REVOLVING DOOR: An afternoon in Hancock County court illustrates a cause of the jail crisis in many Hoosier counties

“Where do you see yourself in 20 years? Do you want a family?” asked Judge Dan Marshall as he questioned the two men in Hancock County Superior Court 2.

The door to Marshall’s courtroom seemed to continuously open and close on Friday afternoon, as people crammed into the gallery, some standing in the back while others sat near their loved ones or conferred with their attorneys before going before the judge. Marshall prepared to hear from 31 people who had violated probation, mostly due to testing positive for drugs. Some, however, didn’t show up to court.

Of all the crimes that land people in the increasingly overcrowded Hancock County Jail, violating probation is the No. 1 culprit — and it’s fueled by drugs. On certain afternoons in Superior Court 2, the probation violators are rounded up and herded before Judge Marshall. Some days are busier than others; Friday’s docket of 31 cases was considered heavy, and it portended more people going back to jail, swelling a population that never seems to wane.

In the first hour of the scheduled hearings, Marshall revoked the probation of seven people and ordered them to finish their sentence in the Hancock County Jail. Others who haven’t repeatedly violated probation were ordered to be put on home detention or sent to Hancock County Community Corrections.

Marshall asked everyone if they were addicted to the drugs they took while on probation. Some admitted they were. Others said it was just a mistake.

“If you’re not addicted, don’t use them on probation, unless you want to go to jail,” Marshall said.

While Marshall conducted hearings, court security escorted a total of 13 people to be booked into the jail over the course of a few hours, Hancock County Sheriff Brad Burkhart said. The 157-bed county jail housed 242 people as of 3:45 p.m. on Friday. That’s less than expected given the all-comers session in Superior Court 2, he said.

Most of the people who stood in court on Friday have repeatedly violated probation, Burkhart said. Judges have no other choice than sending them back to the already overcrowded jail.

“I understand it,” Burkhart said. “I’m not upset with them in any way because that is the right way to handle it. It’s just unfortunate that we’re full.”

Burkhart and Keith Oliver, jail commander, over the past two weeks have been planning for the influx of probation violators. They called in extra officers to help with booking and moved inmates from the jail. Community corrections took in 13 inmates eligible for work release on Friday morning, and staff on Thursday outsourced 10 sentenced Level 6 inmates to the Switzerland County Jail.

Even with those adjustments, it still pushed the jail to within range of its all-time high population. Hancock County officials are in the beginning stages of designing a 440-bed jail that could cost up to $43 million. Last year, the jail hit a record high 259 inmates; Burkhart expects that to increase over the summer.

Although the number of probation violators who were booked into the jail on Friday is unusually high, Burkhart said it’s a growing trend as addiction to drugs keeps its hold on many people in the community.

The Hancock County Jail processed 646 probation violation bookings in 2018 — the biggest cause of incarceration, according to the facility’s annual report. That’s a fifth of the jail’s 3,024 bookings for 2018.

‘They still violate’

Many people who violate probation also have substance use disorders, said Amy Ikerd, crime-prevention specialist with the Hancock County Probation Department. They might not be receiving the right type of treatment, are non-compliant with treatment or hide away once they’re sentenced to probation.

“When people disappear, it makes it difficult,” Ikerd said.

The next time officers typically see them is when they’re arrested on a new offense, most commonly theft due to drug use, Marshall said in an interview. Many people steal alcohol from stores or pawn items they take from cars and homes to pay for drugs, Marshall said.

Those who aren’t getting re-arrested often violate probation by testing positive for drugs, like many on Friday. But that doesn’t immediately mean extended jail time, said Josh Sipes, chief probation officer for Hancock County. The department has a system of penalties imposed on probation matters. Some people attend more classes and meetings, more frequent probation appointments, community service or are sent to community corrections or put on home detention.

But people keep violating probation despite the department’s attempts to provide them treatment.

The county offers medication treatment, like the opioid blocker Vivitrol, and counseling inside the jail; a heroin protocol program for people who seek to serve out their sentence in recovery houses; a drug court program for those battling addiction; mental health and counseling in the work release program; and other services within the probation department for people addicted to alcohol and marijuana.

In addition to more treatment programs, the county also added a pretrial release program aimed to assist low-risk defendants who qualify through a screening process to be released from jail while their criminal case is pending instead of spending months in jail or posting money for bond. Former chief probation officer Wayne Addison supervises that program.

Gayle Conley, adult probation officer supervisor, said people on probation addicted to heroin and meth are the highest-risk clients for the probation department. She said the addiction changes the person’s cognitive abilities and makes it even harder for them to stay sober.

Ikerd said during her 15 years working in addiction treatment, the past few years have been the most challenging. Addicts are more impulsive and less motivated than ever before to seek help, she said. Of the 1,073 drugs cases the Hancock County prosecutor’s office worked in 2018, about a third involved the possession or dealing of hard drugs, such as narcotics and meth, and also the unlawful use of a syringe.

“We’re begging people to just do the basics of what we need them to do,” Ikerd said, “and in addition to that, we’re providing them with housing, clothing, food, hooking them up with all the resources to eliminate any barrier for them to comply, and they still violate.”

Probation officers and treatment specialists try to work with inmates on a road toward recovery and change probation programming to better fit their situation, Conley said. They try and start treatment when people are in jail to prepare them for probation, Ikerd added, whether that’s the heroin protocol program or some other assistance. But despite those efforts, some people don’t want the assistance.

“It’s never good when someone has violated. None of us like it,” Conley said. “None of us like seeing someone going to jail, but a lot of times I feel better when they’re in jail because they’re alive and they’re safe.”

A revolving door

Conley said people have always violated probation, but now they’re doing it in a different way, she said. It pivots on how drugs cycle in and out of the community. Meth is growing in usage, she said. The prosecutor’s office worked 98 meth possession cases in 2018; 47 in 2016; and four in 2014.

In court on Fridays, Marshall said he used to see seven or eight people on the court day set aside for people on probation who fail drug screens. Thirty-one in a day is uncommon, he said.

Marshall said he sees people back in court three or four times for violating probation. The first violation rarely results in the person going to jail, he said. On Friday, Marshall ordered some probation violators to community corrections or home detention as alternatives to jail. He said people who struggle with drug addiction are violating probation faster than those who, say, were guilty of battery or drunken driving.

People charged with Level 6 felonies, which is the lowest penalty for possession of meth and possession of narcotics, tend to violate probation at the same rate or at a higher rate than those charged with misdemeanors, Marshall said. There are five times as many misdemeanors as felonies, he said. Of the 31 probation violation hearings set for Friday, 17 were charged with Level 6 felonies.

The number of people violating probation and getting booked has also grown because of a larger caseload. More than 2,000 adults are on probation in Hancock County, a record number, Sipes said.

Some people have acclimated to the jail setting instead of fearing it, Sipes said. Many bounce from jail to jail and have warrants and are serving probation in several counties, he said, getting caught in a cycle.