Number of Prisoners Awaiting Transfer from Jail Surging in Indiana
Across Indiana, hundreds of prisoners who have already received sentences are stuck in jails without a timeline for transfer to a prison. Some of these prisoners, WFYI Indianapolis reported, were promised treatment programs once moved to an Indiana Department of Corrections (DOC) facility. Transfers that were supposed to happen in days, however, are now taking months.
According to state data, the number of prisoners awaiting transfer ballooned in 2024, with a peak of around 2,000 in October of that year. In 2025, there was only one month when the number fell below 1,200. As of early April 2026, 960 prisoners were left waiting for a transfer.
The DOC pays counties $42 per day to detain a prisoner who has been sentenced. The daily cost to lock a prisoner up at a state prison is more than double that amount at $89.56. Sheriffs in Indiana who spoke with WFYI Indianapolis say this discrepancy creates a financial incentive to delay transfer, despite growing overcrowding in local jails.
Although transfer times appear to be improving, DOC prisons are buckling under the demands of a growing prison population driven by harsher sentencing laws for various crimes. At the same time, local Indiana jails—built for holding detainees for short-term time frames—are left to deal with stretched budgets and more people to fit into already limited space.
Source: WFYI Indianapolis
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