Chief Deputy Hershberger responds to Federal ruling regarding ‘irreparable harm’ at Allen Co. Jail

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) - Days after a federal judge ruled that county officials have 45 days to fix numerous problems at the Allen County Jail, we’re hearing for Deputy Chief Troy Hershberger.

In more than 30 pages of court documents, the judge demands Sheriff David Gladieux take swift action to deal with overcrowding and staffing issues.

Hershbeger, who is running in the republican primary for sheriff, talked with us from his official capacity Monday as the department’s chief deputy.

“I’m not going to put blame on any individual person,” Hershberger said. “Right now we’re at 135 ‘level 6′ felons and upwards to 170 probation violators that we’re housing. ‘Level 6′ felons up until several years ago were going to prison and when the state put that burden on local jurisdictions, we’re stuck with the problem now.”

Hershberger says his team has been discussing ways address overcrowding concerns.

“It’s nothing that we didn’t know was coming and that we’ve faced as an agency now,” Hershberger said. “When you have overcrowding -- a serious problem that we do -- problems are going to happen.”

The lawsuit includes detailed accounts by Vincent Morris, an inmate at the jail. As part of the class action lawsuit, he claimed the jail had too many inmates and not enough staff members. According to the Indiana Department of Corrections, the jail had 741 beds with 863 inmates living there at the end of 2019. Hershberger says the long-term solution is to build a new jail.

“Things we can do in the short term is obviously we need to get the population out and that’s going to be the creative issue,” Hershberger said. “We’re not letting people out of jail, but we got to find a way to house them in other avenues.”

Hershberger recommends putting the level 6 felons back in state prison, which would need state approval. He says he last visited the jail last week.

“{I saw}A lot of movement of people, a lot of moving, a lot of phones ringing, a lot of good staff working,” Hershberger said. :When you’re down there, it’s a fast moving environment.”

Hershberger says at the end of the day, he just wants the problems solved.

“It’s probably time for a jail to be done, but that’ll take time,” Hershberger said. “But we need to look and address the problems of today.”

We also tried once again to get an on camera interview with Sheriff David Gladieux, but he declined and instead put us in contact with Hershberger.

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