Lawyers who have had a hearing or trial in the Indianapolis City-County Building often had to bring their own equipment, lug in the hardware, use their own applications and programs to present their material, then pack and lug everything back to the office. The situation will be dramatically different at Marion County’s new Community Justice Center under construction southeast of downtown.
Plaintiffs litigating on the small claims docket in any Indiana county could soon file claims for up to $8,000 if a bill that advanced out of a House committee Wednesday makes it to the governor’s desk. The bill also would expand the authority of magistrate judges.
A mental health services and addiction-treatment center planned for the city’s new Community Justice Campus will open years ahead of the new jail and courthouse facilities, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Wednesday.
Since the Marion County judges hired their own environmental consultant to review the remediation plans for the property where the new justice center is slated to be built, the Marion County prosecutor and public defender offices have started raising their own concerns about the level of contamination and safety of their workers.
The $572 million Criminal Justice Center won’t open until 2022, at which time scores of city and county employees—working for the courts, public defender, prosecutor, sheriff and other agencies—will move from downtown’s Market East Cultural District 2 ½ miles east to the Twin Aire neighborhood. But city officials and businesses are already thinking about how both neighborhoods will be changed by the shift.
The ceremonial groundbreaking of the new Marion County Criminal Justice Center was more than the symbolic start of construction, Indianapolis City-County Council President Vop Osili said — it was the start of the city taking a groundbreaking step toward criminal justice reform.
Ensuring the $572 million criminal justice center connects with the surrounding Twin Aire neighborhood and doesn’t sit isolated presents a big challenge for planners of the project and community leaders.
The Indianapolis City-County Council on Monday night approved an ordinance that restricts the city’s new jail and criminal justice center from being run by a private operator once it eventually opens.
The Indianapolis City-County Council on Monday night approved a resolution to pay for up to $20 million in planning and design costs associated with building the new criminal justice center.
An Indianapolis City-County Council committee on Tuesday night unanimously approved a resolution to issue $20 million in notes to pay for planning and design costs associated with building the new criminal justice center.
The Indianapolis Bond Bank is looking for firms interested in working on the city’s new criminal justice center — from providing civil engineering services to mechanical, electrical and plumbing work.
Judges of the Marion Circuit and Superior Courts formally announced Thursday that civil and criminal courts will move from the Indianapolis City-County Building to a proposed Criminal Justice Complex on the city’s near-southeast side.
An Indianapolis City-County Council panel Tuesday evening unanimously approved a measure that would allow the city to be reimbursed with future bond proceeds for expenses related to the planned community justice campus.
Marion County’s proposed criminal justice center should be financed through a public-private partnership, the task force studying the proposal announced Friday.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration on Tuesday estimated that its proposed new jail, courthouse and intervention center would cost between $565 million and $575 million.
The Indianapolis judges will decide by May 1 if their future venue will be at new justice center a few miles outside of downtown.
Dozens of city, county, neighborhood and social services representatives gathered in the bracing cold Tuesday morning on the site of the decade-defunct Citizens Gas and Coke Utility plant site in the Twin Aire neighborhood just about three miles southeast of downtown Indianapolis. A new criminal justice center is proposed to rise in the 2900 block of East Prospect Avenue.
The new jail proposal also emphasizes early intervention, treatment and diversion.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett outlined his vision Monday — one he called “bold in its concept and immense in its scope” — for a new jail and a reformed criminal justice system that would prioritize mental health and addiction treatment for non-violent offenders.
As Indianapolis faces another jail overcrowding crisis, Mayor Joe Hogsett is moving ahead in his quest to reform the city’s criminal justice system.