Criminal code revamp long way from over

Submitted by Linda Brady
Title: Vice-President
May 17, 2013

nwi.com

May 12, 2013 11:00 pm
Susan Brown


CROWN POINT | Despite being signed into law last week, the first revision of the Indiana Criminal Code in decades is far from a done deal.

David Powell, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, said the bill has a long way to go before it can be implemented.

"It clearly can't go into effect without a lot more work," he said Friday.

Powell said the coming months will find much pressure put on stakeholders, including prosecutors, before the law goes into effect on July 1, 2014, a full year longer than typical for new legislation.

Its major features include the expansion of the four levels of felonies to six, the most serious of felons to serve 75 percent of their sentence instead of 50 percent, and low-level felons to serve time in county jails or alternative community corrections programs.

Updated criminal code could cost counties

Submitted by Linda Brady
Title: Vice-President
May 17, 2013

nwi.com

May 12, 2013
Bob Kasarda

Porter County Chief Probation Officer Stephen Meyer said the county could be left to pick up part of the tab for the first significant changes to the state's criminal code in decades.

The changes, which in part redefine felony offenses to keep some offenders out of prison, are expected to result in more work for county probation departments, he said.

The Probation Officers' Professional Association of Indiana predicts as many as 800 more probation officers will be needed statewide during the first few years of the changes, which begin taking effect July 1, 2014, he said.

The Porter County office is already facing the challenge of complying with salary increases required by the state, Meyer said. The office is particularly hard hit because it has several veteran officers.

About a third of the office's $1.8 million annual budget is covered by user fees set by the state. Local officials can't increase those fees, but the balance of the budget is funded with county tax dollars, he said.

Lake County Chief Probation Officer Jan Parsons said the changes in state law puts a greater burden on Lake County’s already over-loaded probation officers.

“The worst of the worst will be incarcerated,” Parsons said. “But the rest will be in community corrections or probation.”

Tennessee to become one of the last states to arm parole and probation officers

Submitted by Linda Brady
Title: Vice-President
May 17, 2013

WATE.com

May 14, 2013 2:54 PM EDT

By SAMANTHA MANNING
6 News Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Probation and parole officers in Tennessee will soon be armed as a result of changes implemented by the state's Department of Correction.

"We're at peril from their actions if we don't arm ourselves and take ourselves seriously," East Tenn. District Director for Probation and Parole Bob Henshaw said.

Henshaw told 6 News he has worked in probation and parole for 36 years and said he knows firsthand of the dangers that come along with the job.

"Everybody we deal with is basically a convicted felon, anywhere from murder down to class E felony theft," Henshaw said. "I can point to two or three times in my career where I felt threatened by the environment that I was in."

......

In Indiana, only parole officers fall under the Department of Correction and spokesperson Douglas Garrison said parole officers were given the option of being armed in the late 1990s and nearly half of the roughly 140 parole officers are now armed.

Study Committee To Decide How To Fund Criminal Code Overhaul

Submitted by Linda Brady
Title: Vice-President
May 17, 2013

WFIU

By SARA WITTMEYER
Posted May 14, 2013

The criminal code overhaul that passed this session puts an emphasis on moving low level felons from state prisons to community programs, but a summer study committee will have to decide how to move resources to the local level so communities can implement the new law.

Representative Matt Pierce was a lead on the criminal code evaluation commission that produced the new sentencing structure. Among other things, it focuses on the rehabilitation of low-level offenders.

“Every state that has done this and there have been quite a few have saved hundreds of millions of dollars,” Pierce says.

A summer study committee will attempt to project how much money will be saved by keeping people in local communities in probation programs instead of in the state prison system. It will then consider how to invest money at the local level so there are enough resources to implement successful programs.