VINCENNES, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– The Knox County Council approved over $250,000 in spending to help cover the cost of housing juvenile inmates for the remainder of 2023.
County council president Harry Nolting said the county has had a significant increase in juvenile crime that led to the decision, which was made during their council meeting on Tuesday. He said they typically would house three to five people a day at the Southwest Indiana Regional Youth Village, but that has increased to about 10-11 juveniles this year. Some juveniles convicted of crimes are put on house monitoring, but Nolting said those who are convicted of crimes involving sexual assault, guns or drug dealing are typically incarcerated.
Nolting said a potential sale of the youth village building could lead to additional issues with housing juvenile inmates.
“We have an additional pending problem, in that the local detention facility is for sale, and if it is sold, it may close and become something else,” he said. “In which case we would have to find a place to house our juvenile detainees, and there’s really no openings.”
The county has held several meetings to see what possible solutions are available– and Nolting said his preferred one involves securing funding from the state to help with the issue.
“The state does not provide any funding for [housing juvenile inmates.] That’s up to each county and it’s becoming a real struggle across the state,” Nolting said. “The Association for Indiana Counties has lobbied the state to provide some money for not only this, but for other criminal justice system expenses that are rapidly increasing.”
Even though the county hadn’t encountered the issue until 2023, Nolting said he hopes to see changes so it doesn’t repeat in the future.
“Right now, we don’t have an answer, but we know that we can’t keep taking money from our rainy day fund to pay for this,” he said.
