$15 copays for jail prescriptions, and no exception for mental illness

Marion County's jail charges a $15 co-payment for prescriptions and other health care. State law leaves room to exempt psychiatric medication, and the City-County Council approves the rules.

Most of what this site covers is family visits. This post is about a smaller rule inside the same jail, one that touches the same people: what someone held in the Adult Detention Center pays for health care, including the medication that keeps a serious mental illness in check.

It belongs in the budget conversation because of who signs off on it. Under state law, the county's legislative body approves a jail's co-payment rules. In Indianapolis, that is the City-County Council, which votes on the 2027 budget on October 19.

What the rule says

Indiana Code 11-12-5-5 lets a county jail charge a person up to $15 for "each provision" of medical, dental, eye care or other health services. The law waives the charge in four situations: the person has no money in their jail account, it is an emergency, the injury happened in the jail, or the sheriff asked for the service.

The law has no exception for mental health care, chronic illness or psychiatric medication. It allows these copays. It does not require them.

The Adult Detention Center's inmate handbook, effective June 20, 2022, uses the full amount: "For medical, dental, eye care, and prescriptions and any other health-care related services, the co-payment shall be fifteen dollars ($15.00)." It lists the same four exceptions, and the copays are deducted from the person's account.

The handbook also makes a promise, and it is a fair one to quote in full: "All inmates will receive the same level of medical care regardless of their ability to make co-payments or the balance in their commissary account."

Read it as a family would

The promise covers people with nothing in their account. The charge falls on people who have something there. When a family puts money on someone's account so he can buy food or basics, a $15 copay comes out of that same balance.

For a person with serious mental illness, psychiatric medication is often the difference between stability and crisis. A charge attached to it gives someone who is already unwell one more reason to say no.

There is a lot the public cannot see. The handbook does not say whether $15 is charged for each prescription, each refill or each month. I have not found a public figure for how much the jail collects in copays, how much of that comes from psychiatric medication, or whether the handbook has changed since 2022. Those are answers the Sheriff's Office has and the Council can ask for.

Why families come into it

Families are often the ones who know a person's medication history: what worked, what failed, what side effects came before a crisis. At the Adult Detention Center, families have been allowed to visit only by video since the jail opened in 2022. In-person visits are listed for attorneys and professionals only.

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.

Where the candidates stand

A new sheriff takes office January 1, and early voting has been open since October 6. Both candidates have named mental illness as part of what the jail carries. In WFYI's voter guide, Tom Vaughn said jails became the hospitals after state facilities closed, and that jail staff lack the training for it. In Mirror Indy's voter guide, Kelvis Williams said he wants "better care facilities provided and funded by the state of Indiana for those who struggle with mental health and substance abuse."

Neither man's campaign platform or voter-guide answers, as collected on our candidate tracker, say anything about jail medical copays or family visits. Either one could make it part of his plan for the jail.

What should change

1. Exempt psychiatric medication and mental health visits from jail copays. State law sets $15 as a ceiling, not a requirement.
2. Before October 19, a councilor should ask the Sheriff's Office in writing how much the jail collected in medical and prescription copays in 2025, how much of that was for psychiatric medication, and what exempting it would cost.
3. The Sheriff's Office should publish yearly copay totals, along with monthly counts of family visits.
4. Before November 3, both candidates should say whether they will end copays for psychiatric medication, and whether they will restore in-person family visits, starting with the jail's mental health units.

Sources

1. Indiana Code 11-12-5-5, health care co-payments for persons in county jails (read Sept. 25, 2026)
2. Marion County Adult Detention Center inmate handbook, effective June 20, 2022 (read Sept. 25, 2026)
3. Marion County Sheriff's Office, Visit with a person in jail (read Sept. 25, 2026)
4. WFYI, 2026 Voter Guide: Marion County Sheriff (Sept. 22, 2026)
5. Mirror Indy Voter Guide, Kelvis Williams
6. WISH-TV, public comments on the 2027 budget; final vote Oct. 19 (Oct. 5, 2026)
7. Mirror Indy, 2026 Indianapolis Election Guide
8. Unheard Indy, "Where the candidates for sheriff stand on family visits, five weeks out" (Sept. 30, 2026)

Kate Vale, a mother in the gallery