Overcrowding at Monroe County Correctional Center still a problem

Last spring, the Monroe County Correctional Center held 272 inmates. But the jail was only capable of housing 204 inmates, which meant the extra inmates had to sleep on the floor.

Since then, the jail has added 65 beds, taking the total up to 271. Now only five inmates are without beds.

“I can say the atmosphere in the jail has improved dramatically,” said Monroe County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Scott Mellinger. “A lot less problems, a lot less complaints.”

Although the improvements have helped, they’re still not enough. More additions are in the works, and the overcrowding issue is still a major priority.

“The county commissioners have passed a resolution, and they have already hired a consulting group to construct not only a jail, but also a juvenile detention facility,” Mellinger said.

County Commissioner Iris Kiesling said they are also building facilities specifically for female detainees with bonds from last year. In years past, there were too few women incarcerated to warrant an exclusive facility.

“Many more women are being detained,” Kiesling said. “They have no restrooms or private space. It’s being fixed right now; it’s being done as we speak.”

But until those projects are completed, any incoming detainees will most likely be without a bed. Mellinger said jail inspectors have the overcrowding problem on the books, but unless one of the inmates files a lawsuit, no immediate action will be taken against the jail. Therefore, the happiness of the inmates is very important.

“We do our best to maintain their general warfare but we do that because it’s our job, not because we’re trying to avoid a lawsuit,” Mellinger said.

Craig Bradley, Robert A. Lucas Professor of Law at the IU School of Law, said jails can be subject to a federal court order to let inmates go if they are unable to house them, but only in serious cases.

“If they’re only a few past capacity, there’s probably no basis for it,” he said. “You don’t have a constitutional right (for a bed). You have to show conditions for your rights of cruel and unusual punishment are being violated, not just that they’re suboptimal.”

Mellinger said the general public tends to believe that nonviolent offenders shouldn’t be jailed, especially when the prison is at capacity. Decarceration activists have even appeared at political forums to push for the release of prisoners.

“I think there may be some validity to some of the arguments, but I also think you have to look at individual persons who are incarcerated and look at their history and determine whether or not generally public safety is at risk if they are not in jail,” Mellinger said.

Decarcerate Monroe County, a local decarceration activist group, could not be reached for comment.

Commissioner Kiesling said there is a huge problem with methamphetamine in the rural pockets of Monroe County, like a lot of other rural areas, so releasing certain prisoners is a tough question.

“Decarceration would be very nice, but that’s up to the state legislature,” she said. “I don’t know how you do that, if a person has violated their probation. What do you do with somebody who has not complied with the law, that’s the question.”