Pushback from public, county council on North Park jail site after filing for settlement extension

At the Monroe County council meeting on Tuesday night (April 14), residents used the general public comment period to send a clear message about the location of a new county jail: Don’t build it at North Park.

Their remarks came a day after Monroe County commissioners and the ACLU of Indiana filed a motion in federal court seeking to extend a long‑running jail lawsuit settlement agreement past its current April 15 expiration. The extension, which has now been approved by the court, goes through May 29. The 2008 lawsuit stemmed from overcrowded conditions at the jail.

The settlement agreement with the ACLU had been extended only until mid-April this year, after several years of annual extensions

Under the now-approved extension, commissioners are supposed to approve a new purchase agreement for the North Park property by the end of April. The specific property is not named in the court filing, but it’s clear from context. County councilors object to aspects of the filing, especially to the part that says that the settlement agreement will end, if the council does not approve the new purchase agreement at either its May 12 or May 26 regular meetings.

Keeping the settlement agreement in force is a way to avoid fresh litigation over current conditions at the jail, until a new jail can be constructed.

Both the council and the board of commissioners have to approve any new purchase agreement for North Park. The council has repeatedly expressed its opposition to North Park as a location, first by rejecting the needed appropriation to close the real estate purchase in late October last year, and more recently in a resolution stating the council is not interested in pursuing the North Park property.

Council president Jennifer Crossley told The B Square after Tuesday’s meeting there had been no discussion with her about the placement of a purchase agreement on the meeting agendas for either of the two dates mentioned in the filing for a settlement extension.

About the county council’s role, the filing says:

13. In the event that the County Council does not approve the purchase agreement, plaintiffs’ counsel anticipates moving to dismiss the Private Settlement Agreement…

County commissioner Jody Madeira says it was the ACLU’s legal counsel, not commissioners, who drafted the conditions included in the court filing about the purchase agreement.

In a comment on The B Square’s reporting of the court filing, Madeira put it like this: “The ACLU is the party that is imposing the requirement that the council approve the purchase agreement. That requirement was announced to commissioner and council leadership and was not something that county officials had the opportunity to negotiate. It’s either take it or leave it.”

During the council’s comment period at the end of the meeting, David Henry said, “I'll just briefly state my surprise and blindsidedness by the board of commissioners and their approach to moving forward on the jail with a purchase agreement proposal at the end of April.” Henry said he would be asking his colleagues at their next meeting (April 28) to consider an appropriations to retain its out outside legal advisor: “I think we've just reached a point where we need to retain our own legal counsel to explore this question on a positive note.”

Responding to a B Square question after Tuesday’s meeting about whether he’d vote for a purchase agreement for North Park Trent Deckard told The B Square “Not at this point.” He said, “I think we need to hash it out. I think it needs more discussion …“

Jail site: From the public mic

Tuesday’s county council meeting had no item about the jail location on its agenda, but the court filing the previous day, and the long‑running debate over whether to build at North Park or at the county‑owned Thomson property on South Rogers, meant that the jail site selection was the highlight of general public comment.

Former county councilor and current Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce president Eric Spoonmore, speaking as a “resident and taxpayer,” framed the choice of a jail site as a moral decision as much as a financial or logistical one.

Spoonmore said the county is “down to two very different options” and urged councilors to ground their decision in “how we treat people at one of the most vulnerable moments in their lives.”

He said that the existing county-owned Thomson property on South Rogers presents “a powerful opportunity” because it is embedded in a network of services and transit: “Every day, individuals leave our jail system carrying enormous challenges—mental health struggles, addiction, poverty and often no reliable transportation or any semblance of a support network. What happens in those first few hours matters. It can determine whether someone gets a second chance or falls right back into the cycle.”

Spoonmore highlighted the Thomson site’s bus stops, proximity to food pantries, Centerstone health services, harm reduction programs, shelters, and the downtown transit center. He called the adjacent Community Kitchen of Monroe County “one of the great gems of our community,” a place where someone leaving custody can get “perhaps their first sense of stability in days or weeks.”

By contrast, Spoonmore said, the proposed North Park site—outside city limits, along a four‑lane highway and lacking sidewalks—sends the message: “Once you leave the custody of Monroe County, you’re out there on your own. That’s not who we are as a community. We believe in second chances here. We believe in lifting people up, not leaving them behind.”

Offering a different view was Wes Martin, a Bloomington firefighter and chair of the local firefighters union political action committee, who spoke in support of the North Park location from an emergency medical perspective.

Martin said about 80% of the fire department’s calls are medical, often life‑threatening, and that in his experience, the current downtown jail site presents serious challenges for responders. The narrow stairwells, the sally port, and the alley all translate into delays in reaching and transporting patients.

“The sooner we can get to a patient, and the sooner we can get that patient loaded and en route to an emergency department, the more likely that patient is to have a better health outcome,” Martin said. He noted that the IU Health ambulance depot is directly across from the proposed North Park site. Both Monroe Hospital and IU Health Bloomington Hospital are about five minutes away, he said.

“When we are considering a new jail site, we need to consider the emergency uses of that site, not just the accessibility and general use of that site,” Martin said, asking council to factor emergent medical response into its decision.

Several speakers with direct experience working with people leaving jail warned that a more remote jail would undermine reentry efforts and increase recidivism. Heather Bland, executive director of New Leaf, New Life, which provides programming for people during and after incarceration, said moving the jail outside city limits would reduce the availability of resources to people leaving the jail.

Bland cited statewide recidivism of about 38%, compared to rates for New Leaf participants: “The people that come to us, we can get to 13%, and those that we get housed are under 6%,” she said. The key factor, Bland told the council, is access—to services, transportation, and housing supports. If the jail is moved farther out, she said, many people will not physically be able to reach the kinds of programs they need.

Online commenters echoed in‑person calls to resist locating a new jail at North Park. Cathleen Paquett, who works with Care Not Cages, said she was “really surprised” by the filing the commissioners made with the ACLU and described it as a “lack of collaboration” that contrasts with how the council has been listening to the community.

Crossley: Don’t play with the county council

The meeting closed with county council president Jennifer Crossley using her commentary time to talk about the extension of the settlement agreement with the ACLU over jail conditions. About the ACLU condition that says if the county council does not approve the purchase agreement, the settlement agreement will end, Crossley said: “It’s not cute, nor is it cool, to play uncle with county council,” Crossley said.

She continued, “We are respected elected officials, and I wish three folks that sit up at the dais behind us on Thursdays [a reference to the county commissioners] could understand that—while why we might not agree on just about anything right now—that we we have a right to say and have a right to do what we need to do with this project as well.”

Crossley continued, saying, “What we are doing will affect people for decades to come, and Jennifer Rose Crossley has no part in doing something that will literally eff up what we do in this county.” She concluded, “I really am tired of this crap, and I really wish that we can move forward and really stop playing uncle with council and stop twisting our hands behind our back.”