'It is a safety issue'

Jul 21, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the second part of a three-part series on the Grant County Jail

In addition to the severe overcrowding the Grant County Jail faces, the inmates face poor living conditions due in part to the age of the building.

One of the four oldest jails in the state, the building has major maintenance issues, including broken toilets, water leaks, broken water valves and faulty air conditioning.

Last week, inmates were without water for several hours due to a broken water valve, said Sheriff Del Garcia during an interview in his office.

Indiana Wesleyan University donated several pallets of bottled water for inmates within a couple of hours of the breakage, but the water had to be shut off in a segment of the jail for a few hours two days in a row for repairs to other valves.

“We do have plenty of water,” Garcia said. “We are grateful for that. With the age of the building, these things just occur more often.”

The combination of overcrowding and the condition of the facility create a strain for both staff and inmates, Garcia said.

“It makes it less safe,” Garcia said. “You’re dealing with more people.”

Inmates who have met certain criteria are able to become “trustees” at the jail. Their eligibility depends on factors such as their charges, their conduct and if a detention deputy recommends them for the position, detention director Capt. Jason Camery said.

Trustees are able to work in and around the jail. According to Lt. Georgianna Jones, all the cooking for the jail is done by a team of trustees, supervised by managers from an outside company. The inmate work crews that mow in the summer and shovel snow in the winter around the county are made up of trustees.

Since receiving a recent raise from the sheriff, trustees now make two dollars a day, which can be spent in the commissary. Additionally, trustees have better living conditions. Their cell blocks are smaller, are not overcrowded, have more recreational items such as a chess board or a television and have cinderblock walls rather than bars, providing a more dorm-like atmosphere.

Despite the improved living conditions, those cell blocks still have significant issues. In a cell block comprised of nine kitchen trustees, of the three toilets, only one was functional. The other two were covered with black trash bags.

Leaks are also a frequent problem.

“When you were standing on the fourth floor, was it leaking on your head right there by 4A?” Lt. Mark Persinger asked Jones during a tour of the jail the Chronicle-Tribune editorial took on Tuesday.

“No, it wasn’t leaking today,” Jones said.

Camery said that his office floods frequently whenever there is a leak above it and that they never know what kind of water it is.

The kitchen only has a double oven to handle meal preparation for around 350 each day.

The ceiling has holes in some places, showing wires and air ducts.

One double cell block contains 127 inmates and Jones said fights were a regular occurrence.

“I really wish they would increase our budget so we can hire more people,” Jones said, adding that when fights occur, all available staff will respond to that floor. “Sometimes, we will have to call the police department to come help us.”

There are a handful of solitary cells on the first floor to house inmates who can’t be in a cell block due to mental or behavioral issues, but there aren’t enough, Jones said.

“We’re dealing with a lot of mental health problems,” Camery said.

Camery would like to see more money directed at mental health and different forms of treatment. Many jails have a mental health provider available 24 hours a day, he said.

Some treatment programs can reduce recidivism, or the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend, by as much as 20 percent, Camery said.

The condition of the solitary cells is dated, and some are potentially dangerous, Camery said, pointing to an area on one door that looks like the metal has been torn apart on the inside.

Camery said the previous administration entered a contract with a medical provider based on 250 inmates. Now, the jail is regularly 100 inmates over that number and has reached around 370 inmates at its peak.

The sheriff is in the process of renegotiating the contract for medical care, but additional care will cost additional money.

“We’ve had bids from two outside companies plus the company that we’re currently with,” Camery said. “And I can tell you, depending upon how many nurses you have on staff, it’s anywhere from about $700,000 to $1.3 million a year. And we’ve been budgeted about $450,000 currently.”

While looking at the double cell block from a control room on the tour, some of the men were only half-wearing their jumpsuits.

“Jumpsuits should be all the way on,” a corporal told an inmate through an intercom. “Over your legs, over your shoulders.”

After telling the inmates to fully wear their jumpsuits several times, the guard opened the door to the cell block. When the door opened, a wave of warm, humid air noticeably contrasted with the hallway’s air conditioning.

“It’s a hundred degrees in here,” an inmate complained when instructed to put his jumpsuit on.

Jones said the single elevator for the whole jail frequently breaks down, sometimes four or five times in a day. In the event of a fight or other emergency that needs back-up, the elevator is the best way to reach the floor the fight is on. While there are stairs, Jones described it as a maze that requires specific keys to unlock doors along the way, which drastically slows response time.

“It is a safety issue,” Camery said.

Camery said there are only three maintenance workers that maintain all of the county buildings, including the jail. Additionally, because the jail was constructed so long ago, Camery said the company no longer exists, making it difficult to find spare parts for repairs. Sometimes the correct parts have to be sourced from other parts of the country.

Having so few maintenance workers and scarce resources makes it impossible to provide preventative maintenance, let alone fix existing problems such as broken toilets, elevators or a faulty HVAC system. Camery compared maintaining the jail to triage.

“We have been given a subpar facility and yet we have to house people in a humane way,” Camery said. “We want to make changes, we want to make improvements as where we can. So we’re trying to do the best we can afford. And we’re not trying to overcharge the public... taxes and stuff like that, I understand we have to work within the budget. But you know, it is a catch-22. You’re overcrowded and you have a small facility, it’s hard.”

Editor’s note: The final part of the series will appear in the Friday, Aug. 18 edition of the Chronicle-Tribune.

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