Tom Santelli, County Commissioner:
I serve on several boards including:
Probation and Community Corrections
JDAI (Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiatives)
Family
Recovery Court
Boone County Drug Task Force
Lt Governors Commission on Mental Health &
Addiction
I have served on the SCAC board (Sylvia’s Child Advocacy Board) and work with the Prosecutor in a number
of areas including strategic planning and funding for key areas and programming. I have participated in
the Federal Drug Task Force Training
As you know from my answer to your first question the state redefined the felony system in 2014 which
pushed level 6 felonies to the county jail. We started looking at these requirements with our first jail
study in 2015. Our second jail feasibility study conducted in 2018-2019 was more in-depth, looking
at a number of factors you mention and many more aspects. We are now finishing the scoping process
through our stake holders and architectural work on the new justice center in the form of a build
operate transfer.
Indiana Code 5-23, or the Build Operate Transfer statute was enacted in 1997 and establishes the
framework for Build-Operate-Transfer agreements. With this statute, small municipalities and local
government entities have an avenue to enter into P3 contacts for projects.
I would present to you, based on my direct experience, we are a leader in the felony diversion, probation
and community corrections, JDAI, mental health and addiction treatment processes. We are working to do a
better job communicating our work, in a number of areas, at the county level, to our stakeholders. As
you have seen we are hard at work on the communications pieces, which is prompting more engaged
dialogue.
Our mental health and other programs have been remarkably successful in reducing recidivism as has our
JDAI programming. We are responsible for the welfare of any individual arrested or incarcerated so we
have important risk management responsibility. For example, all in, a fatality in the jail system can
cost the county $5MM+.
Aspire and Integrated Wellness (InWell) are working directly in the jail with excellent success in
treatment and building bridges between our inmates and their communities. The lack of programming,
treatment and bridging, is recognized as one of the leading contributors to recidivism. We have an
ongoing GED program. We further take the approach to treat each person whether they are incarcerated, on
probation, or community correction with the intent of helping them become more productive and
constructive members of our communities. My personal experience hiring individuals on work release,
re-entry programs, Work One, WOTC and other support programs for ex-offenders has been very positive. We
have had successes on the first time through our programs and others after as many as 11 times in the
system. I have worked with individuals from start to finish in drug treatment programs.
Our biggest challenges have been funding and space. Our recent requests for grant funding our drug court
and additional resources for our felony diversion programs were turned down for 2022. The end result, we
are having to fund these programs locally.
Covid presents additional challenges where we had to immediately address jail overcrowding. With as many
as 246 inmates in 2019 we were well above an acceptable level of incarceration, within our limited
capabilities. We currently have as many as 2,000 people in our probation and community corrections
system, not to mention about 1,000 outstanding warrants throughout the county. We did petition for the
ability to limit our jail population however the courts are telling us we have to accept folks brought
to the jail. We do have the option to send individuals to surrounding jails which increases county
costs.
We have robust programs geared towards felony diversion and recidivism reduction. We need more space and
funding, simply stated. We are over-crowded