As Monroe County officials continue their discussion of a location for a new jail, the sheriff’s office has released some numbers on releases by weekday and time—for a full year, from June 1, 2023 through May 30, 2024.
The total number of releases for the year comes to 3,359—or an average of a little more than 9 people per day.
Not considering the day of the week, the majority of releases come between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. The two one-hour intervals from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and from 2 p.m to 3 p.m. show a dip compared to the five intervals before and after that window.
With 100 releases, the one-hour interval between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Mondays showed the highest number of releases of any one-hour period.
The numbers confirm that releases come at all times of the day on all days of the week. Between midnight and 8 a.m. there were 326 releases, or almost 10 percent of the total.
On Sundays, there were 224 releases.
The numbers were produced in response to a request from Monroe County councilor Marty Hawk, who this past Tuesday, at the county council’s regular meeting, asked jail commander Kyle Gibbons for some reporting on releases.
The number of releases in the middle of the night on weekends is of interest, because people released at those times will face transportation challenges that are harder to overcome than at other times.
The numbers were distributed at a public meeting held Sunday afternoon at the Ellettsville fire station to get feedback from residents on a proposed new jail location south of Hunter Valley Road off State Road 46.
Hawk, as well as county councilors Trent Deckard, Cheryl Munson, and Kate Wiltz attended the meeting, which was hosted by the three county commissioners—Julie Thomas, Lee Jones, and Penny Githens.
Another meeting on the topic of the North Park location as a place to build a jail is scheduled at the Ellettsville fire station for Wednesday (June 5), starting at 6 p.m. The owner of the property, Steve Crider, of Logan Land Development, is supposed to attend Wednesday’s meeting, according to Thomas.
The parcel of land that commissioners are studying as a possible jail site, is just part of a larger piece of property owned by Crider. The zoning for the whole property is planned unit development (PUD) and would, in any case, need to be rezoned, in order to be used for a jail.
Consideration of a replacement facility Monroe County is driven by the conclusion of two consultants who submitted recommendations to the county almost three years ago. One of the reports concluded that “The jail facility is failing…”
Had the Commissioners made a decision last year, they would be just one year away from mitigating the negative effects of the property owned by the county near Rogers.