If Marion County's treatment courts close, the wait moves to the jail. Families there still can't visit.

The county's reentry and drug court has stopped taking applicants, and mental health court could close by the end of 2027. People who are not diverted wait in the Adult Detention Center, where family visits have been video only since 2022.

Mirror Indy reported on October 22 that "Marion County's reentry and drug court stopped accepting applicants as officials work toward winding down the program." The cause is a state budget decision: the Indiana Department of Correction cut "a roughly $600,000 grant that supported drug, reentry and veterans court." The state's office of court services will fund veterans court through 2027. The story adds that "veterans court and mental health court haven't cut services yet, but could cease operations by the end of 2027" (Mirror Indy).

Treatment courts give people charged with crimes, many of them living with addiction or mental illness, a supervised path through treatment instead of a cell. The same story notes that more people in custody "can lead to overcrowding in jails and prisons, which can be pricey."

One line about families

One sentence in the story stayed with me. It describes Superior Court Judge Amy Jones, who presides over one of these courts: "Jones can get to know participants' family members and have a better understanding of the support they need."

In a treatment court, a judge can learn who a person's family is. In the county jail, the family can barely reach the person. Since the Adult Detention Center opened in 2022, families have been allowed to visit only by video, and the Sheriff's Office lists in-person visits for attorneys and professionals only (indy.gov). Once a person reaches state prison, the Department of Correction offers contact and non-contact visits (Department of Correction).

The jail is already full of people waiting. At the September 28 meeting of the Criminal Justice Planning Council, the Sheriff's Office reported 2,635 people in its custody, including 186 people already sentenced to state prison who were still in the Adult Detention Center. If fewer people are diverted into treatment courts, more people with serious mental illness may spend their pretrial months there too.

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 in a mental health crisis, family is often who knows the medication history, the warning signs and the plan for after release. A treatment court can make room for that knowledge. The jail, as it runs today, has no room for it.

What the candidates have said

Both men running for sheriff have spoken about mental illness and the jail. In WFYI's voter guide, Tom Vaughn said that "once the mental health facilities closed down, jails became those hospitals." Kelvis Williams spoke about crowding and said the county could "really look at expanding our jail for another 1000 beds" (WFYI). Neither was asked about families. Neither has said in public whether he would restore in-person family visits, though both have been asked in writing. Their statements are side by side on our candidate tracker.

Whoever wins on November 3 takes office January 1. If treatment courts shrink, the next sheriff will hold more of the people they would have served.

Where other jails started

Other sheriffs began with the people this story is about. In Chatham County, Georgia, the sheriff reopened in-person visits in April 2025 in the unit that holds people in mental health housing, through glass, once a week for 20 minutes (The Current). Durham County, North Carolina, runs video and in-person visits side by side, and its sheriff's page says, "Video visitation does not replace in-person visitation, and it is free" (Durham County Sheriff's Office).

What should change

1. Before November 3, both candidates for sheriff should say whether they will restore in-person family visits, starting with the jail's mental health units, and by when.
2. The next sheriff should start where Chatham County did: non-contact visits through glass in the mental health units, with video kept as an addition.
3. In January, the Council's Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee should ask where people who would have gone to drug, reentry and mental health court will wait instead, and what that means for the jail's population and for families.
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. Elizabeth Gabriel, "Indiana funding cuts could overwhelm Marion County jails, prisons," Mirror Indy (Oct. 22, 2026)
2. Marion County Sheriff's Office, Visit with a person in jail (read Sept. 25, 2026)
3. Indiana Department of Correction, Visitation (read Sept. 28, 2026)
4. City of Indianapolis, Criminal Justice Planning Council meeting video, Sept. 28, 2026 (Granicus archive, clip 26290)
5. Samantha Horton, "2026 Voter Guide: Marion County Sheriff," WFYI (Sept. 22, 2026)
6. Jake Shore, The Current, on Chatham County's return to in-person visits (April 25, 2025)
7. Durham County Sheriff's Office, Inmate Visitation (read Oct. 16, 2026)
8. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Commissary Funds guidance (Nov. 7, 2025)
9. Unheard Indy, "Where the candidates for sheriff stand on family visits, five weeks out" (Sept. 30, 2026)

Kate Vale, a mother in the gallery