At one time the Daviess County Jail was black hole where officials were throwing money and getting very little in return. It all came during what officials call the “meth wave” that caught southwestern Indiana in the late 1990s. At the time, Daviess County had a 36-bed jail that officials thought would serve their needs for 100 years.
“When I first went into office, we had around 30 to 36 prisoners in our jail,” said Daviess County Sheriff Jerry Harbstreit. “Then the meth wave hit. The next thing I knew we had a cap of 36 in the jail as a result of an agreement with the ICLU, (Indiana Civil Liberties Union) and 119 inmates being housed in other counties. It was costing us around $800,000 a year just to house them.”
The crowding crisis led the county to begin looking at a way to build a new jail. At first, the county looked at a jail with 150 beds, but wound up building one that can hold around 260.
“There were some who were worried that if we built a 150 bed jail that it would be full before we could open it,” said Harbstreit. “They had the architects look at how they could make it bigger on that site. I think we know now that we made a good decision. We should be in good shape for a long time.”
Since the $14 million facility opened in 2004, Daviess County has kept its inmate population at home. “I think our jail payment was running just about what we were paying out to other counties to house our prisoners,” said Harbstreit. “Only instead of taking it out of the General Fund, we were paying it off with that small local option income tax.”
The opening of the new jail also changed the status of Daviess County from one that was sending out prisoners to one that was taking in the overflow from other counties.
“The first month our jail opened, they had a fire in the Vanderburgh County jail,” said Harbstreit. “Brad Ellsworth was the sheriff down there then and he asked me to take some of his prisoners. Right off the bat, we had our 119 prisoners, 50 from Evansville and 30 from the Department of Correction.”
Those imported inmates came with rent from the state and other overcrowded counties. The first three years in operation, the Daviess County jail put more than $1 million a year back into the county general fund. “It slowed down as some other counties built new facilities but we still bring in about $500,000 a year for holding prisoners from other counties,” said Harbstreit. “We still hold some for Vanderburgh County because when they built their new jail, it was full the day they opened it.”
Harbstreit wrapped up his first two terms in office right about the time the new jail was opening. After four years as a deputy, he ran again and is now wrapping up a second term in office just as the county is paying off the building. “They paid this off about 10 years early and that’s a good thing,” said Harbstreit. “I’m thankful that I got to be the sheriff both at the beginning and now that it is being paid off. It’s an honor to know it happened while I was there.”
Harbstreit is scheduled to retire when his term wraps up next year. He says he would like to hold a mortgage burning ceremony once the income tax comes off the books in January.