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

The Detention Center

Adult Detention Center (Indianapolis-Marion County Community Justice Campus)

Operated byMarion County Sheriff's Office
Address675 Justice Way, Indianapolis, IN 46203
Opened2022; general population moved in 15 Jan 2022 (WFYI), consolidating from five jails into one
Beds (architect's project page)3,039 permanent beds, incl. a 32-bed medical facility and 277 medical/mental-health beds
FinancingBond offerings, incl. Series 2019A (Courthouse and Jail Project); CJC site cites an estimated $625 million bond offering
Population at move (WFYI)About 2,200 detainees to be transferred

Source: Indianapolis-Marion County Community Justice Campus · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

Not scored. Marion County's and its sheriff's own websites could not be reached or read in the session that produced this record, so their disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.

The Building

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

Year builtOpened 2022
Original costNot found (bond offering estimated at $625 million per indycjc.com, for the campus projects)
Paid for byBonds — Series 2019A Courthouse and Jail Project (indycjc.com)
Beds3,039 permanent beds (Elevatus Architecture project page)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Not found

Runs the jailYes — the Marion County Sheriff's Office runs the Adult Detention Center at the Community Justice Campus
How the office is filledElected, four-year term; no more than eight years in any twelve
Sheriff in January 2022 (news report)Kerry Forestal — current holder not confirmed on an official page
State directory listsKerry Forestal — not confirmed on a county or sheriff page. The State of Indiana's sheriff directory (in.gov/sheriffs) was out of date for 4 of the 66 counties we could check against county pages, so this name is shown for reference only.

Still needed

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

Source: WFYI, 15 Jan 2022 · 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.

Marion 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).
NoteMarion County is consolidated with Indianapolis (Unigov); the City-County Council is the legislative and fiscal body. Council pages not opened.
The boardIndianapolis-Marion County City-County Council
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Thin examination: the indy.gov Marion County Sheriff's Office page opened but returned no readable content; only the city-county Community Justice Campus site (indycjc.com) was readable first-party.
Checks other than 'named' reflect only those two pages — MCSO roster, fees and other pages were not reached; 'no' here means not found, not absent.
Bed count from the architect's page (Elevatus), not from a county source.
Current sheriff not confirmed on an official page; Kerry Forestal was sheriff in Jan 2022 per WFYI.
Inside INdiana Business article returned 403.
Not scored: MCSO page returned no readable content, so the sheriff's roster and fee pages were not reached. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked. Found published on the pages that did open: named.
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 Marion 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