Juvenile Justice Center requests $200,000 to pay for on-site nurse and complete sally port security

Andrea Moller, interim director of the Vigo County Juvenile Justice Center, requested two appropriations from the council: $165,000 for contractual nursing services and $35,000 for completion of security work on the facility’s sally port.

Moller told the council the juvenile center now has a nurse working 40 hours per week under a contract with Comprehensive Correctional Care (3C). “We have a nurse finally in our facility 40 hours a week, Monday through Friday,” Moller said. She said the jail previously paid part of the nurse’s cost under an earlier contract; under the new arrangement, the juvenile center must cover the contract shortfall. Moller said the nurse is an employee of 3C, not a county employee.

Moller said the $165,000 would be drawn from the juvenile nonreverting fund, which receives per-diem revenue from out-of-county juveniles housed at the center. “That money is coming out of the nonreverting juvenile account … we charge a hundred fifty dollars a day per diem,” she said. She added the center regularly receives requests from other counties to house juveniles and that demand is ongoing.

The $35,000 request is for the outstanding security work on an extended sally port that was built without cameras or an intercom. “When they did that, they didn't put any security. There's not one camera, so we have to have … the intercom system set up, we have to have the security cameras set up,” Moller said. She described the funds as needed to finish a project that had been delayed and not included in prior budgets.

Council members asked detailed questions about the contractual arrangements, whether the center could contract instead with the local health department for nursing services, and who covered prior costs. Councilman Anderson suggested Moller meet with Health Department Administrator Joni Wise to explore whether the county health department could provide some services or cost savings. Moller and other council members also discussed whether the prior contract amendments and the jail's budget decisions affected current funding responsibility.

No formal vote or appropriation was recorded in the transcript; council members asked for additional information and indicated follow-up conversations with the commissioners’ office, the auditor, and the health department would be appropriate before final action.