GREENFIELD — A plan to change a workout room into a recovery pod in the current Hancock County jail has been shut down by the Indiana Department of Correction.
The Hancock County Council learned via letter that the plan to build a new recovery pod for prisoners struggling with substance abuse was in violation of state law. The reason was, state law states that if improvements are made to any part of the jail, there must be a plan in place to bring the rest of the jail building up to code. The standards for jail facilities has changed since the current county jail was built and this renovation of a recreation room would require the county to bring the rest of the jail up to current standards.
This rule was explained to the county council during a meeting earlier this month by Kenneth Whipker, the executive liaison for the department of correction.
“You can’t just upgrade one area,” Whipker explained. “Unless there’s a plan in place for the whole building, you can’t do that.”
Councilman Jim Shelby was upset about the decision saying he had a conversation with Whipker prior to the county moving forward with the new pod and the potential violation hadn’t come up.
“I wish I would have known that at the time,” Shelby said, referencing the state law. “That was left out of our conversation.”
The county needs the DOC’s approval if it wants to avoid a potential lawsuit. Whipker told the council it could move forward with the renovation but that would be opening them up to legal trouble.
“You can do the recovery pod right now if you want, it’s your building but I won’t approve it,” he said. “And you’re going to get sued eventually.”
What exactly constitutes a plan for jail improvements is unclear, according to state law. Whipker seemed to think finalized designs and a formal plan on how to pay for a new jail would qualify and allow the county to build the new recovery pod while it waiting for a new jail building to be constructed.
Maj. Brad Burkhart, chief deputy for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, also address the council, expressing his desire to see the new jail move forward so they can get the recovery pod.
“We would like to move forward on this if we can,” Burkhart said. “There’s a possible funding mechanism from the DOJ but we need to make it clear we have a recovery pod set up.”
For now, the council decided to hold off on the recovery pod until a plan for a new jail building has been officially adopted. The council had recently approved funding for new county employees for that pod but has put those on hold as well. The budget line for those future employees will be kept in the county’s 2019 budget just in case the pod is approved down the road.