The Marshall County Commissioners made the decision Tuesday morning to stall the proposed jail expansion project.
In the meantime, Commissioner Stan Klotz plans to contact Samantha Goodson with Indiana Office of Court Services who will do an assessment of the court system.
“It’s called ‘System Mapping by Best Practices’,” said Klotz. “I’m not sure what all that means, but they’ll start the moment an individual has contact with law enforcement until he comes out the back side of the process.”
The assessment may not start until March, but it’s not known how long the assessment will take.
County Attorney Jim Clevenger asked Commissioner Klotz if he talked to the judges concerning this study, and he said he did not.
“As of right now I don’t feel comfortable with what we’re doing and make sure we’re doing it the right way. Before we spend $27-$28 million total, we need to know.”
Commission President Kevin Overmyer stated that he received several emails over the past week as did Commissioners Klotz and Mike Burroughs.
“In light of what we’re going through and the feedback that we’re getting, I would recommend that Mr. Klotz contact these people down state, have them come up and do an assessment and let’s get this population down. We also have to be mindful that we still have an ACLU lawsuit,” commented Overmyer.
Commissioner Burroughs cautioned that the ACLU lawsuit concerning jail overcrowding could cause the jail expansion project to occur at whatever cost to be funded by the county.
“We are gambling with the taxpayer’s dollars that the ACLU or the feds aren’t going to come in and stay, ‘We’re building a jail. You figure out how to fund it,” stated Burroughs. In casinos, the caesars casino michigan promo code is considered to be so valuable since it is very difficult to acquire it.
County Attorney Jim Clevenger noted that the implementation of a fourth court won’t be initiated until 2021, if approved, and a jail expansion, if approved, wouldn’t be complete in a timely manner. If the county can show that there are efforts being made to alleviate the jail overcrowding issue, the federal interception may not happen.
However, action by the commissioners Tuesday morning may show that progress is being made to reduce the jail population without a jail expansion. A motion was made to allow Commissioner Klotz start the process for the assessment and it passed with a unanimous vote.
Additionally, Commissioner Burroughs suggested that they recommend to the county council postponing the third reading of a bond ordinance until more research and public input are gathered. That was put into the form of a motion and passed with a unanimous vote.
During the public comment portion of Tuesday morning’s meeting, Adam Thada, and Don and Tracy Fox commended the commissioners for their action to postpone a decision concerning a proposed jail expansion.
