Many of the highest ticket items within the Bartholomew County government annual budget comes from the sheriff’s office and county jail.
The largest expense in Sheriff Chris Lane’s 2025 spending plan involve medical costs for jail inmates. Last June, the Bartholomew County commissioners approved a nearly $1 million a year contract to provide jail inmates with round-the-clock medical care.
The $996,476 contract with Quality Correctional Care (QCC) of Carmel for 2025 is substantially more than the $737,109 being paid this year, or the $702,291 paid in 2023 to Advanced Correctional Healthcare (ACH) of Franklin, Tennessee.
However, the ACH nurses only worked nearly normal business hours on weekdays, although medical care is most often required on nights and weekends. By hiring ACH, the jail is providing 208 nursing hours a week, compared to 104 when the Tennessee firm was under contract, Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Maj. Brandon Slate said.
The medical staff are all employees of QCC, which relieves taxpayers of footing the bill for salaries and benefits. In addition, having 24/7 medical care lowers the odds of an inmate suing the county for not providing adequate medical care.
The second-highest expense is inmate food service. That was also outsourced last March to Trinity Service Group, based in Florida. While the county will pay $650,000 next year for food, labor, maintenance and supplies in the jail’s kitchen, Slate said at an earlier meeting he anticipates the Trinity contract will save taxpayers about $50,000 annually, Slate said.
Due to outsourcing, the county has five fewer full-time employees on its payroll, saving taxpayers $259,000 in salaries and up to $282,000 in benefits, Lane said. The council approved the contracts for both QCC and Trinity, as well as the commissioners, earlier this year.
In his budget presentation, Lane requested $315,000 to replace patrol vehicles next year. He’s also asking the council to increase employer contributions to pensions by $213,350.
While he’s not requesting new employees in 2025, Lane is asking for an additional $20,000 in specialty pay, so his deputies can keep parity with what Columbus police officers are receiving this year.
Specialty pay refers to additional money officers receive for receiving specialize training in areas such as water rescue, active shooter situations, use of force issues, special weapons and tactics (SWAT) and hostage negotiations.
Lane is asking for the first time that speciality pay be provided to qualified jail staff, which will cost an estimated $18,500. He is also requesting an increase in overtime that will correspond with higher salaries.
The replacement of outdated bullet-proof vests, which is required by state and federal laws, is expected to cost $60,700 next year. The purchase of new stun guns to replace older, less-effective equipment will cost an additional $22,520 than this year, bringing the total cost for new devices to $60,700.
But Lane says he’s optimistic the county will receive a grant to cover half of the costs of the vests.
