Once taking office I knew how important it was going to be to have the right leadership in every division of the office, and the jail was certainly no exception. Upon taking office, I appointed Lt. Kevin Gelbaugh as the jail commander and Chad Marsh as the assistant jail commander, and to say I am proud of all their work and accomplishments would be an understatement.
Something I campaigned on when running for sheriff two years ago was implementing a drug detection K9 once I took office.
Although I did not know what kind of dog was appropriate for the jail setting, I was certain that we needed one that was good at sniffing and locating narcotics, in the event that someone would bring them into the jail.
As we as a department put more thought into the K9, we all agreed that a non-biting dog would be the most suitable in the jail setting since the dog would be in the jail as its primary work place, and it would be less of a liability to the county by having a dog that was not trained in biting. I challenged Lt. Travis Shively with the responsibility of helping KCSO finding the right dog, and to his credit, we were able to have K9 Buck, a yellow lab along with handler Caleb Snider, begin their new duties as K9 and hander for the Kosciusko County Jail, within the first six months of my first year as sheriff.
With the way of the world now, and people making complaints about how they are treated by law enforcement in general, I knew it also was time to have a body camera policy put into effect for the jail. I put this project into the hands of Gelbaugh, advising him to not only find the right cameras for his jail staff but to also establish policies and protocols for the wear and use of the body cameras.
I can proudly say that the jail staff have been utilizing the body cameras since the first quarter of my first year as sheriff. Although there was some reluctancy by some of the jail staff initially, I believe they appreciate the value of them wearing the cameras now, as any allegation of them can be quickly investigated and put to rest without the “he said, she said” piece.
Shortly after taking office, I began working with different phone companies that provide service to jails for their inmates. After many meetings and listening to different sales pitches, I decided to continue our partnership with Securus, who had been providing phone and visitation services inside the jail for several years prior.
Part of the agreement was to implement tablets to each of the inmates inside of the jail. These tablets serve many purposes to the inmates, including visitations with friends and loved ones, podcasts, religious applications, books and educational applications.
One piece to the tablets and our contract with Securus is that due to the large number of indigent inmates inside the jail, every inmate receives four free visits per month on the tablets. We at KCSO felt that it was important that all of them deserved an opportunity to have contact with the outside and after working through the idea with Securus, we were able to accomplish this.
Upon taking office, it was also apparent that there was a lot of damage being done inside the jail that was being caused by inmates and we knew that some accountability measures were needed to minimize this issue. With the leadership in the jail working alongside the county administrator and commissioners, implementing more cameras in day room portions of the blocks, more routine checks by the jail staff and working closely with the prosecutor’s office and judges, we were able to significantly decrease the damage that was occurring inside the jail blocks.
We have also continued with offering the Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP) inside the jail, lead by Casey Trombley, who is doing an amazing job with the program.
One of the few changes inside the program since the change of administration is the partnership that JCAP has with Kosciusko Animal Welfare League. Every JCAP class since the beginning of 2023 has completed community service hours at the AWL by cleaning kennels, walking dogs and many other tasks. This addition to the program has proved to be beneficial for not only the participants of the JCAP classes, in the therapeutic value that animals bring to a human, but it has also been beneficial to the AWL as, they depend on volunteers to achieve much of the work that is needed to care for as many animals as they house.
Kosciusko Community Recovery program is the most recent program that has been implemented into the jail, and it is lead by Shanna Wallen.
She was hired by KCSO as the resource navigator, with the help and partnership from K21 Health Foundation through a grant.
Wallen meets with inmates as they are nearing release, and helps them identify the needed resources to best set them up for success, as they re-enter back into the community. The resources needed from inmate to inmate are very wide spread and can range from a transportation need to housing. Some other examples of the resources that Wallen can assist with are possible job opportunities, assistance in obtaining identification cards, birth certificates, social security cards, education opportunities such as assisting inmates in obtaining their GEDs.
The purpose of the program is for KCSO to be a hand up, not a hand out. Wallen can only successfully help someone that is committed to receiving the help, and willing to put forth the effort as well.
A couple of important pieces to KCRP are the mental heath opportunities that come with the program, as well as peer-recovery coaches, to help and walk alongside the inmates as they re-enter back into society. The theory with the peer recovery coaches is, who better help someone with recovery and “turn over a new leaf” than someone who has already done it and is still doing it.