INDIANAPOLIS — Marion County deputies have completed the first phase of transferring hundreds of inmates to a new $600 million jail and court complex on the southeast side of Indianapolis.
On Monday, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said 1,487 inmates had been transferred to the new Adult Detention Center since Jan. 10.
Marion County Jail 1 and the City-County Building are now empty, while 700 inmates are still at the private jail at Marion County Jail 2. Deputies said these inmates will be transferred to the new facility by the end of the month.
Saturday morning, multiple motorcades shuttled inmates to the new Adult Detention Center on the Community Justice Campus.
About 2,200 general population inmates at two old county jails are to be moved to the new facility by the end of January. The new 770,000 square-foot jail has capacity for 3,000 inmates, 500 more than the combined capacity at the old jails and City-County Building.
From Friday night to early Saturday morning, inmate workers at the City-County Building and low-level offenders at Marion County Jail II also were transferred.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office said that to keep the transfer safe, the inmates are being moved in a "heavily secured motorcade" and they're being escorted by "numerous" deputies. Additionally, times of the transfers, routes and inmate information are all being kept confidential.
The sheriff's office asks anyone who encounters one of their motorcades to "pay close attention and obey all directions given to you by deputies."
Anyone who interferes with the sheriff's office's operations may be subject to "immediate arrest and prosecution," the sheriff's office said.