All right, welcome everybody to the criminal justice planning council meeting on September 15th of 2025.

My name is Ryan Mears.

I'm the Marion County Prosecutor and also board chair.

I'd like to start by doing an introduction.

So we could start with the council president.

Yes, good afternoon, Bob Osley.

Um President of the City Council and Council of District 12.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman Leeroy Robinson, District 1, City County Council.

Controller Abby Hansen.

Sheriff Kerry Forstall.

Scott Hall, executive director of Marion County Committee Corrections.

Bailey Renchi, Board Counsel from Office of Corporation Council.

Well, thank you.

And I see that we have prepared the uh minutes from the previous meeting.

Uh as everybody had an opportunity to review the meet uh the minutes.

And do I have a motion?

Move to accept.

Okay.

We have a motion that it has been seconded to approve the uh meeting minutes.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

All right.

Uh that's a unanimous approval.

And from that, uh I'd like to move on to the new business today, which is the blue envelope program.

Uh joining us to introduce and have a conversation about the blue envelope program is one of my good friends and co-workers, Natalie Miller from the Marion County Prosecutor's Office, as well as Kim Dotson from the Arc of Indiana.

And this is a program that we feel very fortunate to be a part of.

This is something that Natalie has spearheaded and put a lot of time, energy, and effort into.

Uh, but as always, we couldn't do this without tremendous partnerships in the community.

And so if our community partners and Natalie could come forward so we could have a discussion about the blue envelope program.

Floor is yours, Ms.

Miller.

Okay, thank you.

Well, thank you, everyone, for allowing us to be here today.

My name is Natalie Miller.

I'm constituent services coordinator at the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.

I have worked here for nine and a half years, and I am co-founder and director of our different not less initiative program, which has been centered on disability advocacy and opportunity within Marion County.

And Blue Envelope has been our newest installment of that.

What a little background information.

What Blue Envelope is is a program that distributes this, a blue envelope to drivers with disabilities to as a convenient place to put all the things you might need in a traffic stop in order.

That way, if they're pulled over by the police, it streamlines the process.

So they don't have to go rummaging through the glove compartment to find everything.

And it also communicates to the officer that they have a disability.

It's a place where they can list their medical accommodations and any considerations they might have.

This alerts the officer hey, this driver has a disability and may not react to certain stimuli like the bright lights and the layering sirens the same way the average person might because this with many disabilities is the comes the difficulty to process stimuli or communicate things in a high stress situation, which traffic stops are can be quite stressful, especially if you do not know why you are being pulled over.

And unfortunately, to the untrained eye, these reactions can come off as seeming like the person is acting out intentionally trying to be violent and or that they're intoxicated, and this can lead to some very unfortunate consequences and make these stops way more difficult than they have to be.

So we're hoping that by simply having these and opening that channel of communication, it would make driving around to get to work to get to the store home, wherever a person might need to go, a lot safer.

We launched this in April of this year, so fairly recently.

He was on board right away.

And so far, we have distributed 543 envelopes.

And included with the agendas today are these maps that I've designed.

This shows all the cities and towns across the state of Indiana where the envelopes have been distributed so far.

Cities and towns have been color-coded by how many have been requested.

A red dot in the middle of Marion County, predictably is Indianapolis.

And from this, you can clearly see the requests have been largely concentrated in or near the Indianapolis area, with Fort Wayne being the primary outlier.

And I think this is a local agency, I think this speaks to how much how important good public policy and public safety is in Indian, not just to Indianapolis citizens, but people statewide.

We are the capital of Indiana.

We produce a lot of the state's income.

We have people coming in here to work.

We have people traveling for conferences and sports games and concerts.

So doing things like this to help make the city a little bit safer for people with disabilities has a is it not only has the immediate effect of making these traffic stops a little bit easier, but it all has a much more far-reaching effect.

And you've with the Ark of Indiana and you guys do a lot of policy.

