MARION COUNTY, Ind. (WOWO) — Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal wants to set the record straight: there is a major difference between how many beds a jail has and how many people it can actually hold safely.
While the Adult Detention Center (ADC) technically has 2,985 beds, the facility was never intended to be packed to the rafters, according to Forestal. To keep the gears turning, for maintenance, mental health needs, and the complex puzzle of inmate classification, the operational limit is strictly set at 80%, or roughly 2,400 beds. This isn’t a new number or a personal preference; it’s exactly what the City-County Council funded and what the building was designed to handle from day one.
Sheriff Forestal finds it frustrating when the Indianapolis President of the Fraternal Order of Police misrepresents these facts. As Forestal points out, the sheriff’s office didn’t build the jail; the city built it for them. As Forestal recalls, the talk wasn’t about how many beds would be built, but how many wouldn’t be built because of the city initiative to reform criminal justice. He emphasized that the 2,400-bed cap was a deliberate choice by the city. While there is physical space left at the Community Justice Campus for another 1,000 beds down the road, those simply do not exist today…