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Monday, August 04, 2008

Ind. Courts - Sound Bend Tribune starts new series on sentencing by St. Joe County courts

The South Bend Tribune had a series in the fall of 2006 titled "Judging the Judges." The last story in the series, as quoted in this Sept. 28, 2006 ILB entry, was about problems with inconsistency in sentencing.

Sunday the Tribune began a new series, reported again by Jeff Parrott.

Sunday's report focuses on "How often are St. Joseph County judges letting high-level drug offenders avoid prison?" A quote from Sunday's lengthy story:

Under Indiana law, dealing in cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin and other narcotic drugs is a Class A felony, punishable by 20 to 50 years in prison. But a 2001 state law aimed at stemming the spread of methamphetamine abuse might have had an unintended consequence.

The law also gave judges, for the first time, discretion to commit Class A and B felony drug convicts, no matter the drug involved, to community corrections programs without ever sending them to prison.

St. Joseph County judges have made frequent use of that option, according to a Tribune analysis of court records. Since 2003, 17 of the 45 defendants convicted of Class A felony drug crimes — dealing or possessing large amounts, or possessing the drugs near schools, parks and youth centers — received suspended sentences, to be served in community corrections and on probation instead of prison.

In other words, about 38 percent of convicted drug dealers have avoided prison — at least before going on to commit new crimes later.

Monday's report: "How successful is predicting whether offenders will violate probation or commit new crimes?" Some quotes from the lengthy story:

Two convicted drug dealers who have been charged with killing people after they had received prison-free sentences represent extreme cases, but they are hardly alone in having violated probation, according to a Tribune analysis of court records. * * *

Judges are basing their sentencing decisions partly on the presentence investigation report that they order the probation department to compile for each defendant. In recent years, a key part of that report has become a "risk-assessment" tool called the Level of Service Inventory-Revised, or LSI-R.

In the LSI-R process, the probation or community corrections officer asks the defendant a series of 54 questions, on everything from their criminal history to how they spend their free time. The offender's answers make up a numerical score, which is used to establish a level of risk — low, medium or high — that they will reoffend if released into the community.

Historically, corrections and court officials had based sentencing decisions largely on their own subjective feelings about a defendant's criminal history.

Sunday's story is accompanied by this useful sidebar:
Levels of community corrections

In St. Joseph County, there are four levels of community corrections. From most restrictive to least restrictive, they are:

  • Work release: Offenders live, eat and sleep at the Ducomb Center, a converted home on Madison Street in South Bend.

  • Day reporting with electronic monitoring: Offenders live at home and wear electronic ankle bracelets, which transmit a signal monitored by community corrections officers.

  • Home detention: Offenders live at home and are monitored electronically, and they must report to the community corrections office once a week.

  • Day reporting without electronic monitoring: Offenders live at home and are monitored by random phone calls, and they report to the office daily, with reporting decreasing over time.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 4, 2008 08:27 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts