News Local/State

ACLU Says Vigo County Jail Still Crowded Despite Deal

 

A lawsuit says Vigo County, Indiana, officials are still allowing overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in the county jail despite a 13-year-old settlement. 

Records show that officials in the western Indiana county agreed in 2000 to settle a federal lawsuit by limiting the jail population to 268 inmates. But the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana alleges the county hasn't lived up to the agreement, allowing the jail population to swell to 293, according to an October report by the state Department of Correction. 

That report referred to the jail located in Terre Haute as ``overpopulated.'' 

Jail officials didn't answer a phone call seeking comment Monday. 

As part of the settlement, Vigo County built an annex to the jail in 2001.