Is there anything you can attest to blue envelope or what it's done so far?

Glad to.

So hello, I'm Kim Dodson.

I'm the CEO of the Ark of Indiana.

If you're not familiar with the Arc, we are a statewide organization that advocates for the issues important to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

I want to say thank you.

Thank you for moving forward with this program.

As you can expect, Natalie has been fantastic to work with.

Her and her team early on reached out to us, uh, talked to us about what the program was intended to do, um, asked us for feedback, which we worked with another group of people with disabilities to uh get some feedback and then put together a resource list that goes out within the blue envelope to people who who get it.

Um I just want to share that public safety is something that a lot of people with disabilities feel very strongly about.

Uh for those few who do drive, they get very overwhelmed when they do get stopped uh by somebody.

Um very often, as Natalie pointed out, if lights are are you know going, um, if there's a siren going, uh, that can really um impact the way that they encounter um a situation, and sometimes it leads to them acting in a way that some people might interpret as being disrespectful, and it's not that at all, it's just that they you know have a lot of sensory issues that they're trying to deal with.

So this program has given people a lot of peace of mind as they are driving, but more importantly, the amount of families that we have received feedback on who drive around with people who have some type of a disability, they too are very concerned about you know getting stopped, uh, you know, being in a situation where again the the sensory issues um you know really are heightened, um, and then being able to pull out this envelope very, very easily and show to a police officer that they're you know that that encounter um includes somebody with a disability, somebody who might communicate differently, somebody who may not be able to act quickly to a question has been really helpful, and I think the peace of mind um is extremely important to the public that you I know you guys are all interested in.

So thank you for moving forward with with this.

Um I spend a lot of my time at the State House doing public policy work, and it's very nice when a program like this gets started without legislature uh forcing you guys to do something.

Um, so when Natalie reached out to me um way back when it was just really nice to see that this was moving forward on its own because you guys saw it as an added benefit to the community that you serve.

So thank you for everything that you do.

Again, Natalie is fantastic to work with.

She is very good at what she does, um, and we're just really proud to be a partner with you guys.

Well, thank thank you very much.

And I'm uh first thing you have to experience the beneficiaries of working with Natalie.

I wish Chief Bailey was here because Natalie gave uh just a uh lights it out presentation of Chief Bailey, which got him uh immediately on board.

Uh so Natalie, great advocacy both inside the office, but also working with external partners to make sure everybody was an active participant in this.

Uh, does anybody have any questions for Natalie or Miss Dotson?

Yes, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh, first of all, thank you.

Outstanding program.

We do appreciate your efforts in doing this.

Two things I have a question in the comment.

The question is marketing.

How are you guys marketing throughout the state to make more agencies and uh organizations and cities aware of this?

Do you want to start with that?

I know initially when the program was launched, we advertise this not only on social media, but we also had press releases.

We prosecutor Mears and I were interviewed by both R Tv6 and WTHR ahead of everything.

So and we had over 300 requests in that first couple of weeks just because of that for that though, and I believe we did advertise again on social media fairly recently.

And I and last month I also had the privilege of co-hosting a webinar on Blue Envelope hosted by the Ark of Indiana, and we got a sizable influx of requests through that.

So definitely want to keep this conversation ongoing because if we let it stop, then the word stops getting out, or people will think it's a temporary effort when we want this to be a permanent resource for disabled drivers.

Yeah, and I'll just add to that the disability network is very close.

Um so when a program like this comes out, we share it um with our partners, and knowing that this was a Marion County initiative, uh we shared it with all other disability-related um organizations here in the Marion County area, and then also to some of the Donette County areas.

Yeah, I have two friends of mine who have Surrit syndrome.

A lot of sudden sudden movements, some more than others, and uh this could definitely be a uh an assistance to them in when they're driving.

And also that maybe get your information.

How do you come before the committee on the city county council public safety and criminal justice to speak about the SNF to our community members?

Absolutely.

Yeah, thanks so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Um do you know how law enforcement is the I realize you don't control but uh what they right um what they're told when they it educate their officers or their team members about this program.

Could I see it?

Could I see the envelope, please?

And also on a side note, we also recently got those envelopes made in Spanish with the help of our Latino Services Director Maria Wildridge.

The most of the envelope is in Spanish, though the instructions for the officer are still in English, because obviously there's no guarantee that the officer who pulls them over is going to be able to understand.

So but otherwise it it's bilingual for individuals who might need that.

And I'm not entirely sure what I can answer that a little a little bit.

Uh Chief Bailey was a great partner on on this, and I believe IMPD, if they didn't do a webinar, did some sort of uh in in service training where this was encompassed and it was explained to the officers that if you encountered the blue envelope program, what you know what the desired goal was, what information would be conveyed, and just to be kind of on the lookout for it.

I'm not exactly sure how it was communicated to the officers, but I know that it was communicated either through kind of a web-based video or it was just incorporated into their regular training.

I don't know if the ARC does anything to uh no, I mean all I can tell you is some of our um organizations that again that are disability related, they do a lot of um webinars and just conversations with local law enforcement in their areas, and so they, as they requested the blue envelope, met with some people locally just to kind of talk through how they would want people with disabilities to utilize that in families, and then they communicated that out.

And do you do you know if any uh if anyone has been pulled over to look?

It's been a number of years since I have uh seen the flashing lights and heard the siren behind my car.

I it happened more than once, I will uh freely admit to a long long time ago.

But uh I it's disconcerting for me.

So uh I am um uh I I am different and not less also, but I am uh you know this is not available for me, which is fine, but these are wonderful instructions.

But has it has it helped yet?

I know of somebody yet, but we can certainly do that outreach and have it available for those.

Oh, I just am curious.

I think this is um this is amazing.

It is well done, very well done, Mr.

President, thank you, Chairman.

The process of bringing out the envelope, it's usually maybe kept in a glove compartment or something.

Is that is that what's expected?

We recommend actually clipping it to the visor of the car specifically so they don't have to run through the glove box.

Okay, and don't and no thinking that they could be pulling something else out of the perfect club compartment because that ha that could escalate things very quickly if they think they're pulling out a gun or something.

Okay, so I was just I was curious about what that process looked like, and if there was even a way to alert an officer that someone in the car would have a blue envelope, and and whatever that might look like, so that they are prepared that there may be some there may be a different sort of interaction with the driver.

In addition to the art promotional material, when one more question we would submit these instructions, and here it does instruct two clip to the visor for easy access.

So that's just our general recommendation, and forgot my next point.

Well, now the least thinking one of the trainings that we do with people with disabilities and their family members is we talk them through that they should tell an officer, are you aware of the blue envelope program?

May I show you as they're reaching for it out of their visor.

Thank you so much.

One question I remember now.

One question we actually got at the webinar I did for argument is do we have a bumper sticker or something that could signal outwardly on the vehicle that we don't have those available that time, but that is definitely something I'd be open to considering.

That was the reason for asking, just to alert an officer that something and so whether it's a sticker on the on the plate or sticker or whimper sticker, it might be helpful also as a supplement to this.

Yeah, there's also another new program called the yellow dot program that alerts um officers if somebody in the car has a medical condition.

And so I would just we we had a long conversation about this at the legislature between the blue envelope program, the yellow dot program, and there was even another one.

Um so I think all of that just needs to be discussed because I don't know.

I guess officers would probably know best, but they would have to remember yellow is for this, blue is for this, green is for this.

Um but yes, I I understand that concern.

Mr.

Chairman.

Um just uh I'll reach out to Natalie after the mean, but we'd love to be able to get this for our behavioral health team.

Um try to have as many resources available as possible, and this is obviously something they'd be able to utilize.

Great.

So Mr.

Sheriff.

Since Scott's stealing some of the ideas, I'm gonna try to do the same.

