ACCOUNTABILITY

A caucus will choose Marion County's sheriff for the rest of 2026. Two things that sheriff can do for families before Jan. 1.

Whoever runs the jail until Sheriff-elect Williams takes office can release the records families have asked for and hand him a ready plan for in-person visits.

By Kate Vale · November 9, 2026

Marion County now has an interim sheriff and a sheriff-elect, and it may soon have a third person in charge of the jail before the year ends.

Sheriff Kerry Forestal resigned after winning his race for the Indiana Senate. WTHR reported that Chief Deputy Reginald Roney Sr. "immediately assumed the duties of interim sheriff and was sworn into office." WTHR also reported that, under Indiana law, Myla Eldridge, chair of the Marion County Democratic Party, "must call a caucus within 30 days for Democratic precinct committee members to select a sheriff to serve the remainder of Forestal's term, which was scheduled to end Dec. 31, 2026" (WTHR). Not every outlet described the handoff the same way. WIBC wrote that Roney serves "until Williams takes office on January 1st, 2027" (WIBC). As of this morning, I found no caucus date announced.

Either way, Sheriff-elect Kelvis Williams takes office Jan. 1, 2027. The weeks between now and then are short, but they are not empty.

What the next few weeks hold

Whoever leads the Sheriff's Office through December runs a jail where families cannot visit in person. Since the Adult Detention Center opened in 2022, family visits have been by video only, and the Sheriff's Office lists in-person visits for attorneys and professionals only (indy.gov). WFYI reported that the next sheriff "will inherit a jail capped at 2,400 people by the City-County Council budget" (WFYI).

No one should expect a short-term sheriff to rewrite jail policy in seven weeks. Two smaller things fit inside that window, and both would help the next sheriff start on day one.

Why this matters to my family

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

1. Release the records

On Sept. 25, I asked the Sheriff's Office for the jail's ViaPath contract and its revenue terms, the policy that made family visits video only, and counts of family visits and their fees. I have not received those records.

Releasing them before Dec. 31 would give the Council, the public and Sheriff-elect Williams the same starting facts: how many families use video visits now, what they pay, and what the contract allows. A sheriff who serves only a few weeks can still answer a request that is already on file.

2. Have a plan ready on Jan. 1

The second step is a short written plan for in-person family visits, prepared by the staff who know the building and handed to the new sheriff on his first day. It can answer plain questions: which housing unit goes first, which day of the week, how many visitors, and how screening works.

Other jails show how small a first step can be. In Chatham County, Georgia, in-person visits returned in April 2025 in Unit 1, which holds female detainees and male mental health detainees. Visits were through glass, once a week for 20 minutes, with up to two visitors (The Current). Durham County, North Carolina, runs both kinds of visits side by side. Its sheriff's page says, "Video visitation does not replace in-person visitation, and it is free" (Durham County Sheriff's Office).

Indiana's own prisons work this way too. The Department of Correction offers contact and non-contact visits (Department of Correction), and it says its statewide video service "supplements in-person visitation" (Department of Correction).

A weekly visit through glass in one unit adds no beds and fits inside a population cap.

A question for the caucus

If a caucus meets, the precinct committee members who vote can ask each candidate two questions. Will you release the Sept. 25 records before Dec. 31? Will you have a plan for in-person family visits, starting in the mental health units, ready for Sheriff-elect Williams on Jan. 1?

If the interim sheriff serves until Jan. 1 instead, the same two questions belong to him.

What should change

Anyone seeking the caucus vote for sheriff should answer the two questions above in public before the vote. I will post every answer word for word.
Whoever leads the Sheriff's Office in December should release the Sept. 25 records before Dec. 31.
The office should hand Sheriff-elect Williams a written plan for in-person family visits on Jan. 1, starting with non-contact visits in the mental health units, with video kept as an addition for families who cannot travel.
The Sheriff's Office should send the City-County Council a count of family visits, in person and by video, with its first quarterly commissary report of the new term, due Jan. 15, 2027 (State Board of Accounts).

Sources

Kate Vale, a mother in the gallery