ACLU Threatens New Lawsuit After Indiana County’s Repeated Failures to Abide by 17-Year-Old Settlement Agreement
by Chuck Sharman
On April 14, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted the latest in a series of extensions that have added more than 17 years to a settlement agreement in which the Monroe County Sheriff promised to alleviate overcrowding causing unsafe and unsanitary conditions in the County lockup in Bloomington. Unless purchase of a site for a new jail is approved by the time the latest extension expires on May 29, 2026, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) vowed to let the agreement lapse and file a new suit to force a resolution to the long-deferred problems at the jail.
“You know, give me a break,” ACLU attorney Ken Falk told the Bloomington Herald Times. “I filed this case in 2008. … It’s 2026.”
The district court certified the suit a class-action in August 2008, and the ACLU reached a stipulated settlement in August 2009 with then-Sheriff Jim Kennedy and the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). Under its terms, anytime the detained population exceeded the jail’s 294-bed capacity, Defendants were obligated to undertake a series of steps, including transferring detainees to other lockups and, if that proved insufficient, seeking court orders to release prisoners to reduce the jail population. Defendants agreed to provide detainees with at least two hours weekly of “vigorous” physical exercise and “reasonable” sleeping arrangements—forcing the jail to install stacking bunks when it ran out of permanent sleeping berths. The County also agreed to stop taking prisoners and detainees from other counties, robbing the Sheriff of the per diem that they earned. The agreement further included a $20,000 payment for Plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs. See: Richardson v. Monroe Cty. Sheriff, USDC (S.D. Ind.), Case No. 1:08-cv-00174.
Current Sheriff Ruben Marté is among those who have warned the BOCC that conditions have been deteriorating at the jail. But County leaders repeatedly hit an impasse when debating whether to renovate and expand the existing jail or build a new one. The three-member BOCC approved plans for a new $225 million jail with 404 beds, but the seven-member County Council—which holds the purse strings—rejected that idea in November 2025, citing the distance from the County courthouse to the new site. A spokesperson for the BOCC called that decision a “blow to the gut.”
The ACLU apparently agreed, stipulating to the latest extension of the settlement agreement but vowing there would be no more. If a new suit is filed, it may well succeed like the current one did, since the underlying jail conditions remain miserable. That threat may force the Council to agree with the BOCC’s second choice of sites, an 80-acre parcel that the County already owns in Bloomington and which Commissioners say Falk supports. However, in an interview with the Herald Times, Council Pres. Jennifer Crossley called that “lies,” saying she doubted that Falk would accept a site where construction would be slowed by the need for additional approval from the City of Bloomington.
Additional source: Herald Times
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