Drugs got into the Marion County jail in court clothes. Families still can't visit.

Five people are charged with smuggling Suboxone into the Adult Detention Center, and no family visit played a part. Other jails show how to screen visitors and let families in.

On October 8, the prosecutor's office announced charges against five people in an alleged scheme to smuggle Suboxone into the Marion County Adult Detention Center. WISH-TV reported that strips of the drug were sewn into the seams of clothes meant for people in the jail to wear at jury trials and sentencing hearings. According to court documents, people held in the jail used jail phones to coordinate the plan, and the clothes were delivered to an inmate's attorney before a court proceeding (WISH-TV). The Indiana Lawyer reports that investigators began intercepting calls about the scheme in July and found about 180 strips of Suboxone sewn between layers of fabric (The Indiana Lawyer).

Charges are not convictions, and the people charged will have their day in court. I am not writing about them. I am writing about what the case shows about the jail's visiting room.

Prosecutor Ryan Mears credited the Sheriff's Office: "The Sheriff's Office acted quickly to identify this scheme, uncover those allegedly involved and shut it down." Sheriff Kerry Forestal said, "Just because people come to jail doesn't mean they stop committing crimes." Contraband is a real danger inside a jail, to the people held there and to the staff who work there.

No family visit was part of it

Since the Adult Detention Center opened in 2022, families have been allowed to visit only by video. The Sheriff's Office lists in-person visits for attorneys and professionals only (indy.gov). In this case, as reported, the drugs moved through jail phone calls and court clothing. None of the reports I read, from WISH-TV, The Indiana Lawyer and WIBC, mentions a family visit.

When families ask for in-person visits, contraband is often the first worry raised. It is a fair worry. This case shows that a closed visiting room did not keep drugs out. Screening is what other jails rely on, and several of them let families in.

What screening looks like where families visit

• Denver brought in-person visits back in May 2024, starting with people held on low-level charges, for 30 minutes on Fridays and Saturdays. Each person is screened by body scanner after a visit (Front Porch).
• Chatham County, Georgia reopened in-person visits in April 2025 at stations with glass partitions and a phone on each side, once a week for 20 minutes, starting with the unit that holds female detainees and men in mental health housing (The Current).
• Mecklenburg County, North Carolina restored a weekly in-person visit in January 2019. The newly elected sheriff said in-person visits "improve public safety" (WFAE).
• Indiana's own prisons offer contact and non-contact visits (Department of Correction).

Durham County, North Carolina, offers both kinds of visits. Its sheriff's page puts it plainly: "Video visitation does not replace in-person visitation, and it is free" (Durham County Sheriff's Office).

Why this matters to my family

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.

For a person with serious mental illness, family is often who notices the warning signs first. A screened visiting room would let families do that again, without asking the jail to give up on safety.

A question for both candidates

The sheriff elected on November 3 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, and what each has said about the jail is on our candidate tracker. If contraband is a concern for either man, this case gives him a concrete way to answer: say which screening he would use, and where visits would start.

What should change

1. Before November 3, both candidates for sheriff should say whether they will restore in-person family visits, what screening they would use, and by when.
2. The next sheriff should start where others did: non-contact visits through glass in the mental health units, with visitors screened and video kept as an addition.
3. In January, the Council's Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee should ask the Sheriff's Office how contraband has entered the jail since 2022, by route, so any decision about visits rests on the record.
4. The Sheriff's Office should send the Council a count of family visits with each quarterly commissary report, starting January 15, 2027 (State Board of Accounts).

Sources

1. James Kelly, "Narcotics found sewn into clothing meant for Marion County inmates," WISH-TV (Oct. 8, 2026)
2. Maura Johnson, "Five charged with smuggling Suboxone into Marion County jail," The Indiana Lawyer (Oct. 9, 2026)
3. "Smuggling Bust Exposes Glaring Question In County Jails," WIBC (Oct. 9, 2026)
4. Marion County Sheriff's Office, Visit with a person in jail (read Sept. 25, 2026)
5. Front Porch (Denver), on the jail's return to in-person visits (2024)
6. Jake Shore, "'This is not a prison.' Chatham sheriff reopens in-person visits to people in jail," The Current (April 25, 2025)
7. WFAE, on in-person visits restored at the Mecklenburg County jails (Jan. 16, 2019)
8. Durham County Sheriff's Office, Inmate Visitation (read Oct. 16, 2026)
9. Indiana Department of Correction, Visitation (read Sept. 28, 2026)
10. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Commissary Funds guidance (Nov. 7, 2025)
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