One of the two federal lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana over conditions at the Howard County Jail has been dismissed.

The two sides, according to court filings, agreed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice late last month with each side paying their own attorney costs.

No reason was given for the dismissal in the court filings.

Requests made to the ACLU of Indiana seeking the reasoning and comment were not returned.

County Attorney Alan Wilson said the county is “pleased” with the dismissal.

“The County is pleased with the dismissal of the first overcrowding lawsuit, and we are continuing to focus on resolution of the second suit, with the understanding that it will be a lengthy and difficult process,” Wilson wrote in an email to the Tribune.

The ACLU of Indiana filed the lawsuit in October, arguing the county jail being routinely overcrowded and over its rated capacity amounted to a violation of the U.S. Constitution through not allowing proper recreational time for inmates and causing frequent water leaks and fights.

The county denied the allegations, and in January filed a motion for summary judgment.

In the filing, the county argued the former inmate the ACLU was representing — Michael Johnston — is required to exhaust his administrative remedies before filing the federal lawsuit and did not.

In response, the ACLU argued the county’s argument was moot because there is “ample evidence that grievances at the Howard County Jail are frequently not processed properly.”

The federal judge never ruled on the county’s request for summary judgment because of the agreement to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit.

The ACLU’s second lawsuit, filed in January and representing four inmates, argues the same points as its first, now dismissed, lawsuit.

That lawsuit is currently in litigation, with both sides participating in discovery.

Long the elephant in the room, the lawsuits brought by the ACLU have also brought the issue of overcrowding at the county jail to the forefront of county officials’ minds.

Why? Because the legal battle could prove costly for the county.

The last time the ACLU sued the county for jail conditions it led to a federal judge mandating the county keep the inmate population below 101. At the time, in the early 1990s, the county jail had an average daily inmate population of 130.

Instead of trying to meet that mandate with what is now the old county jail, the county’s current jail was built, opening in 1993 at a cost of $33 million when adjusted for inflation.

Building a new jail today would be an expensive endeavor.

A county-commissioned feasibility study by DLZ, an Indianapolis-based design and consulting firm, into the costs of renovation or building a new jail resulted in quotes ranging from $35 million to add 400 rated beds to $210 million for a newly built 1,056-bed jail with a wing for inmates dealing with mental health issues.

County officials have been hesitant to consider spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new jail, which would likely lead to higher taxes to pay for it. Another option being considered is to renovate the current jail.

No formal decision has yet been made, though the county’s jail committee continues to study the issue and weigh the options.

In the meantime, it appears the county and Howard County Sheriff’s Department are making a push to lower its jail population by sending inmates to other in-state county jails.

As of May 28, the county had 82 inmates housed in other county jails, according to Howard County Sheriff Jerry Asher. Because of that, the population of the county jail was at 291 on May 28. The jail’s official rated bed capacity is 364.

Notably, that means the jail is at around 80% capacity. The Indiana Department of Corrections considers a jail overcrowded when it reaches 80% capacity or more because separating and classifying inmates becomes difficult at that point.

Sending inmates to other jails, though, comes at a cost of $40 per inmate, per day.

During the Council’s May 28 meeting, County Council President John Roberts said the county’s actions were in response to the ACLU lawsuit. He also strongly pushed back against the lawsuit’s claim that inmates were being mistreated and the county has done nothing to address the overpopulation issue, pointing to the county’s work release programs, problem solving courts, the hiring of the magistrate judge and more.

“The inmates are not being mistreated, and we are lowering the population because the goalpost has been moved on us, and we’re going to comply with it,” Roberts said. “We’re a land of laws, and this is what we have to do. But we are a pampered nation. I’ve been through the jail, and those people that are out there, they need to be in jail. My heart bleeds for the taxpayer who has to come up with this money. We have done everything we can possibly do as county government to ease the overpopulation of the jail. They’re not being mistreated, and I don’t want anybody to think that they’re being mistreated in the jail because I know people on the outside who have it a lot harder than the people on the inside of the jail.”