'The current jail will come down': Commissioner lays out future of Meyer Road

ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. ---Speculation on the fate of the downtown Allen County Jail can probably come to a halt.

Allen County Commissioner Ron Turpin, the newest commissioner and organizer of Restore Allen, an ad hoc group that meets to improve the local criminal justice system, put any rumors the jail might be used to abate homelessness to rest at the July 24 Community Corrections Advisory Board meeting.

“The current jail will come down. We’re not going to use that property for homelessness. We will sell that property,” Turpin told the board. He is a member of that large board as well as Commissioner Therese Brown.

You can hear Commissioner Turpin's remarks here:

Key takeaways include:

New Allen County jail is a month ahead of schedule and $55 million under budget.

The figures for the new jail can be found on the Allen County website: “The $320M figure represents the hard and soft costs associated with building a 400,000 square foot jail facility in an open soybean field behind 2911 Meyer Road. This would consist of five pods housing roughly 1,300 inmates, as well as the accompanying food, medical, and laundry facilities, lockup for the drop off of arrested individuals by local law enforcement, and jail administrative offices. The county would also use money that it has on hand to pay for part of the project prior to bonding (aka getting a mortgage). The bond amount is estimated to be more in the $280-290M range."

The county will get the keys in November next year with a move in February, 2028 (most likely).

Meyer Road project with jail is a 130-acre asset with an existing building of 288,000 square feet.

The architectural firm of MSKTD is currently coming up with a study on how to utilize that building. Phase 1 will likely be presented to the County Council in September.

The Allen County Coroner wants to move operation out to Meyer Road and leave the downtown hospital. 

Current jail will be sold.

The Bud Meeks Justice Center (misdemeanor court) at Superior and Harrison streets downtown will be impossible to save due to the shared HVAC system with the downtown jail.

The state is focusing on Maplecrest Road because it’s destined to have more than the one restaurant it has now.

Brown, a long-time commissioner, told The Probable Cause that the county is working on a solution to provide transportation to the new jail and future justice center, including Community Corrections, slated to move to the new location.

You'll be able to hear and see Brown on one of our podcasts soon. She is retiring at the end of the year as is Commissioner Rich Beck.