Morgan Walker
HANCOCK COUNTY — Officials with the advisory search committee looking for a new leader of the Hancock County Community Corrections Department (HCCC) have zeroed in on the person they want to be the new director.
Wayne Addison, the head of the Hancock County Pre-trial Release Program, has been the chair of the advisory search committee and made the recommendation to county leaders Wednesday night during a joint Hancock County Council, Hancock County Commissioners meeting.
Addison named Morgan Walker, current Director of Community Corrections and Alternative Programming in Wayne County, as the top candidate. It will now be up to the commissioners to meet with Walker and then approve her hiring, which is expected to happen fairly soon, according to Commissioner President Bill Spalding.
“We’re hoping to all land on a date within the next two weeks and get this wrapped up,” Spalding said. “I think it’s really important for us to be able to sit down with her… She’s shown herself to be the top-shelf pick.”
Spalding noted after meeting with the top candidate that he expects the commissioners to take a vote on officially filling the position. Baring any unforeseen circumstances, he anticipates things being wrapped up sometime in September.
“No time later than that for sure,” Spalding said.
Addison noted he and the vice president of the advisory search committee, Josh Sipes, the head of the Hancock County Probation Department, worked hard to narrow the list of some 70 applicants to get to their top pick.
“She checked all the boxes, had all the experience we were looking for,” Addison said of Walker. “Plus, she has a great deal of experience with writing grant proposals, and we felt that was very important.”
Addison noted he and Sipes narrowed the original list of 70 down until they had the top four candidates who were interviewed and that Walker stood above the final four for several reasons, including her multiple degrees in business administration.
“We did have a lot of great candidates,” Addison said. “But, she already knows and understands the system having worked in it for many years, and we really liked her confidence and leadership abilities which clearly stood out.”
Walker, who learned she was the top candidate following the meeting via a phone call from Sipes, noted she’ll be happy to share more on her views on the director’s position once the job is officially offered and accepted. She did note how pleased she was to hear the news she was being strongly considered for the position and how she was expecting to hear from and hopefully meet county officials soon.
Officials with the county started looking for a replacement for the head of the HCCC operations after the former director of the department, Wade Kennedy, resigned in June following the filing of a federal lawsuit against the department.
The county’s community corrections program had come under scrutiny following the May 19 filing of a federal lawsuit against Kennedy’s now former department. The lawsuit, which is still pending, is against the Hancock County Board of Commissioners and three Hancock County Community Corrections officers.
The federal lawsuit states Ja’Michael Bryant, 21, Indianapolis, a former inmate with the HCCC program, was subjected to an unlawful and unreasonable discrimination based on his race. He also suffered embarrassment, humiliation, loss of income, and other damages, the lawsuit states.
Bryant, who is black, was convicted of dealing marijuana and sentenced to a year-and-a-half term through the HCCC Home Detention Program in November of 2022.
According to the lawsuit, one of the field officers called Bryant, who did not answer the phone. However, the phone did not disconnect but instead recorded a conversation about Bryant by the three community corrections officers, who allegedly degraded Bryant because of his race.
At the time of the lawsuit, Kennedy, who was the director of the HCCC, would not talk about any form of discipline the three community corrections officers were given. However, officials representing the county commissioners sent out a press release that stated, “The Hancock County Board of Commissioners has conducted an investigation of the conversation among three Hancock County Community Correction’s employees concerning Mr. Ja’Michael Bryant. On behalf of Hancock County, The Board is extremely disappointed with, and does not condone the absolute lack of professionalism and thoughtlessness demonstrated by the employees in this profanity-laced discussion of Mr. Bryant. Accordingly, the Director of Community Corrections has disciplined the employees pursuant to Hancock County Policy with a Letter of Reprimand for all three employees. This behavior is the antithesis of what is expected of all County employees, and is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
Since the federal filing, Bryant, whose case was switched to Marion County for supervision, according to arrest records from the Hancock County Jail, was arrested in early August and charged with a probation order violation for failing a drug test. Marion County officials reached out to officials in Hancock County, who still had jurisdiction over the case, in early August to make them aware Bryant had failed two drug tests and was not taking classes, a condition of his probation.
Bryant was arrested by county officials but posted bond immediately, jail records noted. A hearing on his violation originally scheduled for late August was pushed back to Friday, Sept. 29 in Hancock County Superior Court 2.
