GREENFIELD — Inmates at the Hancock County Jail want the community to know they’re dealing with the consequences of the county’s continued indecision over how best to handle overcrowding issues inside the facility.
They’re aware of debate raging outside. They know the topics up for discussion are far-reaching and ever-changing, ranging from how best to pay for a new building and the additional staff it would need to whether a temporary facility — the first of its kind in the state — should be constructed or if the local judicial system as a whole needs to be reorganized.
But inside, they’re feeling the strain. And living conditions are getting worse with every passing day.
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Population at the facility hit a record high of 246 in July — the jail was built to house 157 inmates — and hasn’t dropped much since then.
This week, there 236 people inside.
Jail officers are racking up overtime, working 12-hour days, as they try to staff the building enough to keep it properly secured, officials said. One officer got punched in the face last month.
They’ve run out of plastic cots to give the inmates who are forced to sleep on the floor. So now many are simply laying their thin mattresses on the concrete, wherever they can find a space.
Inmates say tensions in the cell block are constantly high as they climb over each other to use the bathroom or get into their beds at night. The dayrooms in the cell blocks that were once common areas to relax or burn off energy as cluttered with bunk beds, meaning there is little space to move around.
Daniel Jefferson is living with 29 other men in a cell block built for 10 people. He’s lucky enough to have a bunk in one of the 7-by-12 cells that line the block; he shares the space with two others.
He has no privacy, he said. There’s no peace and quiet. Arguments and shouting matches are regular occurrences. And it’s impossible to keep the place clean with so many living in cramped quarters.
He doesn’t blame the sheriff’s department or the jail officers; they’re doing the best they can, he knows. And after all, this is their plight to deal with as well.
“I hate to the use word ‘fair’ … buts it’s not right,” Jefferson said. “There has to be a solution.”
Overcrowding at the jail has been an issue locally since 2014, when state lawmakers voted to change the criminal code, forcing county jails to house those guilty of Level 6 felonies in order to free up space in Indiana Department of Correction prisons.
In February 2017 — when the jail population regularly hovered around 190 — leaders of the sheriff’s department presented the county council and commissioners with a letter they’d received from the Indiana Department of Correction’s jail commander that warned the county was “failing to provide the sheriff with a facility that meets Indiana standards.”
The document outlined a series of violations, including: not providing each inmate with a fixed bed (some Hancock County inmates sleep on plastic cots on the floor); not maintaining a one to 12 ratio for showers and toilets per inmate; and not providing at least 70 square feet of space per inmate.
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department has taken various steps over the years to try and decrease the inmate population, including sending sentenced offenders to other Indiana jails or implementing drug-treatment programs in an effort to cut recidivism. The latest proposal is to construct a temporary jail, comprising 16 modified semitrailers, somewhere in the county.
Jefferson has heard talk of the temporary jail, and he supports the idea because it would bring some relief to the current situation.
Patricia Carter has been sentenced in her criminal case and now lives in fear of being send to another county to serve her time.
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department has agreements with its counterparts in Daviess and LaGrange counties to house local inmates. The Daviess County Jail is 130 miles away, and the LaGrange facility is about 140 miles away.
Inmates are not typically told ahead of time that they’ll be moved to an out-of-county facility due to safety concerns. And it’s stressful for sitting, waiting, wondering if you’ll be chosen and sent away, Carter said.
Justin Maley recently returned from serving four months of his sentence in LaGrange.
The jail there is newer and nicer than the local facility, bit it feels “worlds away from here,” Maley said.
Inmates have to pay to use the phones and the fees are higher than what are charged in Hancock County, so it’s difficult to find the money to call loved ones. And since the drive north would be more nearly three hours, the chance of visitors is slim, he said.
The bond system LaGrange uses is different that Hancock County, so arrestees can post bail more easily. From what he observed, it keeps the place from ever getting too cramped, he said.
At least it was quiet there, he remarked.
Now, Maley’s back in Hancock County and is one of the inmates stuck sleeping on the floor without a cot.
He finds it interesting to think back to the first time he was arrested, back in the early 2000s, and compare it to the situation inside the jail now. Eighteen years ago, there were no bunks in the day rooms, no cots on the floor. There were only two people assigned to a cell as intended, he said.
Maley knows he’s done wrong (he pleaded guilty in a misdemeanor battery case last year); but he hopes the community knows not everyone inside is a hardened criminal. He knows some who have sat around in the jail for months, even years, just to be found innocent.
They certainly don’t deserve to live like this, he said. No one does.