Story

Purpose- Min/Med Security

Minimum/Medium Security Pod that provides 765 min/med security Minimum/Medium beds comprised of eight person dormitories.  Inmates in Minimum/Medium have direct lines of site supervision from a central control center. Each ward will have its own recreation and educational spaces. Technology is an essential to safe and efficient operations: 

Technology allows inmates in each dayroom to visitations via video visitation kiosks, inmate phones, the ability to order commissary goods, schedule visitations and receive medical services via additional kiosks that are located in each dayroom.  Kiosks also make information available to inmates such as the law library, court dates and much more.

Purpose- Max Security

Maximum-security provides an additional 180 max security beds, the max unit will be comprised of two person cells.  Inmates in max have direct lines of site supervision from a central control center. Each ward will have their own recreation and educational spaces. Technology is an essential to safe and efficient operations:  Technology allows inmates in each dayroom to visitations via video visitation kiosks, inmate phones, the ability to order commissary goods, schedule visitations and receive medical services via additional kiosks that are located in each dayroom.  Kiosks also make information available to inmates such as the law library, court dates and much more.

Location

The ECCC is an 80-acre campus that will be the corrections home for Elkhart County far into the future.  The campus is located at the corner of CR26 and CR7 NW of Goshen and is currently the home for:

1. The main entry and common core facilities such as Intake and Booking, Medical Services, Food Services, Visitation and Inmate Services, Staff Training, Jail Operations, and Court services.

2. The future campus expansion accommodates 765 beds Minimum/ Medium Security housing unit.  This unit is divided into four building pods, each pod containing several wards. These wards are comprised of eight person dormitory cells with each containing their own recreation and educational spaces.  Correctional personnel have direct lines of site to inmate activities from central control centers. Technology is an essential to operations. Through the use of computer kiosks located in each dayroom, inmates have access to commissary orders, visitation scheduling, the Law Library, court dates, medical consultations and much more. Inmate visitation is conducted via video visitation stations, which are also located within each dayroom.

3. The future campus expansion will accommodate (2) 192-bed Maximum Security housing unit. This unit is divided into several wards comprised of 2 person cells. Each ward contains its own recreation and education spaces. Correction personnel supervise inmate activities by direct lines of site from a central control center.

4. The ECCC campus was designed and built with the foresight so that it could be expanded easily.  The 80-acre campus can accommodate not only the additional 765 beds Minimum/ Medium facility, two additional 192 bed Maximum facilities, and a 600-bed work release center and a Juvenile Detention and Treatment Center. Location of these facilities to a central campus will streamline services and eliminate inefficiencies of a de-centralized justice system. 

5. Technology is provided at the same level as at the Minimum / Medium Jail. Inmates have access via electronic kiosks to video visitation, inmate commissary orders, visitation scheduling and medical consultations. The Technology assists in the safe and efficient campus operations by minimizing inmate movement within the facility.

6.  Sheriffs Administration is provided on campus in the form of a 40,000 square foot facility.  The administration and jail share many core campus services that are provided on campus. Some of these are: Communication and Data technologies, HVAC systems, Electrical service and centralized Security systems that make a seamless transfer of services unequalled.

Green Campus:

The ECCC Campus makes every effort at supporting a Green Environment. One of the reasons that the campus site was chosen was to utilize a vast supply of methane gas that is being generated at the public landfill site that is located on the property adjacent to the campus. The campus heating and hot water systems utilize this methane as their primary fuel source. This fuel stream supplies virtually 100% of the Campus heating/hot water fuel needs for nine months of the year. The fuel stream is augmented with natural gas for the remaining three months.  Operating the Campus heat plant 100% of the time on methane only is the operations goal. This will be achieved as the landfill grows and additional methane generation becomes available. The Campus cooling system utilizes local pond water as its primary heat exchange medium. This reduces energy costs by eliminating equipment that would otherwise be necessary to make the cooling system operational. As the landfill grows and methane becomes more abundant, an initiative to supply electrical power to the facility by steam turbine will be examined. This has the potential to further reduce waste and reduce electrical service costs.