Marion County jail population above crisis threshold; state cuts reduce community corrections funding

At a July 21 meeting of the Criminal Justice Planning Council in the City-County Building, the Marion County Sheriff's Office reported a mid-day jail count above the council's crisis threshold, and Marion County Community Corrections officials described state-level grant reductions that they said will cut or eliminate several local treatment and diversion programs.

Colonel Martin of the Marion County Sheriff's Office said the jail count at about 9:00 a.m. that day was 2,415 inmates with 570 open beds. He described a locally defined crisis threshold of 2,400 beds and said the county was "a little bit over that." He added that the number of inmates waiting on Department of Corrections placement (referred to in the transcript as DLC/IDOC placements) was starting to rise: "We're about a 160 this morning with about 30 waiting on parole. We'll be working with…