MARION COUNTY

Indianapolis council approves $20M for Mayor Joe Hogsett to plan jail campus

IndyStar

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett has selected the site of the former Citizens Energy coke plant at 2950 Prospect St. for a new criminal justice center.

The City-County Council has moved Mayor Joe Hogsett's plan for a new Marion County criminal justice center one big step closer to reality, while also signaling that the project could face increasing scrutiny in the months ahead.

The council on Monday approved the Hogsett administration's request for $20 million to pay for planning and design work for a project that could cost up to $575 million. That money will allow the administration to shepherd the project through the rest of the year, completing engineering, site work, legal work and bidding.

"Indianapolis is closer to fundamentally reforming and improving our inefficient criminal justice system," Hogsett said in a statement Monday. "Once complete, the Community Justice Campus will result in significant savings of tax dollars by addressing the root causes of crime, focusing on assessment and intervention in the lives of those struggling with substance abuse and mental illness.”

Hogsett expects to return to the council early next year with a more detailed proposal to redevelop the former Citizens Energy coke site at 2950 Prospect St. His vision includes a new jail and assessment center to treat people with mental illness and drug addictions.

To get the project to the finish line, Hogsett will have to succeed where his predecessor, former mayor Greg Ballard, failed.

The council rejected Ballard's 2014 criminal justice center proposal after the city spent $17 million to plan for it. Republican Minority Leader Michael McQuillen on Monday said he's not convinced that Hogsett's plan is any more feasible than Ballard's discarded proposal.

"This administration is having to dig under city couch cushions to find enough money to pay for this project," McQuillen said.

McQuillen was one of seven council members who voted against authorizing $20 million in bonding for Hogsett's project. The proposal passed, 17-7.

"I agree there is a need to build a new criminal justice center and I want to see us build a new criminal justice center," McQuillen said. "However, we as councilors must make the final plan make sense."

Hogsett's office has said the city can make much, if not most, of the bond payment on the project with the savings created by having a more efficient campus. The mayor expects to save $16.5 million a year by ending a contract with private jail operator CoreCivic, which oversees Marion County Jail II.

In another efficiency, Marion County judges have agreed to move their courtrooms to the east-side campus, consolidating the courts into a modern facility. Hogsett has pledged not to raise taxes to pay for the project.

But some council members criticized cost uncertainties, including anticipated Medicaid funding that the Hogsett administration is counting on to cover mental health treatment. Republican Marilyn Pfisterer noted that repeal of the Affordable Care Act — still under consideration in Congress — could eliminate some of that money.

"If you've been listening to news from Washington, D.C., lately, you know Medicaid is not a certainty at all," she said.

Republican Jeff Miller, who supported the Ballard plan, said he favors Hogsett's vision for many of the same reasons.

"We didn't have a lot of information the first time around when we spent that $17 million (on Ballard's proposal)," Miller said. "We have more information this time. I'm more comfortable with what we have this time."

Call IndyStar reporter James Briggs at (317) 444-6307. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesEBriggs.