for all the prisoners. At the time of the inspection, the jail housed 108 inmates, and an additional 64 inmates were being temporarily housed out of the county.
Wabash County Commissioners have in public meetings indicated that the jail is chronically overcrowded and that the county urgently needs a new jail. During one such meeting in October 2019, Baker was given unanimous approval by the commissioners for an interlocal governmental agreement with Elkhart County to house Wabash County Jail inmates at a rate of $40 per day through the end of 2020. County Attorney Steve Downs had previously given his approval to the agreement. At the time, Baker said the county routinely sends inmates to both Miami and Elkhart counties “because we have more prisoners than beds.”
The Wabash County Jail is above its rated capacity 100 percent of the time and has been since at least 2016.
Baker said they do not comment on current or pending litigation.
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