Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Matron Michelle Hyden, left, and Sheriff Jim Smith speak to the Kosciusko County Council Thursday about monies owed to the county jail from the Indiana Department of Corrections. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — In updating the Kosciusko County Council Thursday, Oct. 9,  on the county’s financial status with the Indiana Department of Corrections, Sheriff Jim Smith also hit on an error in a Sept. 15 Indiana Capital Chronicle story that said the county was overpaid by the IDOC.

“I know there’s been a lot of talk on the DOC. I think everyone here is probably aware that we received a significant check from the DOC. We hadn’t received anything from them since last year. That’s happening across the state,” he said. The check from the DOC was for approximately $673,000.

An article that originated with the Indiana Capital Chronicle made its way into various local news locally. It stated, in part, “In total, the department will forgive about $7.7 million in overpayments across 51 counties, including large amounts in Kosciusko County, which was overpaid nearly $599,000.”

“It indicated that Kosciusko County was overpaid. I want to be clear, after talking with the controller with DOC, he confirmed that was a misprint. We were, in fact, underpaid but we also knew that we were. That article was incorrect,” Smith said. He said there are still funds that are owed to Kosciusko County.

“Kosciusko County was kind of highlighted throughout most of all the other states, and I think that’s largely because we house so many level 6 felons, where in a lot of counties those are automatically (sent to) DOC, so that’s where a lot of that is coming from,” Smith stated.

Counties can bill the IDOC for two different classifications of inmates that they hold for the IDOC. DOC holds are inmates that judges sentence to prisons but local jails can bill the DOC for while they are being held at the county jail. As of July 1, local jails also can bill the DOC for level 6 felons that they are holding, wherein the past local jails weren’t able to do that.

Council President Tony Ciriello said he and Smith talked about that article being wrong. “We’re on the plus side, not the negative,” Ciriello said, and Smith replied that was correct.

Councilwoman Kimberly Cates said they were told at the Association of Indiana Counties meeting that the IDOC was behind in payments to counties statewide. “What we were told is, contact them a lot. And fax them, get more information. And, hopefully, those people who do that will follow up,” she said. “They said, basically, the more you follow up, the sooner you’ll get paid. So I’m glad we got paid. How far back are we backdated now?”

Matron Michelle Hyden said with the large payment the jail received from IDOC for housing inmates, it paid the county in full through November 2024. She said they’re still owed for December 2024 and then each month of this year.

Smith agreed with Cates that the IDOC is behind about nine months on payments.

“We are fortunate here to have Sen. Ryan Mishler in the position he’s in. He and I have had many conversations on this. He’s kind of kept me in the loop on where they’re at. He told me that they addressed that situation with the DOC when it came to budget time. They had the monies there. It had a lot of work to be done, I’ll just put it that way. So they were working on a plan. They’re starting that plan, that’s why you’re seeing some monies come in, but I can’t thank Sen. Mishler enough for his help on that,” Smith said.

He also said his department has had contact with the controller who was brought over to the IDOC to straighten the payments out. “We’ve already had one team meeting with him, and that’s when I got this confirmed. That was the first question I had because it wasn’t sitting well with me, how we could receive this kind of check, but we were being told we were overpaid. It wasn’t making sense to me. He corrected that, said you absolutely were not overpaid, it was the opposite of that, it was just a misprint. That’s really what I wanted to clear up tonight,” Smith explained.

Councilman Dave Wolkins asked Smith if he knew how much money the IDOC still owes Kosciusko County for the last approximate 10 months. Hyden ballparked the amount the IDOC is still behind at around $268,000 to $270,000.

“Keeping in mind that beginning in July of this year, we were able to start billing for some felonies that we weren’t. So our monthly fees before that for housing inmates — $5,000 to $13,000 — that additional allowance we are going to be in the $45,000 to $55,000 a month. That’s how much of an increase that passage, the verbiage, allows us to bill for on some of those felonies. So, substantially, from July, it’s just going to grow a lot quicker than it would have in the past because we’re allowed to charge for more of the inmates than we have in the past,” she stated.