Criminal justice reform advocates await vote to end ankle monitor fees

Marion County leaders are considering options to reduce the costs associated with incarceration, but whether those efforts land in next year’s budget remains to be seen.

Among the considerations is the complete removal of electronic monitoring fees — which would mean the county would lose about $2.5 million annually that is currently collected.

Local corrections leaders and local advocacy groups have signaled support for the change, but the decision ultimately lies with the Indianapolis City-County Council, which sets the budget for community corrections.

“Do I think it’s worth the investment? Yes,” said Scott Hohl, the executive director of Marion County Community Corrections, which oversees electronic monitoring supervision. “That’s my argument, and I feel that’s true.”

In June, Hohl, along with Democratic Sheriff candidate Kelvis Williams, committed to helping pave the way toward a less costly justice system at a prison reform event hosted by the Validus Movement, a branch of Live Free Indiana that supports formerly incarcerated individuals reentering society. At the event, Williams, a career law enforcement leader and current member the Marion County Sheriff’s Office’s executive staff, emphasized that the office would do its best to reduce the price of items charged to inmates.

And Hohl said he is prepared to commit to proposing to the City-County Council a complete elimination of electronic monitoring fees — even if it meant $2.5 million to $3 million in expenses.

As Hohl prepares to present his proposal to the council later this month, members of the Validus Movement appear optimistic for the next budget year.

“This is one of the biggest changes Indianapolis will have seen in over a decade,” said Josh Riddick, an organizer for Live Free Indiana.

Although Hohl also hoped to see the changes, he was more reluctant to say whether the council would go for it.

“Do I think it’s doable? Yes,” Hohl said. “Do I think it’s likely? I mean, I don’t play poker because I’m terrible at it, so … I can’t put odds on things, but you know, I’d say it’s probably 50–50 at best.”

Leaders are also considering eliminating fees associated with drug testing and granting inmates phone calls that are free or cost less.

Leroy Robinson, chair of the City-County Council’s Public Safety and Community Justice Committee, said through a spokesperson that he supports efforts that reduce unnecessary financial barriers for individuals working to comply with court-ordered supervision and successfully reintegrate into the community.

A question of investment

Since Hohl became the executive director of Marion County Community Corrections, the fee individuals have been required to pay for electronic monitoring supervision has steadily decreased.

What was originally an inconsistent system, in which monitored persons with similar financial or family situations might pay very different fees for their supervision, has now become a more consistent program, Hohl said.

Currently, monitored individuals will pay a $50 installation charge plus up to $8 per day of supervision — with exceptions based on individual factors, such as family and income statuses. There might also be fees for damaged equipment or replacements.

This means that an individual on electronic monitoring for a year — including those who have not yet been to trial — might be charged up to nearly $3,000 for the supervision.

“We always know that any kind of fees that you put on an individual just make it that much more difficult for them to be successful,” Hohl said. “And whether that’s a user fee, whether that’s fees for treatment or drug testing costs, whatever it might be, because our clients are no different than when you think about the average person in the community. We’re struggling with gas costs, home costs. Am I making enough of work and all this? Well, now you multiply that by 10, 100, 1,000 for someone that has committed an offense and now has ‘felon’ attached to their name. It just makes it that much harder for them.”

Validus Movement also recognized that challenge.

“The monetary costs of being incarcerated were something that really jumped out more than anything,” Riddick said, adding that they were inhibiting people’s ability to re-enter society successfully.

Nancy Cotterill, co-founder of 2nd Chance Indiana, a nonprofit reentry support organization in Indianapolis, believes it would be a smart fiscal strategy to help those incarcerated find ways back into the community without additional financial burdens imposed by the system.

“If we can release people and get them successfully back working, being with their families, and paying taxes, it has got to benefit the state in the long run,” Cotterill said.

And that’s one reason Hohl believes the $2.5 million cost risk is one the City Council should take.

“It’s not just what are we spending on this side of the equation by covering that fee,” Hohl said. “It’s if that person is now successful, what are we not paying for in the future because they’re not coming back into community corrections, into the jail, into prison?”

Law enforcement weigh in

While community corrections has authority over electronic monitoring and drug testing for those recently released or on probation, how inmates are treated inside the jail ultimately falls on the elected sheriff.

For Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal, incarceration costs have been at the “forefront” of his mind this year.

In August 2025, Forestal, a Democrat, released a statement criticizing the Indiana Department of Correction’s failure to adequately reimburse the county for holding its prisoners. A year later, he still appears frustrated.

“While it costs Marion County $85 per day to incarcerate an individual, the State only pays a per diem of $42.50,” Forestal told The Indiana Lawyer in a lengthy statement last week.

