For almost seventeen years, Monroe County government has tried to build a new jail. Now, that project is on hold. Since the statehouse changed how local government can raise money, the county sees no clear path forward.
County Council was supposed to vote last week on buying a site for a new jail north of Bloomington, fulfilling a purchase agreement it had already approved. But at the end of a seven-hour meeting, councilors unanimously voted no.
Listen: What's next for new jail after county council votes down funding?
Peter Iverson, Council President Pro Tempore, said the $225 million project was no longer feasible. Under the current jail plan, the new facility would be the biggest public project ever approved by Monroe County government.
“We need to figure out where we're going, because Indiana's Senate Enrolled Act 1 has completely changed the landscape,” he said.
That’s a law passed earlier this year limiting how much income tax county governments can spend on capital projects, such as jails. It also limits how much they can pledge toward bonds, which Monroe County planned to sell to finance the project.
Rather than move forward hoping the law will change, Iverson and his colleagues decided to play it safe.
“We all agreed that we cannot be making fiscal policy on hopes that Indianapolis is going to do something,” he said. “We have to take the current situation that we have now, the current funding that we have now, and make plans based on that.”
County Council controls the purse strings, but the Board of Commissioners manages county buildings. They’ve worked for years to reach compromises on the jail among the City of Bloomington, special interest groups and both political parties.
Commissioner Julie Thomas was hopeful the statehouse could be persuaded to change the new tax laws and is frustrated by the council’s decision to pull back.
“I don't know how those members of the legislature who were at least receptive to our plight will view this decision by the council,” she said.
Now that already slow progress has ground to a halt, the county might have to contend with the legal ramifications.
It is bound by a court order to provide better conditions for prisoners. An ACLU lawsuit in 2009 found that overcrowding and poor facilities in the old jail were unconstitutional.
If Monroe County doesn’t provide the better jail conditions required by the agreement with the ACLU, it could be compelled in court to do so. Even if the current jail’s issues with overcrowding were solved, it has recently dealt with problems stemming from humidity and leaks.
Iverson said he has discussed with the ACLU how the new law affects county plans and doesn’t think court action is likely. But Thomas isn’t so sure.
“Every year that private agreement has been extended because we have made progress, but I don't know that we can report progress,” she said.
There’s plenty of opposition to the jail project on non-financial grounds. City and business leaders don’t like the proposed location outside of Bloomington. Criminal justice activists don’t approve of the huge increase in beds.
But virtually everyone agrees that the current facility is insufficient, and if it can’t be repaired, there needs to be a solution improving the safety of staff and prisoners.
Iverson said the council is still working on that plan.
“I hope you're hearing, and what the people of Monroe County are hearing, is that we're working collaboratively on these problems,” he said. “We hit a road bump caused by the Indiana legislature, but we're not stopping.”
Thomas says she hopes all the work already done on the project won’t be tossed at this critical junction.
“I don't think anybody on the Board of Commissioners has the appetite to start at step one and go through every single step all over again,” she said.
