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GREENFIELD, Ind. (AP) — A central Indiana sheriff has a novel solution for jail overcrowding: lock inmates up in semi-trailers.
Hancock County Chief Deputy Brad Burkhart tells WXIN-TV in Indianapolis that a manufacturer in Missouri builds specialty trailers that could house about 100 inmates.
Voters in the county rejected a referendum to build a new jail. The current one is designed to accommodate 157 prisoners, but recently housed more than 220.
Burkhart says the trailer interiors look just like the insides of a regular jail, with showers, toilets and bunkbeds.
He would put the units in a parking lot next to the current jail if the county approves his plan.
It would require 12 staffers to monitor them and cost an estimated $5 million.
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