Prison reform needs support

Opinion

Discussion

December 16, 2012

Prison reform needs support

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Sun Dec 16, 2012, 12:05 AM EST

THE ISSUE: Paying counties that send fewer low-level offenders to prison.

OUR VIEW: Such a measure would encourage Howard County to enroll more class D felons in its community corrections program.

Indiana lawmakers considered two visions of the state’s criminal justice system during their most recent legislative session.

One was represented by Martin County Prosecutor Mike Steiner, who sees prison as a last resort for low-level offenders.

“My personal belief,” he said, “is that going to the Department of Correction is like going to grad school for crime.”

The other vision was represented by Huntington County Superior Court Judge Jeff Heffelfinger.

“We send people to prison because they belong there,” he said. “It’s what our communities expect us to do.”

The numbers in the two counties reflect those divergent points of view. The odds of going to prison for a low-level offense are higher in Huntington County than anywhere else in the state. Those odds in Martin County are near zero.

This was not a fight, though, between tight-fisted conservatives and bleeding-heart liberals. In fact, fiscal conservatives such as Gov. Mitch Daniels was among those arguing prisons are the wrong place for many offenders.

Part of the reason: A recent rise in the state prison population has Indiana’s leaders concerned they soon will have to build more prisons. To avoid that, folks like Daniels were hoping to redirect many low-level offenders into alternative programs such as community corrections.

“It’s first about reducing recidivism and then about saving state dollars,” the governor said last year. “It’s in that order.”

The state already encourages local counties to develop community corrections programs and offers grants to keep the cost off of local taxpayers. The program serving Cass County has placed it among those counties sending the fewest low-level offenders to state prisons.

Despite reporting 87 percent of adults and juveniles as successfully completing its community corrections programs in 2008, Howard County sends an above-average number of low-level offenders to prison.

Under a measure considered in the last legislative session, counties that sent fewer class D felony offenders to state prisons would get more funding. Those that sent more would see their funding cut.

We encourage lawmakers to debate sentencing reform again next month.

Cass County will likely benefit from such a measure, which will also free up room in state prisons for the truly hard-core criminals who ought to be there. Howard County will be encouraged to enroll more class D felons in its community corrections program.

This is legislation area lawmakers should support.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Opinion

Move over, Ind. drivers
Keep highway and utility workers safe; remember to pull over for utility vehicles.

May 19, 2013
May 18, 2013: Cheers & Jeers
Commissioner earns respect of inmates

Kyle Stacy sends this Cheer for Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman:

May 18, 2013
House of Burgess: The revolution will be printed
Another major milestone in the history of 3D printing was reached earlier this month when Cody Wilson, director of the nonprofit Defense Distributed, announced he had conducted the first-ever successful test firing of a completely 3D-printed gun in (where else?) Texas. Wilson then uploaded the plans online. These files were then downloaded over 100,000 times over the next 48 hours. That was, until the State Department intervened.

May 15, 2013 1 Photo
Hayden: From good to great in education
On the campaign trail last year and early into his administration, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said repeatedly that his goal as governor would be to take Indiana from “good to great.”

May 14, 2013
Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research. Instead, their words of wisdom come from a greater source — the heart, where they store and process life experiences. Unfortunately, some folks don’t receive the gift of maternal guidance, for various reasons.

May 14, 2013
Wolfsie: Making bird calls
One afternoon in 2011, my friend Eric spent a couple of hours over lunch explaining Twitter to me and I thought I understood it all, but as you’ll see from my first few tweets, I wasn’t very confident: “Is anyone getting this?”

May 13, 2013
Letter to the Editor: May 13, 2013
Good people wouldn’t do this to their neighbors. This common refrain is being heard over eastern Howard County where industrial development is planned for our farmland in the form of massive wind turbines.

May 13, 2013
Vasicek: Mother’s Day stresses
For two hours, the lady sitting next to another airplane passenger boasted about her grandchildren, producing a barrage of photographs. She finally realized that she had been talking the whole time, so she tried to make amends:
“Oh, I am sorry! I have monopolized the conversation. I will listen to you now. So please tell me: what do you think of my grandchildren?”

May 12, 2013
Letters to the Editor: May 12, 2013
How fortunate, that after years of trying to bring top-notch wind energy companies to Tipton County, this great choice is here for us — just at the right time. Tipton County badly needs the revenue from clean wind farm companies.

May 12, 2013
Cheers & Jeers: May 12, 2013
“A big cheer goes out to Kokomo for those who parked along the route to cheer on the bikes and to the riders who participated in the 11th Annual Ride For The Troops on Sunday, April 28. Despite the rain, we had a excellent turnout of 457 bikes!"

May 11, 2013
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

Discussion

Prison reform needs support

Site Map

Contact Us