Four jail records the Council can ask for before the Oct. 19 vote

A quarterly report on the jail's commissary fund is due to the county's fiscal body on Oct. 15. The public still cannot see the jail's video visit contract, its copay totals or how many family visits take place.

The City-County Council votes on the 2027 budget on Monday, October 19 (WISH-TV). The Sheriff's Office runs the Adult Detention Center, and the Council funds it. Some of the numbers that would help the Council decide are already on paper, or could be put on paper with one written question. Most of them are not public.

Since the jail opened in 2022, families have been allowed to visit only by video. In-person visits are listed for attorneys and professionals only. Here are four records that would show how that arrangement works, what it costs, and who pays.

1. The commissary fund report due October 15

Indiana's State Board of Accounts tells sheriffs to report the jail commissary fund to the county fiscal body every quarter, with reports due January 15, April 15, July 15 and October 15 (SBOA guidance). In Marion County, the fiscal body is the City-County Council. That puts a report on the jail's commissary money in the Council's hands days before the vote.

People in the jail buy food and basics from their accounts, and the jail's medical copays are deducted from the same accounts. Families often put that money there. I have not found these reports posted anywhere the public can read them.

2. The video visit contract

Family video visits at the jail run through GettingOut, a ViaPath service (indy.gov). On September 25, I asked the Sheriff's Office under Indiana's public records law for its contracts with ViaPath since 2020, including any commission or revenue-share terms, for records of what the county received, and for the policy or memo that made family visits video only. Indiana law gives an agency seven days to respond to a request sent by email. I have not received the records.

Federal rules have banned jail commissions on calls and video visits since April 6, 2026, though providers may still add up to 2 cents a minute for a jail's costs and pass that money to the jail (FCC). The contract would show what Marion County received before that date, and what it receives now.

3. Copay totals

Under Indiana Code 11-12-5-5, the county's legislative body approves a jail's health care co-payment rules. In Indianapolis, that is the Council. The jail's inmate handbook charges $15 for medical care and prescriptions, with no exception for psychiatric medication (our explainer). I have not found a public figure for how much the jail collects, or how much of it comes from psychiatric medication.

4. A count of family visits

The Sheriff's Office posts its rules for family video visits: book one to four days ahead, no walk-ins, every visit recorded, and a visit canceled less than 24 hours ahead counts as completed, with no refund (the rules, read as a family would). It does not post how many visits take place. My September 25 request also asked for yearly counts of family video visits since 2022, and the fees visitors paid.

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.

I still do not know who decided that families at the county jail would see their people only on a screen, or why. These records would help answer that.

How the Council can ask

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, and that the budget can still be amended before the final vote. A written request takes one email.

The next sheriff takes office January 1. Neither Tom Vaughn nor Kelvis Williams has said in public whether he would restore in-person family visits (candidate tracker). Either one could promise to publish these four records early in his term.

What should change

1. Before October 19, a councilor should ask the Sheriff's Office in writing for its 2026 commissary fund reports, the current ViaPath contract and any amendments, 2025 copay totals with psychiatric medication counted separately, and yearly counts of family video visits since 2022.
2. The Council should post the Sheriff's quarterly commissary fund reports with its public meeting materials, starting with the report due October 15.
3. The Sheriff's Office should answer the September 25 records request.
4. Before November 3, both candidates should say whether they will publish these records, and whether they will restore in-person family visits, starting with the jail's mental health units.

Sources

1. Marion County Sheriff's Office, Visit with a person in jail (read Sept. 25, 2026)
2. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Commissary Funds guidance
3. Federal Communications Commission, staff notice DA 26-567 (June 8, 2026)
4. Federal Register, FCC final rule on incarcerated people's communication services (Dec. 5, 2025)
5. Indiana Code 11-12-5-5, health care co-payments for persons in county jails (read Sept. 25, 2026)
6. Marion County Adult Detention Center inmate handbook, effective June 20, 2022 (read Sept. 25, 2026)
7. City-County Council, Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee meeting recording, Sept. 30, 2026
8. WISH-TV, public comments on the 2027 budget; final vote Oct. 19 (Oct. 5, 2026)
9. Unheard Indy, "$15 copays for jail prescriptions, and no exception for mental illness" (Oct. 7, 2026)
10. Unheard Indy, "Book ahead, no walk-ins, no refunds" (Oct. 5, 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