Terre Haute Police Chief John Plasse now Vigo County Sheriff-elect. (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)
Vigo County residents will see a new sheriff with a familiar face Jan. 1. John Plasse has spent the last 11 years as the Terre Haute Chief of Police. He’ll take over for two-term Sheriff Greg Ewing.
It’s a critical time for the department. The Vigo County Jail is slated to be replaced because of overcrowding. Controversy has surrounded the scope, price and location of the new jail for years. Part of Plasse’s job will be moving the project forward.
Indiana Newsdesk’s Joe Hren sat down with Sheriff-elect John Plasse.
Proposal of the new Vigo County Jail location at the site of the former paper mill in Terre Haute.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Knowing all the controversy, politics, lawsuits on the county jail, why jump into the sheriff’s race now?
Plasse: That’s not the reason why I jumped into this. This is the circumstances we deal with today. The timing for me was right. Sheriff Ewing, this is the end of his second term, he couldn’t run again, we worked well together in the past, I didn’t want to run against him and this opportunity came along with the problems.
Hren: I talked to Mayor Bennett and he’s confident about your leadership and skills. How do you feel making the transition?
Plasse: I appreciate his confidence but it’s a new thing to me. I’ve been here 33 years so I’ve got comfortable with things here so it’s going to be a learning curve.
Hren: There are still lawsuits on full time staff to operate the jail, 27 more officers are going to be hired, the ACLU says that’s not enough, have you had a chance to look into that?
Plasse: I have not, but on the surface it looks like they’re referring to the building as it is now and I don’t believe the new design with the pod system will take that many employees to add four times what we have now, I don’t know that’s even feasible.
I was talking to people early on in the design process and I was told with that new design we could operate with the staff we have now with far more inmates.
Hren: Can you explain the pod design?
Plasse: It’s like as you go in there’s four pods in the square and there’s a control center in the center so I think you can maximize the coverage by doing that design.
Hren: How do you feel about the location at the former paper mill site?
Plasse: I have no issue with that. Obviously with me, the closer to the courts, the better. I was told we don’t have the space currently in the complex where it is now to build that with room for expanding and I trust them at their word that they did the research and design I didn’t.
Hren: One of the other issues was the size, which was decreased and helped on cost, but does that serve what you’ll need?
Plasse: I know they paid for the study and the second part of the study you don’t have to have the 500 and some now. So if you did the 480 something, again that’s why the pod design is so, the current design is two pods so if they need to expand that, they can add a third pod.
Hren: What other concerns do you have as you enter your new role?
Plasse: My concerns are number one, what do we need to do to keep this from happening again? So hopefully when we’re in the design phase we make it where we don’t make the same mistakes in the past.
I want to meet with the judges and see what concerns they have. I just want to see what we can do better, what we need to fix.
I’m not looking forward to leaving the people here I worked with for 33 years. And I don’t know that will hit me until I start packing up my office and reflecting on that. I’m looking forward to being a part of another family. We’re all working in this together.
The current Vigo County Jail next to the county courthouse in Terre Haute. (Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)
