Harrison County, Indiana — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Harrison County Jail (Harrison County Correctional Facility)

Operated byHarrison County Sheriff's Department
Jail address1445 Gardner Lane (NW), Suite 1000, Corydon, IN 47112
Capacity (sheriff site)213 beds (increased from 175 in 2020); 198 general population, 14 fixed intake holding beds, padded cell, medical isolation cell, large intake holding cell; 38 beds for women
Jail staffing (sheriff site)1 jail commander, 3 lieutenants, 3 sergeants, 3 corporals, 20 officers, 1 RN, 4 kitchen staff
Service vendors namedCommissary deposits via vendengine.com; phone time via Securus; clothing via careacell.com

Source: Harrison County Sheriff — Jail Information · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✓Beds and daily population
✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✗PREA audits — not published
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✗How to post bond — not published
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Harrison County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds213

Since then

Capacity increased from 175 to 213 beds in 2020

The Sheriff

Sheriff Nick Smith

How the office is filledElected, four-year term; no more than eight years in any twelve (Ind. Const. art. 6, §2)
Runs the jailYes — the jail is part of the Sheriff's Department corrections division
Staff (sheriff site)Over sixty staff across multiple divisions

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Harrison County Sheriff (in.gov/sheriffs/harrison) · checked 2026-09-20

The Judges

Indiana circuit and superior court judges are state judicial officers, not county officials. In most counties they are elected to six-year terms; a few counties choose some judges through a nominating commission followed by retention votes.

Harrison County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-20

The Commissioners and County Council

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe three county commissioners own and maintain the jail building and sign its contracts; the seven-member county council adopts the budget and appropriates the jail's money.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and keeps the jail by state law (IC 36-2-13-5).
NoteIndiana counties have a three-member Board of County Commissioners and a seven-member County Council (fiscal body). The county site (harrisoncounty.in.gov) could not be opened, so names and minutes were not confirmed.
The boardHarrison County Board of Commissioners
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Sheriff's site on the state shared platform (in.gov/sheriffs/harrison) names the jail, gives its address and a 213-bed capacity with breakdown, and lists jail staffing.
Commissary, phone and clothing vendors are named but no rates are published on the pages opened.
No roster, bond guidance, PREA, deaths, inspection report or contract material found on pages opened.
What was tried: in.gov/sheriffs/harrison/corrections/ (too many redirects); guessed PREA, roster and bonding sub-pages returned 404; harrisoncounty.in.gov refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED), so the county budget and commissioners pages were not examined.
State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail Services inspects annually (IC 11-12-4); reports are public record on request but not posted by the state. None found on the county's own site.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Harrison County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners and council members who pay for it.

Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered