MARION COUNTY — The Marion County Sheriff is making changes to how long the Adult Detention Center holds U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees due to overcrowding issues.
Sheriff Kerry Forestal sat down with WRTV on Monday and said the Marion County Adult Detention Center is financially capped at 2,400 inmates and exceeded that on Sunday.
WATCH FULL STORY BELOW
"Medical care, feeding people. We must serve, you know, three meals a day. 2,400 meals throughout this operation. Anything past that is money that I'm spending that's not been budgeted yet by the City County Council," Forestal said.
As of Monday afternoon, Sheriff Forestal said the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) is keeping 175 convicts at the ADC, and the jail only has room for 149.
"The state just needs to move their prisoners out to begin with," Forestal said.
On top of that, the jail currently has 34 ICE detainees. Forestal said he is trying to cooperate with ICE, but having detainees past the allotted 48-hour hold is creating a major problem.
"We recognize if we asked you to work, you know,25 hours tomorrow, you're going to do it, but it's still that much more difficult," Forestal said.
The IDOC reimburses only $42 per inmate per day, which Forestal said creates a shortfall of nearly $3 million.
When he met with ICE about the issue, "they actually said when they came here, they anticipated that's what the request was. I think they knew that, you know, this day was going to come sometime because we had to reduce them," Forestal said.
ICE will now transfer detainees held for more than 48 hours to other state facilities. Now, he's turning to the City-County Council to make some financial adjustments before it's too late.
"There are members of the city county council who said that they would do what they could with the state to help support getting people out of here, and I'm hoping they will continue to do that," Forestal said.
Sheriff Forestal said the opening of the IDOC’s Miami Correctional Facility may help ease overcrowding, but immediate local action is still necessary.
In a statement, Leroy Robinson, the chair of the Indy City-County Council's Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, said:
"On October 6, 2025, my colleagues and I on the Indianapolis City-County Council approved the City’s 2026 consolidated budget, which included $150.7 million for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the full amount requested by the Sheriff. At this time, the Council has not been asked to allocate additional funding or approve any new appropriations for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office budget.
As the Sheriff has outlined, multiple factors have contributed to this situation, including the continued failure of the Indiana Department of Correction to transfer approximately 175 individuals who should be housed in state facilities. This is not a new issue, nor one created by the City-County Council. It is a longstanding structural problem that requires immediate action by the State of Indiana.
The Council remains committed to working collaboratively with the Sheriff’s Office to protect public safety, uphold constitutional standards, and ensure responsible use of taxpayer dollars. However, sustainable solutions will require the State to do its part—fully, fairly, and on time."
____
