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| New Indiana Jail to be Twice Size of Old One |
| By Evansville Courier & Press |
| Published: 03/05/2003 |
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Vanderburgh County's new jail will be twice as large as the current one, but officials say it won't require twice as much staff to operate. The jail is to be built west of U.S. 41 and north of Pigeon Creek at CSX Transportation's Wansford Yards. Vanderburgh County Commissioners viewed a design Monday night of a 512-bed facility that includes a front building and two X-shaped pods that each will house 256 inmates. The Commissioners hired United Consulting Engineers and Architects to design the jail. Vanderburgh Chief Deputy Sheriff Eric Williams said he and Sheriff Brad Ellsworth are 'very comfortable' with the blueprint presented Monday. Williams estimated that in the last two years, he, Ellsworth and design team members have visited between 50 and 75 jails in various states. 'We have made steps outside the box and also taken the best of all the places we've visited and woven them into one (design),' Williams said. The front building includes the Sheriff's Department headquarters, the booking area, temporary inmate holding areas, the kitchen and other necessary facilities. People visiting inmates will enter the front building and follow a horizontal corridor back to areas that will be at the center of the X-shaped residential pods. Inmate visitation in the new facility will be less labor-intensive for jail staff, according to Williams. The new jail will require more staff because of its size, but it will enable staff to be used more efficiently, Williams said. He said the design presented Monday strikes a good balance between 'direct supervision' and 'remote observation' of inmates. The design allows for free-flowing traffic through the jail, and its loading docks will make the process of getting supplies into the facility much easier, Williams said. The front building and both residential pods are two stories, according to United's design. The residential areas include both eight-man and two-man cells. United was asked to sketch a facility with at least 484 beds. The current jail in the Civic Center has a capacity of 268, and its population routinely runs above a cap of 329 agreed to by Vanderburgh County and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. The county's peak population is 429. The Vanderburgh County Council has set aside $35 million for new jail construction and related costs. Ground could be broken by November 'if everything goes perfectly,' Williams said. The design presented Monday only depicts an adult jail. County officials are talking about building a juvenile detention facility and community corrections complex at the Wansford Yards site, but no final decisions have been reached. Williams said of all the jails he and Ellsworth have visited, a facility in Lexington, Ky., most closely mirrors the design shown Monday. That jail took about $65 million to build, said Williams. 'They had a lot less budget issue than we had.' Williams said that in most instances, their travel to other jails was funded by the jail commissary account. 'It's a once-in-a-career opportunity for both of us,' Williams said. 'The sheriff and I will be judged by the outcome of this facility. We wanted to see as many jails as we could.' Commissioners will spend this week reviewing the schematic design. They will vote on accepting it at their next meeting, which will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday because of Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. 'It was important to get this schematic design in and get it accepted so we can move forward,' Commissioners President David Mosby said. |
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