Indianapolis · Mental illness · JusticeUpdated October 19, 2026Share your story
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ACCOUNTABILITY

Tonight's budget vote, and three things the Council can still do for families at the jail

The 2027 budget reaches its final vote with no change found so far. None of these three asks needs a line in it.

By Kate Vale · October 19, 2026

Tonight the City-County Council takes its final vote on the city's $1.9 billion budget for 2027. Adoption takes at least 13 of the 25 councilors. Council President Maggie Lewis said earlier this month that she expected some amendments, but as of October 15 the council's chief of staff, Doran Moreland, said the budget had not changed since it was introduced (WFYI).

Criminal justice services, including the sheriff's and coroner's offices, make up more than $360 million of that budget. WFYI's preview names one pressure on those costs: "higher jail populations because of delayed transfers to state prisons."

What the budget debate left out

Families pay a cost for those delays too. At the September 28 meeting of the Criminal Justice Planning Council, the Sheriff's Office reported 221 people already sentenced to state prison still in its custody, 186 of them in the Adult Detention Center. Once they reach a state prison, the Department of Correction offers contact and non-contact visits (IDOC). At the Adult Detention Center, family visits have been video only since the jail opened in 2022, and the Sheriff's Office lists in-person visits for attorneys and professionals only. That rule covers everyone held there, including people awaiting trial and people in the mental health units.

Family visits did not come up at the September 30 committee review of the public safety budget, and WFYI's preview of tonight's vote does not mention the jail's visiting rules.

Why I keep asking

My son lives with serious mental illness and spent nine months in the Adult Detention Center. In those nine months our family never had a single visit with him, in person or by video. I saw him only in brief glimpses across a courtroom at his few hearings. When he moved to state prison, we could visit him in person again.

Three things that need no budget line

1. One written question. At the September 30 meeting of the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, members heard that answers to councilors' follow-up questions are sent by email. That route stays open after tonight. Any councilor can still ask the Sheriff's Office what it would take to restore in-person family visits, starting with the mental health units, and what it would cost. A mental health unit is where Chatham County, Georgia, began when its new sheriff reopened visits in 2025 (how four jails started).

2. A visit count beside the money. Under House Enrolled Act 1208, in effect since July 1, 2025, sheriffs report on the jail commissary fund to the county council quarterly instead of twice a year, with reports due January 15, April 15, July 15 and October 15 (State Board of Accounts). The reports cover the fund's receipts and spending (Indiana Capital Chronicle). The Council could ask the Sheriff's Office to send, with each report, a count of family video visits that quarter, and could post the reports where the public can read them. The first report due under the next sheriff is January 15, 2027, two weeks after he takes office.

3. The copay rules the Council already approves. Under Indiana law (IC 11-12-5-5), a county jail may charge up to $15 for each provision of health care, and the county's legislative body approves the jail's co-payment rules. The jail's handbook sets the full $15 for prescriptions, with no exception for psychiatric medication (the rule and the law). The Council could ask for rules that exempt it.

After tonight

A new sheriff takes office January 1. Neither Tom Vaughn nor Kelvis Williams has said in public whether he would restore in-person family visits. Both have been asked in writing, in the same words (candidate tracker). On September 25 I asked the Sheriff's Office for its video visit contract with ViaPath and yearly counts of family video visits. I have not received those records (what the public cannot see).

What should change

  1. This week, a councilor should send the Sheriff's Office one written question: what would it take to restore in-person family visits, starting with the mental health units, and what would it cost?
  2. The Council should ask that each quarterly commissary report come with that quarter's count of family visits, and post the reports publicly, starting January 15, 2027.
  3. The Council should ask for jail copay rules that exempt psychiatric medication.
  4. Before November 3, both candidates should say whether they will restore in-person family visits, by when, and where they would start.

Sources

  1. Zak Cassel, "The Indianapolis City-County Council is set to vote on the 2027 budget. What's in it?" WFYI (Oct. 15, 2026)
  2. Criminal Justice Planning Council meeting recording, Sept. 28, 2026 (City of Indianapolis, Granicus clip 26290)
  3. Indiana Department of Correction, Visitation (read Sept. 28, 2026)
  4. Marion County Sheriff's Office, Visit with a person in jail (read Sept. 25, 2026)
  5. City-County Council, Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee meeting recording, Sept. 30, 2026
  6. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Commissary Funds guidance (Nov. 7, 2025)
  7. Indiana Capital Chronicle, via The Journal Gazette, on the bill to increase oversight of jail commissary funds (2025)
  8. Unheard Indy, "$15 copays for jail prescriptions, and no exception for mental illness" (Oct. 7, 2026)
  9. Unheard Indy, "Where other sheriffs started when they brought family visits back" (Oct. 16, 2026)
  10. Unheard Indy, "Four jail records the Council can ask for before the Oct. 19 vote" (Oct. 14, 2026)
  11. Unheard Indy, "Where the candidates for sheriff stand on family visits, five weeks out" (Sept. 30, 2026)

Kate Vale, a mother in the gallery