(7-16-24) The Mercer County Sheriff’s Office has a roster of inmates on their website that are held at the Mercer County Adult Detention Center. The roster includes a mug shot, charges, arresting agency, court dates etc.

The site can be viewed by anyone, including the media and that includes the Outlook. The increase of inmates from the Darke County Sheriff’s Office being housed in Mercer County is a large part of those inmates being housed.

The Outlook asked Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Gery about the current arrangements—

Darke County generally sends us their sentenced prisoners. That way they don’t have to go back and forth.

Holding prisoners for other counties does bring in a lot of money to Mercer County. Generally anywhere from $100k-$300k per year. Since Covid our numbers have been down and we have held less for other counties and less Mercer Co prisoners too. 

Arrests in Mercer County are running about the same as in the past.

Below is the reply from Darke County Sheriff Mark E. Whittaker to our request for information on why Darke County inmates are being housed at the Mercer County Adult Detention Center.

I received a message passed along to me inquiring as to the number of Darke County inmates in Mercer County.  If I understand correctly you asked why is it needed, cost effective solutions to the issue.

In recent weeks the Darke County Sheriff’s Office has been housing anywhere from 15-20 inmates a day in Mercer County.  To my recollection this is the highest it has been since before COVID.  In 2018-2019 Darke County was housing approximately 16 inmates a day in other counties, so this is an issue that goes back a few years.  When COVID happened most jails closed their doors to out of county inmates for a period of time which forced a change in how criminal justice was administered and it was not necessarily for the better. 

The need to house Darke County inmates in the Mercer County Jail is the result of the Darke County Jail being too small and outdated to meet current criminal justice needs.  This is a simple answer to a more complex issue. 

To put the size of the Darke County Jail in perspective it is important to realize the Darke County Jail is a 36 bed facility, which is the smallest jail for a county with our size population of 51,400.  Our three neighboring counties of Preble (70 beds), Shelby (188 beds) and Mercer (100 beds) have populations in the range of 41,000 to 47,000 people and each of those counties have jails at least twice the size if not more than the Darke County Jail.  Darke County should, by my estimate, have at least a 100 bed facility.

There are multiple factors that have likely influenced the increase in the inmate population being held by the Darke County Sheriff’s Office.   In my opinion, there have been changes in criminal justice philosophies with a new Judge, in which criminals are held accountable for their behavior during pretrial and probation. This is a change I welcome and support.  I believe it sends a message that criminal behavior will not be tolerated in Darke County and the criminal justice system will make decisions that are fair and just but will not sacrifice public safety in the process.  This course of action does have a cost, as it always has, but I believe that this is what the citizens of Darke County expect.  This does not mean that the Darke County Courts are just sending people to jail as the only solution.  Inmates in the Darke County Jail are regularly given access to mental health professionals, medical treatment and opportunities for medically assisted treatment if they choose and are willing to follow treatment plans.  Defendants are offered opportunities by the courts for treatment and rehabilitation in lieu of jail time, typically on more than one occasion, but not all inmates are willing or ready to cooperate or seek treatment and in those cases there must be consequences for their actions.

Housing Darke County inmates in Mercer County is currently the most cost effective solution that is available in the absence of sufficient bed space in Darke County.  We have a great relationship with Sheriff Grey and his staff and they work well with my staff and the Darke County Courts.  We utilize video court hearings often and when appropriate, which saves on transports. 

There are active conversations on long term plans for the future of the Darke County Jail.  I am engaged with the Commissioners and other elected officials on developing a five to ten year plan that I feel the county must consider with regard to the jail as we move forward.