Monroe County Commissioners said the county is preparing for litigation from the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana after failing to address the deteriorating conditions of the jail.

The ACLU has granted the county multiple extensions over nearly two decades to improve conditions for inmates and build a new jail. But disagreements among Monroe County Council, commissioners and Bloomington leaders stalled recent progress. The ACLU’s deadline is Friday, and the county currently has no solid plan.

Commissioner Jody Thomas said a new lawsuit is coming “very soon.”

“To prepare, we are working with our insurance company to see if they will provide an attorney for us,” Thomas said. “We have to have counsel, and if the insurance company won't do so, we'll retain counsel.”

The County Council is expecting litigation to be “swiftly enacted” by the ACLU, president Jennifer Crossley said.

Still, Crossley said she hopes the council, commissioners and city officials can work together to find a new location for the jail.

“Let's get together and do it,” Crossley said. “We talk about it all the time, but this is one other major(way)in which we can make this happen.”

The ACLU dismissed its 2008 lawsuit against the Monroe County Sheriff Wednesday, paving the way for a new litigation. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Monroe County attorneys said they had no comment.

Meanwhile, the Monroe County jail is still overcrowded. While it can hold 235 people, officially, it currently houses more than 270. Sheriff’s Office staff also say they’re concerned about the state of the jail, especially after mold outbreaks last year.

What happens when the county misses the ACLU deadline?

Legal director Ken Falk indicated the ACLU will not agree to another extension. The last one depended on building a jail in North Park, an area near the northwest side of Bloomington.

Monroe County has already admitted problems exist with the current jail.

“There is one way out of this lawsuit, and it’s North Park, ”county commissioner Jody Madeira said.

According to Madeira, the ACLU is likely to file for summary judgment against the county as soon as possible.

“They will seek summary judgment,” Madeira said at a public meeting Tuesday. “Summary judgment isn't a request for further negotiation or dialog. It's a request for a court to decide the ultimate legal question without a trial, because the facts aren't meaningfully in dispute.”

If a summary judgement is filed, Madeira estimated the county would be back in court in about six months to a year. It’s also possible a federal judge could force the county to make changes, Madeira said.

“It is not ideal to have somebody else making local decisions,” Madeira said.

As for the people housed in the jail, Commissioner Julie Thomas speculated a judge could also remove all inmates from the jail, if there’s space in other counties. This distance could cost families and inmates more, she said. It’s uncertain how much it would cost the county.

“How much farther are they away from their defense attorneys, their public defenders?” Thomas said. “It's not a good plan.”

In April, the county council recently approved about $30,000 in funding for outside legal counsel.

What is North Park? What is the Thomson property?

County officials considered building a new 400-bed jail and justice complex in North Park. The entire justice complex would have cost more than $224 million.

Though the county initially made progress on the plan, it ended this month with the county commissioners, county council and Bloomington officials at odds.

While commissioners and Sheriff Ruben Marté voiced support for North Park, other officials strongly disagreed.

The Monroe County and Bloomington city councils criticized the location outside of Bloomington, inmates’ lack of access to social services and the project’s high price tag.

Crossley said Indiana’s recent property tax changes also played into the council’s decision to reject North Park. Like many other public entities, the county is losing revenue. That decreases the county’s bond capacity, Crossley said.

“In that particular moment some of us on the council, as fiscal stewards of taxpayers' dollars, were sitting there going, I don't think that we can afford this anymore,” Crossley said.

The county council seemed open to building a jail at a previously considered site already owned by the county: the Thomson Consumer Electronics property on South Rogers.

“I would like for us to seriously look at yet again Thomson,” Crossley said Tuesday.

But commissioners believe a jail on the Thomson property isn’t ideal. Thomas said the site would be better for housing or a mental health treatment center.

Maderia said even though the county already owns it, it may not be a quicker or cheaper project.

“There's many liabilities to Thomson we may not know of, and frankly, the cost of a lawsuit added onto Thomson might make North Park look cheap by comparison,” Madeira said.

How did the county get here?

In 2008, the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against Monroe County’s sheriff and commissioner in federal court. The ACLU said the county jail was “consistently and dangerously overcrowded” and called the conditions unconstitutional. The jail didn’t have enough beds, toilets, showers or supervision for inmates, according to the complaint.

After reaching an agreement in 2009 that recognized unconstitutional conditions in the jail, the county has worked toward building a new one. The current jail cannot be renovated, county officials said.

Since then, the ACLU granted the county multiple extensions.

The county has already considered options within city limits, such as Fullerton Pike in 2022. The plan was scrapped after Bloomington officials, including city council members, rejected it. The Thomson property was also rejected.

Commissioners and Council approved purchasing the North Park site in 2024. The project was moving forward until last fall, when the county council declined to fund the jail for the first time.

The Monroe County and Bloomington city councils have been outspoken about their opposition to the North Park site.

Despite the pushback, commissioners eventually brought North Park back to the table in April. They said it was the only way they could meet the ACLU’s deadline and avoid another lawsuit.

“This urgency comes from the human rights of the inmates in our jail, from the jail conditions, from the risks to county employees and from the risks of renewed litigation,” Madeira said in April.

But the county council’s opinions on North Park did not change. It voted against the North Park property again Tuesday.

“It is fiscally irresponsible, with a capital I, for me to continue to say, ‘let's say yes to an $11 million purchase agreement’ when we already have things that we could be using right now,” Crossley said Tuesday.

After the vote, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson seemingly walked back her support of the North Park site as well. Thomson said moving forward with the project was not a “fiscally responsible decision.”