Monroe County Jail

Monroe County's jail is located on the northwest corner of the intersection of 7th Street and College Avenue in downtown Bloomington. As of early 2025, a new jail is planned to be built outside the city limits.

Timeline: Monroe County Jail

2024-11-12 Potential new location: North Park. On a 5–1 vote (with dissent from Marty Hawk and Cheryl Munson absent) the Monroe County council approves purchase of North Park as site of new jail at a cost of $11.375-million. [copy of purchase agreement] [BSB coverage]
2024-10-23 Potential new location: North Park. On a 3–0 vote, Monroe County commissioners approve purchase of North Park as site of new jail at a cost of $11.375-million. [copy of purchase agreement] [BSB coverage]
2024-10-08 Funding for new jail. On a 5–1 vote (with dissent from Marty Hawk and Cheryl Munson absent) the Monroe County council votes to enact a local income tax for the new jail at a rate of 0.17 percent. [BSB coverage]
2024-04-29 Potential new location: North Park. VET Environmental submits Phase 1 Environmental Study for North Park on West Hunter Valley Road as a potential jail site. [copy of report]
2024-09-13 Current facility status. Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté sends report to Monroe County commissioners on the topic of the status of current jail building systems like the fire protection, sewer, HVAC, elevator, and the roof. [copy of report]
2024-09-09 Size of new facility. ACLU attorney Ken Falk sends email to Monroe County officials with a criticism of the idea that the number of beds in a proposed new jail should be as small as 300. [copy of emailed message]
2024-08-15 Potential new location: Vernal Pike. Monroe County property owners Craig Cowden and Dee Burris send letter to Monroe County commissioners and Monroe County councilors clarifying that there is a cap on the price they are asking for their land of $3 million apiece. [copy of letter]
2024-08-13 Potential new location: Vernal Pike. The chambers of commerce for Bloomington and Ellettsville sent letter to Monroe County officials supporting consideration of the Cowden property on Vernal Pike and Woodyard Road as the site of a new jail. [copy of letter]
2024-07-24 Need for new jail? New Leaf New Life releases and statement opposing the construction of a new Monroe County jail. [copy of statement]
2024-04-29 Potential new location: North Park. VET Environmental submits a site reconnaissance report for the North Park West Hunter Valley Road potential jail site [copy of report]
2024-04-29 Need for new jail? RQAW Architecture issues feasibility study to Monroe County commissioners. [copy of study]
2024-01-23 Current facility status. Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté sends a memo to various county officials about the Monroe County jail population. [copy of memo]
2024-xx-xx Current facility status. Monroe County's annual jail report for 2023 is issued. [copy of annual report]
2023-12-12 Assembling team to build new jail. Cory Grass is announced to Monroe County council as the jail transition director. [BSB coverage]
2023-11-30 Assembling team to build new jail. Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté sends email message to several officials with his reaction to the deliberations by Monroe County commissioners about their decision to revise the county's ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) plan to fund a contract position for a jail transition director. The sheriff's email reacts to the lack of enthusiasm expressed by commissioners for bringing someone on board who is not currently working in the sheriff's office—not to the outcome of their decision to amend the APRA plan. [copy of email message]
2023-10-27 Potential new location: Thomson PUD. Patriot Engineering and Environmental, Inc issues its geotechnical report on the Thomson PUD property as a potential location for a new jail. [copy of report]
2023-09-27 Potential new location: Thomson PUD. VET Environmental Engineering issues its environmental site assessment of the Thomson PUD property, as a location for a new jail. [copy of site assessment]
2023-07-28 Assembling team to build new jail. Indiana's public access counselor issues an advisory opinion stating that the lack of public access to the interviews of respondents to the RFQ for the design/build work violated Indiana's Open Door Law. [copy of advisory opinion]
2023-04-06 Assembling team to build new jail. A member of the group Care Not Cages files an Open Door Law (ODL) complaint with Indiana's public access counselor about the lack of public access to committee interviews of respondents to the design/build RFQ. [copy of ODL complaint] [copy of Monroe County response to complaint]
2023-04-05 Assembling team to build new jail. At a work session, chief deputy sheriff Phil Parker confronts county commissioners about the lack of transparency in the process of selecting the design/build firm, but does not disagree with the choice of DLZ Corporation. [BSB coverage]
2023-03-22 Assembling team to build new jail. DLZ Corporation is announced as the unanimous choice of the committee as the design/build firm. [BSB coverage]
2023-01-23 Current facility status. Monroe county sheriff Ruben Marté, who had been sworn into office three weeks earlier, and jail commander Kyle Gibbons present county commissioners with a slide deck showing deplorable conditions at the Monroe County jail. [BSB coverage]
2023-01-17 to 2023-01-19 Assembling team to build new jail. Committee interviews on three successive days firms who have responded to the RFQ for the design/build work: Elevatus, RQAW, and DLZ Corporation. [BSB coverage]
2022-12-21 Potential new location: Fullerton Pike. Bloomington's city council votes 9–0 to deny a rezone for the Fullerton Pike location to allow the location to be used as a jail [BSB coverage]
2022-12-12 Potential new location: Fullerton Pike. Monroe County councilor Jennifer Crossley states at a meeting of the county's community justice reform committee (CJRC) that she no longer supports Fullerton Pike as a location for a new county jail. [BSB coverage]
2022-12-09 Need for new jail? Private settlement agreement between the ACLU about the Monroe County, Indiana is extended [copy of extended settlement agreement]
2022-11-14 Potential new location: Fullerton Pike. Bloomington city plan commission votes 6–3 to send a negative recommendation to the city council for a requested rezone of a 87-acre site on Fullerton Pike, in order to allow the the use of the site for a jail facility. [BSB coverage]
2022-10-27 Assembling team to build new jail. Monroe County issues an RFQ for new jail. The RFQ includes the wording: "The committee will request presentations from each submitter, these presentations will be open to the public and may include a public display/presentation." The committee membership was: Richard Crider, Monroe County’s fleet and building manager; David Gardner, ASI Facilities Services contractor; Lee Baker, county attorney; Kyle Gibbons, jail commander; Matt Demmings, assistant jail commander; and Angie Purdie, administrator for the commissioners.[copy of RFQ]
2022-07-22 Potential new location: Fullerton Pike. Monroe County commissioners approve $10.02 million land purchase on Fullerton Pike (contingent on rezone by city of Bloomington) as location of new jail. [BSB coverage]
2021-06-20 Need for new jail? Report is issued by Kenneth A. Ray of RJS Justice Services, which concludes that the Monroe County jail facility "is failing." [copy of report] [copy of executive summary] [BSB coverage]
2021-04 Need for new jail? Report is issued by Eve Hill of Inclusivity Strategic Consulting on the status of the current jail facility. [copy of the report] [BSB coverage]
2009-08-14 Need for new jail? The ACLU and Monroe County reach a private settlement agreement on the ACLU lawsuit, which allows the ACLU to renew its complaint if Monroe County does not meet certain conditions [copy of private settlement agreement]
2009-04-24 Justice Complex Master Plan released. Master plan and study issued by PMSIinc, from Noblesville, recommending new jail, community corrections facility, juvenile detention and treatment center, sheriff's administration facility, and common warehouse and maintenance building be built on the County's Thomson property [Monroe County Justice Complex Master Plan]
2008-02-13 Need for new jail? The ACLU files a lawsuit on behalf of the prisoners at the Monroe County jail, based on overcrowded conditions at the Monroe County jail. [copy of complaint]