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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Marion County Sheriff’s Office is moving sentenced inmates to other county jails to ease overcrowding it blames partly on Indiana’s prison system.
The sheriff’s office announced Thursday that it transferred 25 inmates from the county’s Adult Detention Center to Carroll County Jail in Delphi.
The office said in a statement that it planned to keep working “to address overcrowding caused in part by the Indiana Department of Correction’s … failure to accept state-sentenced convicts in a timely manner.”
“Marion County will continue to innovate and do what we must do for the safety of our staff, our inmates and our community,” Sheriff Kerry Forestal said in the statement. “We must make room for people arrested in Marion County.”
The Indiana Department of Correction did not respond Thursday to a request for comment from The Indiana Lawyer.
A Marion County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said the department has done these transfers occasionally over the years to ease overcrowding, and Forestal plans to do them again when possible. The spokesperson said the transfers create no additional costs since the office uses money it receives from the state to pay the county that receives the prisoners.
The sheriff’s office filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the state Department of Correction over the time it takes to transfer people who have been sentenced for serious felonies into state custody.
The office has said that the department frequently misses a deadline set by state law to transfer those convicted of a Level 6 or more serious felony within five calendar days of sentencing. The office says inmates often are left in the Marion County Adult Detention Center for weeks after sentencing.
The lawsuit notes that the presence of these inmates costs local taxpayers money and places a significant burden on sheriff’s office staff. The sheriff’s office said the county spends about $85 a day to house each inmate but receives $42 in reimbursement from the Department of Correction.
State officials have yet to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed in Marion County Superior Court.
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