Sheriff-elect Williams inherits a jail where families can't visit. Here is a plan for his first 100 days.

Kelvis Williams takes office Jan. 1 with a jail capped at 2,400 people and a visiting room closed to families since 2022. Other new sheriffs reopened theirs within months, starting with the people in mental health housing.

Kelvis Williams will be the next Marion County sheriff. WFYI reported that the Democrat defeated Republican Tom Vaughn by about 31 percentage points, and that the four-year term begins Jan. 1, 2027 (WFYI). WIBC reported that Williams received 170,000 votes, or 71.25%, in the election-night count (WIBC). These are election-night results, not the certified count.

Thank you to both men for running for a hard job. Both were asked in writing during the campaign about family visits at the jail. Now the decision belongs to one of them.

What he inherits

Williams knows the building. Mirror Indy reports he has about four decades in law enforcement and serves as executive officer of the Sheriff's Office under Sheriff Kerry Forestal (Mirror Indy). In the spring, Mirror Indy reported that his platform includes "expanding programming for inmates at the jail" (Mirror Indy).

He also inherits a crowded jail. WFYI put it this way: "Williams will inherit a jail capped at 2,400 people by the City-County Council budget." In January, Axios Indianapolis reported that the facility "is already full" (Axios Indianapolis).

And he inherits a visiting room that families cannot use. 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). Indiana's prisons work the other way. The Department of Correction offers contact and non-contact visits (Department of Correction), and when it launched a statewide video app this year it said the service "supplements in-person visitation" (Department of Correction). Its chief communications officer told WTHI, "Nothing can substitute for an in-person visit and we know that" (WTHI).

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 was later transferred to state prison, we could visit him in person again.

What the campaign left open

In WFYI's voter guide, Williams spoke about crowding and said that "when our new facility was built, it was built with the expectation of expanding." Vaughn said that "once the mental health facilities closed down, jails became those hospitals" (WFYI). Neither man said in public whether he would restore in-person family visits. Our candidate tracker still reads "not yet" on that line for both.

What other new sheriffs did first

In Chatham County, Georgia, the sheriff told WTOC, "This is a campaign promise that when I ran that I would bring back in-person visitation" (WTOC). Visits returned in April 2025 in Unit 1, which holds female detainees and male mental health detainees, through glass, once a week for 20 minutes, with up to two visitors (The Current).

In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, a newly elected sheriff restored one weekly in-person, face-to-face visit in January 2019, keeping a campaign promise, and said visits "improve public safety" (WFAE).

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).

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

What should change

1. Sheriff-elect Williams should say in public whether he will restore in-person family visits, starting with the jail's mental health units, and give a start date inside his first 100 days. I will post his answer word for word on the tracker.
2. The first step can be small: non-contact visits through glass on a set day each week in the mental health units, with video kept as an addition for families who cannot travel.
3. In January, the City-County Council's Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee should invite the new sheriff to present his plan for family visits.
4. The Sheriff's Office should send the Council a count of family visits, in person and by video, with each quarterly commissary report. The first report of the new term is due Jan. 15, 2027 (State Board of Accounts).

Sources

1. WFYI News, "Ryan Mears wins reelection for prosecutor. Here's who won other Marion County races" (Nov. 3, 2026)
2. Jarett Lewis, "Mears Remains Marion County Prosecutor, Williams Wins Sheriff's Race," WIBC (Nov. 3, 2026)
3. Claire Rafford, Mirror Indy, 2026 Marion County election results (Nov. 3, 2026)
4. Mary Claire Molloy, Mirror Indy, Marion County sheriff primary results (May 5, 2026)
5. Axios Indianapolis, "Marion County sheriff warns bail changes could stress already full jail" (Jan. 14, 2026)
6. Marion County Sheriff's Office, Visit with a person in jail (read Sept. 25, 2026)
7. Indiana Department of Correction, Visitation (read Sept. 28, 2026)
8. Indiana Department of Correction, statewide video visitation release (July 1, 2026)
9. Audrey Geib, WTHI, on the prison video visitation app (July 15, 2026)
10. Samantha Horton, "2026 Voter Guide: Marion County Sheriff," WFYI (Sept. 22, 2026)
11. Jasmine Butler, WTOC, on Chatham County's return to in-person visits (April 23, 2025)
12. Jake Shore, The Current, on Chatham County's return to in-person visits (April 25, 2025)
13. WFAE, on Mecklenburg County's return to in-person visits (Jan. 16, 2019)
14. Durham County Sheriff's Office, Inmate Visitation (read Oct. 16, 2026)
15. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Commissary Funds guidance (Nov. 7, 2025)
16. Unheard Indy, candidate tracker (Sept. 30, 2026)

Kate Vale, a mother in the gallery