State law requires the IDOC to pick up its prisoners within five days, but if it fails to, then it will reimburse counties.

Forestal has maintained that Marion County consistently holds more detainees than its facility can adequately care for, and this year is notably high.

According to a recent Marion County Sheriff’s Office Adult Detention Center inmate count chart, which the Sheriff’s Office provided, the facility can hold a capacity of 2,985 inmates. But as of July 30, there were 2,506 — 84% full.

The Adult Detention Center is considered in “crisis capacity mode” when it reaches 80% capacity.

According to the chart, the facility has consistently been in crisis mode since July 2025.

While Forestal did not address Hohl’s proposal to end electronic monitoring fees — saying the fees fall outside the Marion County Sheriff’s Office budget — he did confirm that commissary costs are under review to “maintain competitive pricing of products for sale to inmates.”

A recently announced contender for Marion County sheriff, Thomas Vaughn, also supports taking a look at commissary costs and evaluating the contracts, but he was more skeptical about how the current office is operating.

“I think that’s part of the problem with the sheriff’s office right now: There is no clear vision, there is no clear direction and there’s no clear leader that’s saying, ‘Here’s what we’re doing, follow me,’” Vaughn told The Indiana Lawyer in an interview last week.

Vaughn, a Republican, began his law enforcement career with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in 1997. Since 2014, he has been chief of the Southport Police Department.

One of his primary campaign issues heading into November has been to promote a “safer, smarter jail.”

“I will bring a chief’s focus on operations: the right staffing levels, safer facilities, and disciplined inmate transport so we reduce risk for officers, inmates, and the public,” Vaughn’s campaign website states. “We will use data and clear procedures — not guesswork — to run a system that is firm, fair, and efficient.”

When Vaughn learned about sheriff candidate Williams and Hohl’s various commitments, he questioned whether they were fiscally responsible.

Although Vaughn isn’t prepared to commit to the exact proposals made to Validus Movement, he said he supports cutting costs for those incarcerated, particularly by examining all of the office’s current contracts.

“I think any good sheriff that gets elected, or anybody that gets elected, when they go into that office, the very first thing you’re going to do is look at and say, are we doing it right?” Vaughn said. “Are there things we can change to help not only the inmates but our taxpayers?”

According to a June letter to Live Free Indiana, written by Kevin Murray, a partner at FBT Gibbons and general counsel for the Sheriff’s Office, the office has contracted its inmate telecommunications services to ViaPath Technologies, formerly Global Tel Link. Currently, inmates are allowed one free 15-minute phone call per month and one free 15-minute video visit per week with inmate tablets.

The contract with ViaPath expires on Feb. 2, 2028, according to Murray’s letter.

The Sheriff’s Office’s contract with commissary vendor Keefe Group expires on March 20, 2027.

Vaughn asserted that there should be a balance between punishment and reform.

“One of the things I look at is when you’re looking at some program like that (specifically referencing the telecommunication options for inmates), does it improve the public safety?” Vaughn said. “Is it fiscally responsible? And are we treating everybody with dignity but still holding them accountable?”

The vote ahead

According to the Indiana Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council’s most recent report on statewide electronic monitoring statistics, counties charged offenders about $10.2 million in electronic monitoring fees per quarter in 2025. Counties ended up collecting about $9.2 million per quarter.

Marion County Community Corrections Executive Director Hohl said Marion County has only collected about 20% of its charged fees — about $400,000 a year. He also said that Marion County does not impose a violation for nonpayments, as some counties might, which could send individuals back to jail.

Eliminating fees, he predicts, could reduce recidivism.

Cotterill, with 2nd Chance Indiana, reiterated Hohl’s conclusions, but said because the electronic monitoring program brings in revenue, the council likely won’t go for a complete elimination of fees.

“Here and everywhere else this stuff gets bogged down in red tape,” Cotterill said. “It takes years to get changes.”

If the fee elimination proposal fails to land with the council, Hohl said Community Corrections would consider proposing other options, such as another reduction in the current fee structure.

Hohl also remains committed to reimbursing drug test costs for those who come back clean.

“We’ll certainly still look at doing away with drug testing fees for those that are testing clean,” he said. “That’s probably the first thing we would be looking at doing, and I think we would definitely look at that for next year. Even if we don’t get additional funding.”

Marion County Community Corrections is set to present its budget for 2027, which includes the elimination of the monitoring fees, before the council’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee on Aug. 19. Robinson, the chair, said he looks forward to learning more about these proposed changes during the committee’s review of the 2027 budget.•