The Marshall County Sheriff is looking for solutions to alleviate a jail population increase.
Sheriff Matt Hassel told the Marshall County Council members Monday morning that the population was at 243 inmates. The jail currently has 239 beds at the facility.
There has been an increase in the jail population of at least 38 percent from 2017 to 2018 and it appears to be yearly trend. The increase is attributed to law enforcement’s effort to eradicate illegal drugs.
Hassel said he’s been reaching out to other sheriff’s departments in order to enter into intergovernmental agreements to house inmates at surrounding facilities, but he’s encountering challenges.
“I got one response from Elkhart County and they have bed available and they will enter into an agreement with us but they can take no prisoners at this time because they’re 17 staff members short,” said Hassel.
He said while the Marshall County Jail has quality jailers, it’s hard to find that kind of personnel elsewhere.
“I guess the best phrase is ‘you don’t hear kids growing up saying they want to be a jailer’. It’s hard to find good, quality people. It’s not one of the highest pay scales around. We’ve been doing fine, thank goodness, we’ve got good part-time employees that have moved into the full-time positions as they’ve opened up. However, we’ve lost some full-time positions to better paying positions.”
Until then, the sheriff will work on agreements with other facilities to house inmates, depending on availability and staff.
“I know Fulton County will not. The last I talked to Starke County and Kosciusko County they’re almost at their full level now. St. Joseph County…when I talked to them a week ago Thursday, they have 800 beds and at the time they had 624 inmates. He has staffing issues too.”
The county council members asked what sort of funding would need to be arranged to pay the other facilities to house Marshall County’s inmates, and the sheriff replied it would be a part of the agreement. Sheriff Hassel said the money would come from a line item in the Local Income Tax fund.
