When the Johnson County jail last had a major expansion, a federal lawsuit filed two decades ago helped move that project ahead.
Now, with the number of inmates in the Johnson County jail reaching more than 400 at several points in the past few weeks, that concern is in the minds of county officials. No lawsuit has been filed, but officials know they need to find immediate and long-term solutions to a jail that has been overcrowded multiple times since May.
A lawsuit filed in 1997 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana resulted in the Johnson County jail being remodeled and expanded in 2002. The county spent $9.5 million to make enough room in the jail for 299 inmates, up from 104.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has been involved in about 10 lawsuits related to jail overcrowding since 2010, the organization’s legal director Kenneth Falk said.
Inmates have constitutional rights to be kept safe, have medical needs treated, be allowed time for physical recreation and be housed in a clean environment, he said. While a jail being overcrowded isn’t unconstitutional, the conditions that often result from overcrowding are, Falk said.
Problems caused by overcrowding, such as increased fights between inmates, delays in medical treatment or unsanitary conditions, all are factors that could lead to a jail situation being considered unconstitutional, he said.
“If you have people sleeping on the floor, you will have the stressing of the services, you will have the violence,” Falk said.
Eventually, an overcrowded jail will present problems that will be too great for jail officials to mitigate, he said.
Whenever the ACLU files an overcrowding lawsuit, the goal is for jail conditions to not violate the constitutional rights of inmates, not recovering damages for inmates, Falk said.
If a lawsuit is filed, the ACLU will have experts examine the jail and determine what may need to be done to fix the situation, he said. Solutions range from building a new jail, expanding the current one or putting a cap on the number of inmates allowed to be kept in a jail, he said.
Falk cited Sullivan and Elkhart counties as examples of overcrowded jails where a lawsuit lead to a new jail being constructed.
Monroe County took a different route, choosing instead to put in place a cap on how many inmates are allowed in the jail, which is not ideal because it places stress on the criminal justice system, he said. If a jail sets a cap on the number of inmates, solutions to staying under that number include paying to house inmates in other counties’ facilities.
