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Mercer County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy of Corrections Jodie Lange will retire at the end of July, ending a 30-plus year career in law enforcement.
CELINA - For more than 30 years, Mercer County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy of Corrections Jodie Lange has served with distinction, cultivating an atmosphere of respect, compassion and order in the jail.
Lange, whose passion, dedication and know-how propelled her on a meteoric rise through the ranks to the top corrections position, will retire at the end of July, about six months ahead of Sheriff Jeff Grey.
Grey had nothing but praise for Lange, whom he has worked alongside since his days as chief deputy and through his 24-year tenure as sheriff.
"I always like to say she's had her heart in the right spot," Grey said of Lange. "She maintains control of the jail but she treats the inmates like people."
Lange, 62, had worked for Hemmelgarn & Sons since she was 16. At 32, she sought a new career and applied at the sheriff's office where she landed the job of corrections officer and never looked back.
She was required to attend a corrections academy and applied herself assiduously to her studies.
"She is the first person in the entire state and maybe the only person still, I don't know, that got a 100% on that test," Grey said.
Lange considered herself a jack of all trades, first at the jail built in 1928 at 125 W. Livingston St., Celina, that served as headquarters for 11 county sheriffs and their staff and then the new jail that opened in 2010 along State Route 29, west of Celina.
She booked, fingerprinted, fed, looked after and prepared inmates for court dates. In the process, she got to know the inmates to some extent.
"To work in a jail, you have to have common sense, you have to have some compassion, but you also have to be able to keep things in control," Lange said. "You just treat people like you would want to be treated."
She applied empathy, which came naturally to her, from the start.
"They're people and there's always more to a person than the worst mistake that they ever made," she said.
"Everybody in that jail is somebody's mom, dad, brother, sister, and we need to treat them that way," Grey added, noting his employees are trained in the three C's: caring, courteous and common sense law enforcement.
That being said, there have been some rough, dangerous individuals to come through the jail over the years.
"Everybody on death row in this country started out in a county jail because we're holding them pretrial," Grey said. "So jails can be more complicated than prisons, and I think Jodie's always had that heart for that to try to help people, try to guide our new employees when we hire them."
Corrections officers also have daily interactions with inmates.
"It's not like they're separated from the corrections staff. The corrections staff is walking right through their living area, talking to them in the cell blocks," Grey said. "We're face to face with them."
Lange exhibited an aptitude and commitment to her job that made her stand out.
"It didn't take very long after she was hired for us to realize her work ethic and dependability. She rose through the ranks fairly quickly," Grey said. "Of course, we're a smaller agency, so it's really the cream of the crop that goes up because it's not like we're promoting 15 sergeants at a time. Most promotions here are one at a time."
Lange eventually was promoted to chief deputy of corrections, responsible for running the jail and overseeing, at the moment, about 27 employees, including kitchen staff and nurses.
"We went from that old-fashioned jail uptown to this new jail that ran totally differently and Jodie was the lead on setting up the jail, getting things organized and getting this thing off the ground and up and running," he said.
Because she complied with state jail standards to a T, the Mercer County jail earned 100% scores on its annual state jail inspections, Grey boasted.
"The jail inspectors will tell you this: We have one of the cleanest jails in the state and the best-run jail in the state," he said.
Lange also helped facilitate programs in the new jail for inmates geared toward self-improvement, such as Brianna's Hope, a faith-based drug-recovery program; Alcoholics Anonymous; and Bible studies.
Many inmates, Lange and Grey have come to learn, are actually anxious about being released because they may not have any money or a place to stay. By participating in Briana's Hope while incarcerated, they have a support network waiting for them on the outside.
Moreover, inmates are given a handbook about resources available to them in Mercer County, Lange said.
Reflecting on her three decades at the sheriff's office, Lange said one of the biggest changes was the growth in the number of female inmates.
"When I first started there would be three, four weeks we might not ever have a female in jail," she said. "We always have females in jail (now), and their crimes are just as bad as what the males' are."
There are also more inmates charged or convicted of felonies in the jail than misdemeanors nowadays, Grey pointed out.
"We see some more violent crimes than what we used to," Grey said. "I think one of the big issues we still deal with here is drug issues. There's a lot of good people that are in jail because they got addicted to drugs and they can't control it."
Lange said she will miss working with all the great men and women who work for the sheriff's office.
Once Lange retires at the end of July, jail sergeant Jon Wolfe will be promoted to captain of corrections, and captain of corrections Martin Emerine will be promoted to chief deputy of corrections, Grey said.
"It's going to be hard for me in July to watch Jodie walk out the door because Jodie has been with me guiding this place since I became sheriff and when I was chief deputy," Grey said.
