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

The Detention Center

Shelby County Jail

Operated byShelby County Sheriff
Jail address107 West Taylor Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176
Phone317-392-6405 opt. 4
BuildingCriminal Justice Center, which also houses the sheriff's department and police department (county sheriff page)
Vendors namedSecurus (video visits, deposits), JPay (deposits), allpaid.com (card bond payments)

Source: Shelby County: Jail Division · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

2/10Closed

✓The jail is named
✗Who is in custody — not published
✗Beds and daily population — not published
✗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
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Shelby 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
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Louie Koch

Runs the jailYes — the county site's Sheriff section includes a Jail Division page for the Shelby County Jail
How the office is filledElected, four-year term; limited to eight years in any twelve-year period
Office address107 W. Taylor St., Shelbyville, IN 46176
Staff (county page)37 merit deputies, 3 reserve deputies, 6 courthouse security deputies

Still needed

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

Source: Shelby County: Sheriff · 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.

Shelby 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).
NoteThree-member Board of County Commissioners and seven-member County Council (fiscal body); no commissioners, council or budget page was confirmed on the pages opened.
The boardShelby County Board of Commissioners
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

The county's Jail Division page explains bond posting: weekdays 8AM-4PM at the Clerk's office or 24/7 at the jail, exact cash or card via allpaid.com / 1-888-604-7888 with a 9% non-refundable fee.
Visitation: one free on-site visit per week plus paid remote video visits through Securus; no video-visit, phone or commissary rates are posted.
The same content appears at co.shelby.in.us/sheriff/jail-division/ (county's older domain).
No roster, capacity, PREA, inspection, death-in-custody or contract information found.
The first search for Shelby returned only aggregators; shelbycounty.in.gov gave too many redirects and shelbycountysheriff.org had an expired certificate.
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 Shelby 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