Madison County sheriff concerned about dormitory housing in new jail

Ken de la Bastide, The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind.
·2 min read

Apr. 12—ANDERSON — During a town hall meeting, Madison County Sheriff John Beeman voiced concerns about dormitory housing in the planned new jail.

Beeman attended a candidate's forum Wednesday at the Anderson Public Library, and several candidates for county office also expressed concerns about dormitory housing.

Madison County is planning to construct a $110.5 million jail and administrative offices for the Sheriff's Department that could house up to 550 inmates.

"A concern is the safety of the offenders and the staff," Beeman said.

He indicated there could be up to 142 dormitory beds in the facility.

"If anything happens in a dormitory the doors won't be opened until more staff is on the scene," Beeman said. "It comes down to control."

Beeman said he hasn't been told why dormitories are being put in the new jail.

"I'm here to get the jail built to best serve our community," he said. "It would cost an additional 20% to have more cells instead of a dormitory."

Beeman said the Indiana Department of Correction and some county jails use dormitory housing.

Sanjay Patel with RQAW said last year that the preliminary design is for a two-pod plan to house inmates with a central control point that can oversee all the individual cell blocks.

As proposed, one pod would house 237 inmates, and the second would house 139 with space allocated for expansion.

Mikeal Vaughn, seeking re-election in the Republican Party primary for an at-large nomination to the Madison County Council, said he preferred the county build the other pod now "instead of building in the future when the cost increases."

The estimated cost to complete the second pod is $8 million.

Beeman said the current jail was built to house 207 inmates and on Wednesday the population was 280 with 115 inmates at the community corrections complex.

He said there are currently 1,400 active felony warrants in the county.

Republican Lisa Rinker, running for the party's nomination for county commissioner, said the new jail is a huge project and the public should be given as much information as possible.

"We need to use all our resources," she said. "We need to work with the people that will run the jail."

She also expressed safety concerns with the use of dormitories.

Devin Norrick, seeking a GOP nomination for Commissioner, said there are issues with dormitory housing.

"That's not the correct place to cut costs in a jail we want to last 50 or 60 years," he said. "With the classification system, there won't be beds for 500 inmates."

Follow Ken de la Bastide on Twitter @KendelaBastide, or call 765-640-4863.