Meet The Candidates For Marion County Sheriff: Brian Durham And Kerry Forestal

Democrat Kerry Forestal and Republican Brian Durham are running for Marion County Sheriff.
 

Republican Brian Durham is a detective with the Indinapolis Metropolitan Police Department. He is running against Democrat Kerry Forestal.

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Interview highlights

On why he is running

"I’m a second generation of Marion County Sheriff’s deputy. My dad spent 39 years on the sheriff’s department. I have completed 21 years, 10 years with the sheriff’s before the merge with IMPD, so I've always wanted to do it.  Now I think is the perfect opportunity to do it.”

On priorities if elected

“Jail overcrowding is a big issue, not only in Marion County, but in other counties around Indiana. They’re building a new criminal justice center shortly. They want to build it to around a 3,000 bed capacity. Right now the sheriff’s office holds about 2,600 bed capacity. My feeling about this is why not build it to maximum capacity and rent out the unused jail space to these other counties and federal law enforcement.”
 

Democrat Kerry Forestal is a lieutenant colonel and executive officer of the Marion County Sheriff's Department. He is running against Republican Brian Durham.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Interview highlights

On priorities if elected

“One of the things that fall under my division right now is the sexual offender registry. I think that is something we are really responsible for. It’s something I take very seriously. About 40 percent of the people that are registered in Marion County weren’t sentenced in Marion County. I don’t have an answer as to why that is but I want to make sure we don’t encourage people who have sexual offender charges to relocate to Marion County when they move out of prison.”

On jail overcrowding

“I don’t know if we need beyond the deputies we have now. We need to fund the deputies we have now. I would like to see some more mid-level judges. That’s not my decision, that’s someone else’s, but I would recommend. Right now, 50 percent of the jail is populated with what we call level 5 and level 6 prisoners. Those are people who are charged with the lowest level felonies. If we can move those people, find them not guilty, put them back out on the street or if they are found guilty move them on to the state prison that keeps our count down. There’s no goal to keep people in the jail.”