Indiana’s Answer to Crime: Make Sure Offenders Stay Behind Bars

Since 2000, Indiana’s prison population has jumped by more than 40 percent, and the cost of running prisons has soared by 76 percent to $679 million a year. By 2017 the tab will be $1 billion, according to an editorial in the Indianapolis Star.

The Indiana criminal code has not been revised since 1974, and a get-tough legislature has passed 117 laws since 2000 that serve to lengthen prison time but not a single one to reduce sentences.

Department of Corrections director Ed Buss warns that, at this rate, maximum-security beds will have to be increased unless alternatives are found for nonviolent offenders, and legislators are admitting that something has to give because the state can no longer afford to build new prisons to keep up with demand.

As a result, the Pew Center on the States and the Council of State Governments will work with state officials to determine what works, what conflicts and what is at odds with reality in the criminal code. Those groups have helped several states reduce costs while improving public safety.

“The keys to fighting inefficiency without surrendering to crime are realistic sentencing and alternatives to incarceration,” the Star said. “Both will require hard study and political courage as lawmakers and the governor confront a public conditioned to throw-away-the-key rhetoric.”

To read the editorial, click here.

For more information, visit Justice Fellowship’s Prisoner Reentry and Sentencing Reform resource pages.