Dubois County Council: Jail expansion not on the radar
Dubois County Sheriff Donny Lampert’s jail expansion ideas met with a cool reception from the county council.
Lampert told the council the Dubois County Security Center has been operating at or near capacity. Designed for 84 inmates, the jail population has averaged 81 since March. He explained that in May, the jail averaged three bookings daily.
He told the council he would like to add room for 10 to 20 more inmates.
Councilwoman Martha Wehr asked about the expansion necessity when, in the past, the jail had held up to a 100 inmates. Lampert reminded her of the injuries officers sustained during that time and new requirements from the Department of Corrections.
“The recommendation is that when you go over 80 percent [capacity] you need to start looking at expanding,” he told the council. “If we add the two cell blocks that will put us at 80 percent.”
Lampert said the security center has an open area that is large enough for two new cell blocks and a hallway; enough for 20 more inmates. He said other options would be to add holding cells near the female section or to add a cell block and more holding cells and two more padded cells.
In addition to the capacity expansion, Lampert said he would need two more jailers.
“I need to know what you are looking at,” Lampert said. “What plan, moneywise, does the council have. Is this something we can look at, not look at. I need to know. If the money’s not there, there’s no need for me to go get estimates. I need to know a direction.”
Council president Greg Kendall reminded Lampert that he and Councilman Jerry Hunefeld were on the council when the current security center was built. “We were mandated to build that jail,” he said. “That’s kind of where I stand. When we get mandated to, we’ll add on.”
“That’s just me not the other six,” he added referencing the other six county council members.
Councilman Craig Greulich said he agreed with Kendall but he would like for the council to begin to prepare for that expense.
Lampert said waiting for a mandate could have some consequences for the public. “What we choose to do or not do affects not only the inmates but it also affects our community,” he said. “If we are letting people out early just because we are filling up, who are we putting back on the streets.”
Lampert will likely work through the County Commissioners to bring a formal request to the council in the future.
Courthouse Security
Along similar lines, Dubois County Chief Probation Officer Jennifer Lampert appeared before the council to request funding for enhanced security at the probation office located on the third floor of the county courthouse.
She told the council that some probation participants have become harder to handle causing the employees in the office to fear for their safety.
“I have done this a long time and it just seems the conscience is just gone,” Mrs. Lampert explained. “You used to be able to motivate people in these difficult situations. You could find out what made them tick. You could motivate them with their kids or their empathy for other people. I’m not talking about everybody, but it just seems like some of the people we work with don’t have that. It is difficult to work with those types of people and those are the ones that concern you that they are going to come in and we are going to have some trouble.”
She reported just last week, one such individual was upset about the outcome of an expungement and was able to get to the office of an individual probation officer to confront him.
“If we can lock that door, then it can’t be opened and we could have more time to escape,” Lampert said.
The council approved her request for $5,145 to pay for a secure door with an access control as well as a bulletproof service window.
Community Corrections
Community Corrections Director William Wells asked the council to approve a one-time employee bonus. He requested $7,700 to be split between 11 employees and $996.23 be split between four employees that did not work the entire fiscal year. Along with the one-time bonus, the council approved paying $9,592.55 to reduce the department’s employees’ comp-time down to 10-hours.
The request for the bonus was made as Community Corrections was unable to use a large portion of a grant it received in January. He said they would have to return the excess funds on July 1, the end of the department’s fiscal year. Even with bonus and comp-time pay, Community Corrections would be returning $50,000 to $60,000 to the department of corrections.
“I can promise you this will not happen again,” Wells told the council.
According to Wells, the funds were not used due to the Community Correction Advisory Board’s decision to leave positions vacant for a substantial portion of the fiscal year. In addition to three positions that were left vacant for portions of the year, 13 other positions were paid at rates below the levels authorized and funded by the grant.
“These are positions that were funded and authorized by our state operating grant, but which the Advisory Board chose not to fill with the intent to utilize the balance of funds for other purposes if necessary,” Wells said in an email. “However, such adjustments were not necessary. Nor would they have been proper under the terms of the grant award. Thus, our proposals last night to utilize these funds to the greatest extent possible for a staff that has been the most chronically under-compensated in county government.”
Community Corrections employees have not received a pay increase since 2013, according to Wells.
Also at the meeting:
-Heard a request from Dubois Strong President Ed Cole for funding for 2017 for the local economic development organization. Cole told the council Dubois Strong will be reducing the amount it has asked for in the past by $20,000.
Dubois Strong received $200,000 in funding in 2016. Of the $180,000 requested for 2017, Cole said $65,000 would go to Grow Dubois County to support programs like the Purdue Technical Assistance Program; the remainder —the nearly $60,000 the organization receives according to the agreement with the county when Dubois Strong formed and an additional $55,000 as part of an agreement for additional funding three years ago.
Cole revealed that along with Dubois Strong’s efforts to attract employees to the area, they were working on the Mid-State Corridor and would be spearheading efforts to create a third shovel-ready site in the county. This 72-acre site would be located at the former-Mobil facility in Ferdinand.
-Heard the County Highway Department would leverage Senate Bill 67 funds and the matching grants provided through House Bill 1001 to fund a million dollars in paving annually until the program was cancelled or for the next four years, whichever occurred first. Historically, the council has appropriated $800,000 in economic development income tax funds annually to go to paving. Highway Superintendent Steve Berg said the county could use these SB 67 funds with the grants and possibly save the county $3.2 million in EDIT funds over the next four years. Welcome news to the council struggling with an ever-widening budget deficit.
-Heard from Pete Franzman that recent reports from USI Insurance Services that it could save the county up to $380,000 were very preliminary and only based on generic insurance statistics. USI did not have specific information on the county’s needs other than the number of county employees on the health plan (192) at this time. Auditor Kathy Hopf told the council USI Insurance Services did ask for more specific data regarding claims to compile a more accurate estimate of savings when it pitches the county in the fall.
Franzman told the council he felt is was necessary to meet with them after the savings claims were made by USI.
He reported the county had $1.7 million in claims in the first six months of 2016 and had paid $1.397 million towards those claims from its insurance fund. The county is a member of the Patoka Valley Health Care Cooperative, the county’s health insurance manager, which allows them to receive a 45.6 percent discount through Memorial Hospital for almost all billed procedures for employees.
At the end of Franzman’s discussion with council, Councilman Greulich requested that Franzman supply the council with the average insurance cost increases the county has experienced over the past five years on the plan.
This story was updated with comments from William Wells in regards to the Community Corrections grant funding.
