One positive aspect of the debate surrounding plans for a new jail in Vigo County is the heightened civic engagement.
Public forums drew hundreds of citizens, including a turnout of more than 250 at a County Council hearing in August at Woodrow Wilson Middle School. Meetings involving the county commissioners, who oversee such plans, attracted larger and more vocal audiences than usual. Letters to the Editor continued to flow into the Tribune- Star. Residents sitting in coffee shops, diners and around kitchen tables are talking about the proposal for a $62-million jail to replace the current overcrowded facility that has been the continual target of lawsuits.
Two other developments this month reflect the civic activity spawned by the jail issue.
The decision on a local income tax increase, a portion of which would fund a new jail, rests with the County Council. That seven-member council may not vote on the tax increase until next year. The council wisely tabledthat vote last month officially because of a glitch in its language. More likely, concerns aired by citizens led to the council’s postponement of the decision and a request for the commissioners to conduct a jail needs assessment study with independent research. A needs assessment for a jail logically should precede a vote on its funding mechanism.
Such a study, along with the assembly of a criminal justice advisory committee, could take a couple months to complete. That could push a vote on the local income tax increase into 2018. The council makeup will be different by then.
Council member Kathy Chalos Miller announced Oct. 4 that she’ll resign the seat she’s held since 2006, effective immediately. Miller is a Democrat, and her party will conduct a caucus at its Terre Haute headquarters on
Monday evening to select a replacement. By the middle of last week, four residents filed applications as candidates. Interest is clearly at a high.
Also last week, Vigo County Judge Michael Rader asked the County Council for a $150,000 allotment for a comprehensive review of the county’s criminal justice system. That review would involve the hiring of an expert in the field to assess “the need for a new security center, the provision of mental health services and programs consistent with our problem-solving courts,” Rader said.
The often tense, but wide-ranging discussions — on the jail size, its overcrowding, the workload faced by the courts, and the community’s efforts to cope with addicted and mentally ill people — could result in productive steps toward solving a longstanding problem. That open study could also restore shaken public trust in the local governmental bodies. Such results would be a step forward for Vigo County.