Indy FOP President Responds to Claim of Jail Overcrowding

INDIANAPOLIS–Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police President Rick Snyder is responding to Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal’s claims of overcrowding involving ICE detainees.

Forestal said Monday that his office needs more money to deal with overcrowding and budget limitations. He says the Indiana Department of Correction continues to force his office to house approximately 175 convicts who should be in state prison facilities. That, he says, is costing the Marion County Sheriff’s Office nearly $3 million annually.

“The reason stated is for 175 convicted inmates awaiting pickup from the State Department of Corrections (DOC) plus the 34 arrestees on detainer holds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Both are offenders who have been arrested on local charges and are simply awaiting further processing within our criminal justice and immigration systems. And both are simple fixes within existing models,” said Snyder in a Tuesday news release.

Snyder says first, the DOC needs to expedite ther pickup and transfer of state prisoners to their facilities because plenty of room exists within state prisons and this is “simply a logistical issue.”

“Second, the ICE agency needs to abide by their 48 hour timeline for pickup and transfer of detainees from local jails. No offender rightly held for further legal proceedings should be released back into our Capital City simply because of dereliction of transfer responsibilities. Additionally, the Sheriff must continue to abide by the law regarding convicted felons and legally binding federal holds. As such the focus and burden must remain on the Jails and Detention Facilities post arrest for local and state crimes. We understand that more access to the Jails will result in less Agents in the community and mitigate the chance for “collateral” arrests,” Snyder continued.

Snyder says the current cap creating the overcrowding issue is “an artificial cap self-imposed by the Indianapolis City-County Council.”

“In short, a relief valve already exists within the Jail for more occupants. If needed the move should be filling the beds, not filling our streets with court ordered prisoners and detainees awaiting processing,” said Snyder.

With that said, Snyder pointed to the brand new jail has about roughly 500 more beds available than are being used.