Two years after state prosecutors shot down a promising legislative proposal to reduce the number of low-level criminals taking up room in state prisons, a new proposal is on the table, one that this time has the support of the state prosecutors organization.
Given that lawmakers are unlikely to pass such a bill without the support of the prosecutors, who two years ago accused legislators who supported sentencing reform as being soft on crime, this may be the best shot that reformers are going to get. It is at least worth pursuing, and this past week it was passed 13-0 by the Indiana House Courts and Criminal Committee.
Let's review: Back in the 1990s, Indiana lawmakers went on a get-tough tear, passing law after law that defined new crimes while increasing sentences for existing crimes. The American Civil Liberties Union reported that from 2000 to 2010, Indiana's prison population increased 47 percent while its crime rate dropped eight percent.
The state also built prisons, but it got so expensive that when Gov. Mitch Daniels took office eight years ago, he found that Indiana could not afford to maintain the staff to handle the inmate load. Consequently, Indiana had empty prison cells, while paying to house Indiana prisoners in Kentucky cells. It was an absurd situation, one that Daniels eventually corrected. However, the fact remains that Indiana has been one of the few states in the nation that has been putting more, not less, inmates into its prisons.
The 2011 legislation was based on recommendations by the Pew Center on the States and the Council of State Governments Justice Center that Indiana reduce the number of defendants guilty of low-level thefts and drug offenses in prisons by using more community-based corrections programs, such as the old Vanderburgh County SAFE House. The experts said Indiana could save $1.2 billion in prison building costs alone by focusing on community corrections.
To its credit, the new bill's supporters say it would result in more low-level felons going into work release and other community programs, which was the goal of the original bill two years ago, while getting tougher on the worst criminals.
The plan would drop the state's current four-tier system of felonies, and go to a six-tier system, which supporters say would allow sentences to be more specific to the crime, reported the Associated Press.
"We've tried to separate the people we're mad at from the people we're afraid of — and the people we're afraid of, we're hitting hard," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R- Avon.
It's a fair start, depending on whether the bill can actually deliver on the promise of reducing prison population.