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Monday, August 30, 2010

Ind. Gov't. - More on: "ACLU of Ohio produces major report on prison growth and problems"

In this August 18th ILB entry, I asked what was happening with the Indiana Pew report project.

Today Vic Ryckaert of the Indianapolis Star has a lengthy, front-page story on Indiana's slow effort at a change in course. It begins:

For decades, Indiana's answer to crime has been to adopt tough new laws and strict sentencing policies to make sure offenders stay behind bars.

Since 2000, the legislature has passed 117 criminal laws or penalty enhancements. In the same time, Indiana lawmakers have passed not one measure that reduces a prison sentence.

The result: Indiana's prison population has jumped by more than 40 percent, and the cost of running the prisons has soared by 76 percent, to $679 million a year.

By 2017, Indiana Department of Correction officials say, the cost will balloon to more than $1 billion.

At a time when Indiana faces ever-deepening budget problems, building more prisons isn't the answer, said DOC Commissioner Ed Buss. He is leading a push by the administration of Gov. Mitch Daniels to rein in the cost of the state's prison system by changing the way felons are dealt with after sentencing.

No specific proposals are on the table, but these are among the possible options:

» Increasing the number of felons on probation.

» Creating more programs such as home monitoring and work-release.

» Setting up more drug and alcohol counseling.

The effort will require an overhaul of the state's criminal justice system and could face a tough sell in a state long known for a strong anti-crime policy. Some advocacy groups already are speaking out against any effort to reduce penalties or to make it easier for felons to go on probation.

But Buss and several key legislators hope to sell an overhaul as a cost-cutting measure. They point to successes in Ohio and Texas -- another state known for being tough on crime -- in reducing costs by keeping fewer people in prison.

The minutes of the July 28, 2010 meeting of the legislative interim Criminal Code Evaluation Commssion are now available online. They are well worth reading. Here are some quotes:

• [T]he Commission will be working on two parallel tracks this year. The first is in conjunction with the Pew Center. The Pew Center is reviewing Indiana’s criminal justice system and should have proposals to the Commission by the fall. The second track is the line by line criminal code review. Representative Pierce proposed that there be an informal working group formed to review the criminal code and bring proposals on large blocks of code in the form of bills that the Commission can review and vote on. The working group will be headed by Mr. Johnson of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council, Mr. Landis of the Public Defenders Council, and Judge Marnocha. The goal of the working group is to have a big bill that has a large consensus in the Commission to present to the General Assembly in the next session. Due to the fact that there is not much staffing for the Commission, Representative Pierce believes that various stakeholders will be willing to aid in the staffing of the working group.
• Mr. Landis of the Public Defenders Council said that his group will present the Commission with a spreadsheet of all of the offenses in the criminal code. The sheet will note if the offense existed in the 1977 code, how it was classified, and how that compares to the current criminal code. The sheet will show that there are often sentencing enhancements and new crimes created. Mr. Landis said that Indiana is the only state that has a D Felony for theft that does not have a qualifier for a value of the thing stolen.
• Representative Foley said that there are many crimes that are not in the criminal code. He said that the group should at the least find all of the felonies in the code. He said that there should be a policy in the General Assembly that, if it is a felony, it must be referenced in the criminal code. Representative Pierce said that there is a policy like that in place for civil liability immunities. Representative Foley said that he has found that there are felonies in the code that are created through regulation and not law. He said that this is unconstitutional and should be addressed by the working group. He also said that there needs to be a review of some of the penalties for different crimes. He provided the example of how hard it would be for a sex offender to find a place where he or she could live in a city like Indianapolis. Mr. Landis said that his spreadsheet will include everything that has a criminal penalty.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 30, 2010 10:40 AM
Posted to Indiana Government