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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Ind. Gov't. - "JUSTICE REINVESTMENT IN INDIANA: Summary Report & Policy Framework"

Here is what looks to be the short version of the Pew Report.

Maureen Hayden of CNHI has this story today in the New Albany News & Tribune, headed "Governor, leading lawmakers pitch ‘smarter incarceration’ to control escalating prison costs." Some quotes:

The plan would return “proportionality” to sentencing and give judges more discretion over sentencing low-risk offenders to community-based programs — an option that legislators have taken away in some cases.

State Rep. Ralph Foley, R-Martinsville, said the Indiana General Assembly has engaged in “offense inflation” in recent years by creating more laws and imposing stiffer sentences without thought to fairness or long-term implications.

Foley and other legislative leaders said lawmakers too often felt pressured to take a “tough on crime” attitude — one that he said was captured on bumper stickers and poster boards, rather than evidence-based policy.

“Often the legislature acts in a reactive way,” Foley said.

“We’ve all been a party to it,” echoed State Rep. Eric Turner, R-Marion.

The result: Indiana’s prison population has grown by more than 40 percent in the last decade, three times faster than any neighboring state.

The prison population growth occurred primarily because more property and drug offenders were sentenced to prison. That’s costly, given that it takes about $21,000 a year to house an inmate in a state prison.

Those numbers are based on a comprehensive review of the state’s criminal code and sentencing policies conducted by the Pew Center on the States and the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center.

And from Lesley Stedman Weidenbener's story today in the Louisville Courier Journal:
The full study with recommendations is to be released Thursday at a meeting of the General Assembly’s Criminal Code Evaluation Commission. But key legislative leaders already have seen the report and prepared bills they hope the commission will endorse at the meeting.

Senate Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Chairman Brent Steele, R-Bedford, said the legislation will provide local judges with more flexibility in sentencing while creating more “truth in sentencing” for serious offenders. However, he said the state would not eliminate its good-time credit rules that allow inmates to reduce how much time they spend behind bars.

“I think the citizens of Indiana are going to be well served by this,” Steele said. “They’ll for the first time have some reliability and something they can trust and understand when it comes to the sentencing of our most serious felons.” * * *

Indiana’s crime rate has declined slightly despite the growth in its prison population, according to the review by the Council of State Governments and Pew Center on the States. The growth occurred primarily because more property and drug offenders were sentenced to prison terms, according to the study.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 16, 2010 09:04 AM
Posted to Indiana Government