Progress on alleviating conditions at the Allen County Jail is still too little and too late, according to a court filing Wednesday by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.
However, ACLU attorneys have a suggestion to help with some of the problems: use Marion County’s solution from when it faced similar problems. Marion officials brought together representatives connected to their jail problem to create the Marion County Criminal Justice Planning Council.
Kenneth Falk, the lead ACLU attorney from Indianapolis, also sent a copy of the August 2006 court order creating that council to Allen Superior Court judges Fran Gull and Jennifer DeGroote, Allen Circuit Court Judge Wendy Davis, Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards, Allen County Chief Public Defender William Lebrato and Allen County Chief Probation Officer Eric Zimmerman.
The ACLU attorneys’ recommendation was part of the response they filed in U.S. District Court. The filing was an expected continuation of the search for jail improvement solutions based on a lawsuit filed by inmate Vincent Morris in January 2020.
On March 31, U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty ordered Allen County officials to address overcrowding, understaffing, maintenance issues and other problems that resulted in violations of inmates’ Constitutional rights. The downtown Fort Wayne jail, with a capacity for up to 732 inmates, held more than 800 at times.
The Allen County commissioners this month proposed building a new jail at 5080 Adams Center Road, where the Allen County Sheriff’s Regional Training Facility is located. The estimated cost is $350 million, and the proposed location has drawn criticism from southeast-side residents and officials.
The ACLU filing was a direct response to a report that county representatives filed July 14 on short- and long-term solutions. The ACLU attorneys say steps already completed or suggested are inadequate. The ACLU and Morris filed a similar response in May to the county commissioners’ plans.
According to the ACLU’s filing Wednesday:
• Since June 15, when Allen County Jail stopped housing federal prisoners, the jail has averaged 673.8 prisoners a day. But it rose above that between July 5 and July 11, and there’s reason to believe it will rise again.
• The Allen County sheriff’s supplemental report states that the building is below capacity “but above the 80% threshold discussed by the ACLU in prior briefings and before the court.”
• “Even with a reduction of prisoners, the lack of staffing is a severe problem.” Of 144 funded jail staff positions, 123 were filled as of April 30 and 128 as of June 30.
• There were 24 violent incidents involving prisoners and/or staff in the 34 days between April 28 and May 31 and 32 violent incidents between the 28 days between June 2 and June 29, a situation created by the insufficient staff.
• Allen County’s plan for a new jail remains speculative. The new jail would be built over five years, with construction starting in April 2024 and finishing April 2027. “The funding mechanism for the new jail has not been determined.”
The ACLU filing also states its attorneys included information on Marion County’s 2006 solution because of its creative ways to deal with jail crowding in a focused approach that has not yet been tried in Allen County.
Marion County’s council eventually got increased staffing at the county’s prosecutor’s office, public defender’s agency and crime lab.
For faster processing of cases through the court system, Marion County officials established a night court, an expedited probation violations docket, faster production of pre-sentencing reports and limits of criminal case continuances, according to the ACLU filing.
