Vanderburgh County Jail expansion still on track, construction likely next spring
EVANSVILLE — Ground could be turning for the proposed Vanderburgh County Jail expansion as soon as Spring 2023. That's what outgoing Sheriff Dave Wedding hopes.
Wedding has around 10 days left in his tenure as Vanderburgh County sheriff, so he won't be leading the office when the construction begins, but expansion is an issue he's focused on for the past eight years.
Incoming sheriff Noah Robinson will take the reins of the project when he is sworn in Jan. 2.
Wedding and Robinson both joined county officials Thursday morning for a ceremonial turning of the dirt, now that the expansion project has funding and is on track for final designs.
What the expansion is planned to look like
Speaking with the Courier & Press, Wedding said the plan for dormitory-style expansion will help with overcrowding, as well as bring the jail into compliance for housing juveniles. The project is expected to cost about $13.5 million.
The designs will layout two 48-bed dorms, one for females and one for males. The current jail can house 64 females, and Wedding said they typically have around 100 booked in.
Specialty housing beds, which will be single-bed cells with a private shower and toilet, will also be built to house "non-compliant" inmates. Wedding said those would be inmates who may display a danger to others or not be following jail rules.
More:Here's how the plan to expand Vanderburgh County's jail got a step closer to reality this week
The jail can currently house 512 people but regularly has well over 700 consistently booked in. For 2022, the jail is on track to have book 9,000 people.
Typically between 135 to 150 inmates are housed outside the county in neighboring jails at an annual cost of $2 million, Wedding said.
The Vanderburgh County Jail is not currently equipped to house juveniles. Even when they're charged in adult court, juveniles are supposed to be separated from adult inmates. There is no designated space for them in the current jail, which means "makeshift" areas are created.
"That's not good for them and it's not good for us," Wedding said.
The expansion is set to include 10 beds for juvenile males and 10 beds for juvenile females. Wedding said from time to time the jail will have six to seven juvenile males booked in. There are typically not nearly as many females, and the jail can go months without any booked.
Sheriff Dave Wedding's push for expansion
Wedding said he is satisfied to see the county make a step to correct a longstanding problem. But it's been a long wait, he said.
"We built a lot of things I call fluff for entertainment purposes," he said. "I find it sad we have something we are in critical need of and a lot of our stakeholders didn't address it quick enough."
More:Near the end of his tenure, Vanderburgh sheriff is still pushing for a jail expansion plan
The plan for an expansion didn't come from a specific mission of Wedding's, it came out of dire need, he said.
It's also not an issue that is going away. Wedding said he sees four or five years before the county can lower its incarceration rates.
"There's money," he said. "There's money to take care of incarceration. But that's the last thing people want to address."
Wedding said there are also some people who will go by the adage of bread and water is all those in jail need. That there shouldn't be AC, and that being in jail is luxurious.
But Wedding doesn't believe in that, he said. It's tough in the jail. He knows he wouldn't want to spend eight hours in a cell, let alone three or four days.
"We're housing them. We don't have to punish them," he said. "Their punishment is (being) detained. That's enough punishment."
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Vanderburgh County Jail expansion construction likely next spring
