Monroe County jail notebook: Population dips below 200 for first time since July
Monroe County’s jail held 204 people Saturday, down 10 from a week earlier and marking 18 straight days below the ACLU’s 229-person functional-capacity estimate. Friday’s count of 196 was the lowest since The B Square began tracking in July. The sheriff puts functional capacity lower, at 186.
Monroe County’s jail population stood at 204 on Saturday (Oct. 24), which is down 10 from a week ago. That marks the 18th day in a row when the count of prisoners has been below the ACLU’s version of the jail’s functional capacity, which is 229.
The day before, on Friday (Oct. 23), the population dipped below 200 to 196, which is the lowest number since The B Square started tracking daily population more than three months ago on July 21.
The highest number in the last week was 218, on Sunday, which was still 11 under the ACLU’s functional cap.
Monroe County’s jail data dashboard includes snapshots of basic counts, demographic profiles, and the types of crimes prisoners are charged with. The dashboard is updated routinely, which means Monroe County residents don’t need to wait for weekly updates from a news outlet.
The B Square has tracked the numbers starting on July 21, when the jail held 247 people. Ten days into that span, the 10-day rolling average was about 254. The most recent rolling 10-day average, on Saturday (Oct. 24) was about 209.
That’s 20 under the number that the ACLU gives as the jail’s functional capacity in its federal lawsuit, which it filed in July on behalf of jail inmates. Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté has given a lower figure for functional capacity. His July overcrowding report started with 294 reported beds, subtracted housing that he said cannot be treated as general-population space, leaving 233 available general-housing beds. Applying the same 80% principle yields a functional capacity of 186.
Ken Falk, who is lead attorney on the ACLU lawsuit against Monroe County, and co-counsel Joshua Bleisch, have both resigned their ACLU positions in connection with some internal turmoil at ACLU of Indiana. It’s not yet clear how the resigations will impact the Monroe County jail lawsuit.
The difference between the two jail population snapshots at the start and the end of the period The B Square has tracked does not capture the turnover in the jail during that period. Of the 247 people who were there on July 21, 81 of them were still there on Oct. 24. That means 166, or about two-thirds of the people who were in jail at the start of the period, had left by the end.
At the same time, 123 people who arrived after July 21 were still incarcerated on Oct 17. The 81 people who were present at both endpoints, together with those 123 later arrivals, account for the current population of 204.
That comparison still does not capture people who arrived after July 21 and then left before Oct. 24. There were at least 847 departures from the jail during that span. Some of those departures could have been by the same person.
Among those who departed during the time The B Square has tracked the numbers, the median length of stay was 2 days.
Over the full 89-day period, the average daily population was about 233. The highest count was 264 on July 31. The lowest was 196 on Oct. 23.
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