GREENFIELD — The Hancock County Board of Commissioners plans to bond $5 million to pay for temporary trailer units that can house more than 100 inmates next to the county jail.
The bond, which the county has to approve and issue by the end of the year, is contingent on the Hancock County Council funding 12 new jailers and any additional jail support staff. Keith Oliver, the commander of the Hancock County Jail, said the staffing would cost about $800,000 yearly.
Maj. Brad Burkhart, the chief deputy of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, has previously told county officials that he’s in talks with Seymour, Missouri-based All Detainment Solutions about bringing a structure consisting of multiple semitrailers to the parking lot between community corrections and the current jail in downtown Greenfield. Burkhart said the 16-trailer facility would cost $5.2 million.
Earlier this month, the county council set up a fund for 2019 in case the county chooses to pursue up to a $5 million bond, which would be paid for with property taxes. The county has to issue the bond by Dec. 31 in order to receive funding next year.
Brad Armstrong, board president, said officials had to act on the bond on Thursday in order for it to get approved and issued before the end of the year. He and commissioners Marc Huber and John Jessup said using the bond to purchase jail units is the best short-term plan to house inmate overflow.
Huber stressed that the trailers aren’t a permanent solution, saying they’re not building “trailer city.”
The Hancock County Jail has been overcrowded for years, housing almost 260 inmates earlier this summer. More recently, it’s had between 212 and 240 people in the 157-bed facility, Oliver said.
The trailer facility would be the first of its kind in Indiana and would take about six months to install, Burkhart has previously said. The units have stainless steel interiors as well as beds, seating areas and restrooms. Oliver said the 16 combined trailers would house 113 inmates in an open-dorm setting.
All Detainment Solutions built a similar trailer structure in 2017 at a jail in Greene County, Missouri. Burkhart and Oliver toured the facility earlier this week. Oliver said he was impressed with the setup.
The staffing additions would alleviate the stress already put on current jailers, Armstrong said, and would also pay for members of the support staff, such as kitchen employees.
The commissioners also tasked themselves with researching possible locations for a new county jail outside of Greenfield city limits. After several years of discussion on a new jail with county officials and the public, the commissioners approached Greenfield’s mayor and city council Wednesday to discuss the project. Most of the city leaders told the commissioners that they don’t want a jail downtown.
Armstrong said the board will now look into if a previously proposed site on land called the county farm, located along U.S. 40 between county roads 400E and 500E, is the best spot for a new jail and eventually the county’s judicial system campus. Huber said the county could maybe move the jail to a more centrally located area, closer to some of the growth on the west side of Hancock County.
“It’s disappointing that eight or 10 years of discussions and everything being based on a downtown campus, that everybody has been more than aware of … and now all of a sudden when we need to get something done, now everybody’s got a problem,” Huber said.
