A county official speaking to the Vigo County Budget Committee on Oct. 9 described sustained growth in community corrections caseloads and said the program can no longer absorb the full cost of employee health insurance from its user-fee operating fund.

The speaker — identified in the budget discussion as the community corrections director (no full name given on the record) — told the committee that the program lost $119,000 in state funding starting in 2026 and faces an additional comparable cut in 2027. “Going into next year, moving forward, we can't continue to pay that. We just can't,” the director said, referring to employer-paid health insurance and related benefit costs drawn from the program’s user-fee fund.

Why it matters: The director said the health-insurance and related fringe costs for community corrections run roughly $300,000 to $400,000 a year and that those expenses have been paid from fees charged to program participants. Collections on user fees average about 70–75%, the speaker said, but unpaid balances remain large.

Program scale and pressure: The director said program caseloads are high and growing: about 290 people on electronic monitoring, 130 in work-release residential beds, roughly 1,700 adults on probation, and about 450–500 on pretrial supervision. The director said statewide community corrections programs faced a $7 million cut and that other counties have reduced electronic monitoring caseloads and staff in response.

The director said Vigo County historically charged lower participant fees than neighboring counties and that recent rate increases have only partially closed that gap. The speaker warned that further state cuts could force program reductions and limit the county’s role as a diversion option for the Department of Corrections and the jail.

No council action was taken during the discussion; the director asked the committee for suggestions and said staff would bring further information, including precise benefit figures, to follow-up meetings.