We have a program that I thought of as we're sitting here talking about the Madam Clerk being stopped by the police.

We have a we have a program called Through My Eyes, where officers exchange the role with people being the younger kids being stopped.

I think if you could, we'd add a few minutes more to our program with this, also, because one of the things as an officer, and I've stopped some people, that motion of moving around reaching for things.

You don't know what that is.

And if you can eliminate any doubt between both the officer and the person you're stopping, like this program, it's excellent idea.

Great.

Thank you.

Well, thank you very much.

Uh really appreciate the the partnership with ARC and everything that you do uh on behalf of advocating on these issues, not only at the State House, but uh in the city of Indianapolis and around the state.

And I personally see the impact that you have had to advance the cause of individuals in our community.

So thank you.

And Natalie, as always, pleasure to to work with you.

Thank you for inviting us to be part of this meeting.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And uh with that, we'll move on to the Marion County Sheriff's Office Inmate Count.

Major Tia Shanklin Woods is going to do today's presentation.

Thank you for being here, Major.

Thank you for having me.

Good afternoon.

I'll be presenting the inmate count for today, September 15th, 2025.

Um, the chart isn't that do you have the charts?

I don't think we do.

Okay.

So our inmate count today was 2,355.

That's 2,016 males, 314 females, 23 juvenile males, and two juvenile females.

Typically, I would display a chart that shows the MA population.

Um asking against the capacity level and the crisis mode rating.

We are not at the uh crisis mode as of today.

Um with our 2,355 inmates, um, nine of them are HEA 1006 inmates, our 90-day average is eight.

And then to present the inmate count by charge levels, we have 145 with murder charges, 102 with felony one counts, 153, felony two, 262, felony three, 283, felony 4, 614 felony 5, 443 felony 6, 12 as felony other, 163 misdemeanors, uh 39 with MC cases or temporary cases, and 132, which are uh rated as other, which is defined as a federal MA and or uh someone with an undefined charge level at the time of the reporting.

Any questions for me?

Any questions?

Thank you, Major.

Thank you.

Um before we get out of here and adjourn the meeting, one of the issues that that we frequently touch on is is the topic of mental health and and how it impacts all of our our various agencies.

Uh one of the things I'd like to do for for next meeting, if if everybody's willing, is maybe we could have community corrections talk a little bit about their you know, kind of the programs that they have designed to work on mental health issues.

Certainly I want to talk to Chief about the MCAT team and and the responses that they have, but also just get the perspective of the court of how they deal with some of the different mental health challenges that they face in the criminal justice system.

Uh and so, if if possible, I'd like to make next meeting a little bit more focused on mental health issues and see if we can't uh have everybody just kind of present how they touch on mental health issues to individuals you deal with on community correction, that initial response from law enforcement, uh certainly if the sheriff is as well in all the different programs that they have to address mental health issues in the jail, and then also get the perspective of the judges.

Uh, I think that would be helpful given that there's a lot of current conversation about how the criminal justice responds to different individuals, in particular individuals with mental health issues.

Does anybody have anything else for consideration?

One thing I wanted to mention is uh just thank you to the prosecutor's office.

We hosted a uh employment and service fair about two weeks ago, and and thanks to the uh prosecutor's office, their second chance team for coming out, providing information on license reinstatements, expungements, and that sort of thing.

Uh it was a really well-attended event.

We had over 120 individuals that attended that.

We had over a dozen uh service providers and employers.

Um something we will continue to do probably on a biannual basis going forward.

It's the first time we've done it, but we uh partnered with reform alliance and uh second chance indie and and uh and a handful of others to put this together and went really well and and just want to thank our partners for uh participating.

OPHS uh was a participant as well.

So thank yeah, and and thank you for putting that uh event together.

I talked to some folks who were there, and it sounds like it was incredibly successful.

I think so.

Does anybody else have anything?

All right, with that, we'll entertain a motion.

Second, second second.

This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.