Building the new Monroe County Jail will take a few more years, but plans are moving forward now that a site has been selected and a funding plan is in place.
Plans call for the jail to be built in North Park off I-69 approaching Ellettsville. Monroe County Councilmember Trent Deckard said the county couldn’t continue to “kick the can down the road.”
“Really, this site became, slowly, the site that if we’re going to do this in any of our lifetimes, we’ve got to do it now. We knew we couldn’t delay,” Deckard told WFIU/WTIU News.
Deckard said funding will come from a correctional tax, which the county council is allowed to implement under state law.
Deckard also said project planners are using the new IU Health hospital project for inspiration.
“I think there’s lessons learned from that,” he said. “Logistically, we certainly were thinking about how our hospital suffers from bed size right now. That has been a constant discussion we’ve had with our sheriff.”
Deckard said the goal of the new jail should be to educate and rehabilitate inmates while avoiding past issues like overcrowding.
“This is not just a build it to fill it, this is a build it to have an education space,” he said.
Deckard expects construction to wrap up by February of 2029.
CORRECTION: The photo with the approximate location of the new jail has been updated.