Blackford County Approves $27,900 for Jail Education Tablets from Opioid Settlement Funds

From the Blackford County Council Budget Workshop #2 & Regular Meeting on August 5, 2026

The Blackford County Council voted 6-0 to approve a contract with Origin, a public benefit corporation, to deploy 20 educational tablets at the Blackford County Jail. The first-year cost is approximately $27,900, which includes the tablets and a secured charging cart. Annual renewal costs drop to about $13,000 for content licensing only.

The program offers GED preparation, literacy and numeracy courses, more than 50 vocational certificates — including CDL, OSHA, manufacturing, and food handler certifications — along with career profiling, an Ivy Tech partnership for college courses, a job board listing fair-chance employers, and a resource board for housing and transitional services.

The tablets are fully secured with no internet access and are restricted to educational content. The sheriff can track all usage from his desk computer. Deployment is expected within 90 days.

Auditor Lilas Simmons confirmed the program qualifies as a restricted prevention and education expense, making it eligible for the county's $300,000 restricted opioid settlement fund. Hancock County, which adopted the same program, reported $4.3 million in savings from reduced recidivism.

The jail currently has separate communication tablets that inmates pay to use for calls and messaging. The Origin tablets are free to inmates and education-focused.

Source: YouTube transcript — Blackford County Council Budget Workshop #2 & Regular Meeting, August 5, 2026

Some information may be inaccurate due to video audio quality.