The criminal code changed last July and as a result, county jails throughout the state may see an increase in mentally ill and low-level offenders diverted from state prisons to county jails. This is so the more serious offenders will serve their longer sentences in prison. State Rep. Jud McMillin said the criminal code had not been revised since 1977 and after a five-year process, it is finally completely revamped. He said felonies have been reclassified and there are changes to sentencing. “This entire effort is an effort to be smarter on crime,” McMillin said. McMillin said the cost to house lesser offenders is escalating and studies have shown continuing to house these marginal offenders can lead to them becoming more serious criminals. He said instead of building new prisons, a solution could be creating new programs for these offenders that could provide an opportunity to end the cycle and get them back into society. Proper funding is a major concern for the next phase. “Everyone is hearing at the first phase, ‘without funding, this won’t work,’ and they’re right,” McMillin said. McMillin said Indiana is at the forefront of this change, but it isn’t the first state to try the new system. He said Texas invested $250 billion into their criminal code project, and over a few years has managed to save $3 billion. “Not everyone is as confident as I am,” McMillin said. “I think this is the way to go.” Kosciusko County Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine said there will be some challenges with these new changes. One issue for Kosciusko County Jail is overcrowding. Rovenstine said there are 302 beds in the jail and at one time earlier this year, 280 were filled. “We’re a lot tighter than we would like to be, but we’re not in immediate danger,” he said. Rovenstine said liability carriers will evaluate the jail and he thinks their results will show the county jail is understaffed considering the new criminal code. Reports have shown that a total of 14,000 inmates could be diverted to county jails. “If that is true, it’s going to cause some problems for us,” he said. Rovenstine said he has discussed different options for the sheriff’s department to avoid overcrowding and funding issues. He said they are working toward starting a community correctional program with alternative sentencing to ease jail crowding. He also said getting an off-site location for women’s work release could alleviate overcrowding. The county jail currently is inadequately staffed and funded for mentally ill individuals and it continues to be “an ongoing and worsening problem for us, and it’s going to cost the county more money,” he said. Those with mental illness are typically not sentenced. Rovenstine said they end up on the streets and there are no beds for them at state hospitals, so the police are usually called and they end up in the jail. There are two inmates in the jail now and Rovenstine said they will “blow the budget in the first two months,” because their medications are so expensive. He also said inmates sometimes need to be detained in a chair to keep from beating their heads into the wall. “We don’t have a huge facility to separate inmates,” he said. “We’re lucky to have the Bowen Center here.” Another issue Rovenstine mentioned was that the jails are being treated as correctional facilities. Jails originally were meant for pre-trial detention and misdemeanor sentencing that lasts a year or less, but now inmates will be serving their longer sentences at the county jails. “It’s going to be a change in the way local government has to deal with their jail issues,” Rovenstine said. “We need to wait a year or two to see how it plays out.”
