TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — The Vigo County Council approved a pay increase request made by Sheriff John Plasse at its meeting Tuesday night, raising jail staff wages to $19 an hour.
Before this approval, the staff at the Vigo County Jail was making $17.96 an hour. Despite an increase of $1.04 an hour on Tuesday, the raise again fell short of Sheriff Plasse’s initial request.
The council previously approved a 5% pay increase for jail staff in December 2021, but this fell short of a request from Plasse to set starting pay at $22 an hour.
Councilmembers spent hours discussing the pay of jail officers Tuesday.
“I take this very serious what we’re tasked with, and I think staffing the jail is a major task ahead of us by April,” Councilman Todd Thacker said.
A federal lawsuit regarding jail overcrowding and conditions still looms over the Vigo County Jail. Councilwoman Marie Theisz said there is still more work to do to alleviate pressure from the federal lawsuit.
“We want to move forward. We want to try to improve jail staff and get more people in there,” Theisz said. “It wasn’t as high as several of us would’ve liked to have seen. But, at the same time, we’re at least moving forward.”
Councilman Thacker, who supported the wage increase to $22, said there was a divide amongst the council on how much to increase jail officer salaries.
“I think that was the dividing issue,” Thacker said. “How do we make forward progress?”
Many other ordinances, such as potentially adding more jail staff, were tabled by the council until April. Thacker said that there is still time to potentially increase jail officer pay even further.
“We still have some time,” he said. “We can meet again in April and I’m hopeful we can do something on that.”
