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A decade after Indiana overhauled its criminal code to reduce incarceration, lawmakers approved more than a dozen new crimes and sentencing enhancements.
The new laws, set to take effect July 1, were passed in this year’s long legislative session. Among the changes are stricter sentences for fentanyl-related offenses, harsher penalties for resisting law enforcement and criminalizing swatting – or falsely reporting an emergency.
The Indiana Department of Correction is nearing full capacity according to a recent prison population report. As of June, state prison facilities were operating at 94.38% capacity – with one prison over 100% full. The system currently houses 25,305 inmates, with a total of 26,812 beds.
“This is a policy decision you have to make,” Democratic Rep. Matt Pierce said. “Do you spend your resources incarcerating people for decades in a state prison, or do you spend your resources on treating the underlying causes of the crime.”
The DOC is spending billions on a new prison and also has struggled to keep up with costs it owes to local county jails.
In 2014, Gov. Mike Pence signed a major criminal code reform bill to reduce prison populations and save millions in correctional costs. The bill also prioritized mental health and rehabilitation programs for lower-level offenders. Prior to the bill, a comprehensive review of the criminal code had not been done in almost 40 years.
The bill requires the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute to annually gather data and analyze the impact of Indiana criminal code reform on local units of government, the DOC and the judicial system.
Lawmakers haven’t been shy about adding new crimes and sentences to the criminal justice landscape in Indiana.
Pierce, who co-authored the reform bill, said newer members of the General Assembly have reverted into the old way of thinking – the idea that every year an additional sentence is added on to a crime, the crime will go down.
“If you want to reduce crime, you can’t simply do the easy thing,” he said. “Which is to increase the penalty and then walk away and say ‘you solve the problem.’”
Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council Executive Director Chris Naylor said it’s not new laws that are creating issues for the DOC but the amount of violent offenders and attorney shortages.
“Over the last 10 years, there’s been over a 40% increase in murders,” Naylor said. “And so it’s not much any new laws that are having this impact, it is the level of violent crimes that increasing in our state.”
Naylor said caseloads show the state needs 384 more attorneys to cover cases. He said the salaries of deputy prosecutors are lagging way behind any other public service attorney or private sector attorney.
Indiana has a growing statewide lawyer shortage especially in rural counties. Over half of the state’s counties are considered “legal deserts,” and have fewer than one attorney per 1,000 Hoosiers. In 2024, the Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future was created to address attorney shortages. They have until July 1 to submit a final report.
Fentanyl penalty increased
A key factor in this year’s legislation was fentanyl. Indiana’s drug overdose crisis has worsened since the 2014 reforms and fentanyl came after code reform, Pierce said. In 2022, there were a total of 2,682 overdose deaths with 72% involving fentanyl or other synthetic opioids in Indiana, according to USAFacts.
In response, Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, authored a public safety bill that increases penalties for fentanyl-related crimes. It passed with bipartisan support.
“Public safety has always been one of my top priorities as a Senator,” Freeman said in a press release. “This bill was not created to put additional burdens on government agencies, but to keep violent criminals off the streets of our Hoosier communities. Soft-on-crime prosecuting and bail policies are hurting innocent people in many cities, including Indianapolis.”
Pierce disagrees with the bill. He also said he does not see a major criminal code reform happening anytime soon but one might be necessary if the legislature continue on the path of adding new penalties and enhancements.
“I think it was a mistake to do the new enhancements on fentanyl,” Pierce said.
Naylor called the fentanyl provision an appropriate response. He said our drug statutes work based on the different weights of the drug.
“The old weights just were antiquated when you’re dealing with a substance as potent and as deadly as fentanyl, so that made total sense,” Naylor said.
Other crimes
Zach Stock, legislative counsel for the Indiana Public Defender Council, said his group generally opposes new crimes or enhancements.
House Enrolled Act 1014 increases the penalty for resisting law enforcement, a charge Stock says appears in thousands of cases each year. The same law also restricts government entities from hosting or organizing obscene performances.
“Every time we tinker with the code in one isolated area, we lose sight of the whole code,” Stock said. “But we still can’t blame the crisis on new crimes or enhancements.”
Swatting will now be a Level 6 felony in Indiana. This change comes from Senate Enrolled Act 198 authored by Freeman and Sen. Eric Koch.
“The bill was necessary because existing law didn’t define the conduct to allow for effective prosecution. Unfortunately, we are seeing a growing amount of swatting around the country, and this was necessary to protect the safety of our citizens,” Koch said.
Previously the punishment was a class A misdemeanor, a max of one year in prison. A person facing a Level 6 felony could spend up to two and a half years in prison.
A new crime was introduced this year that lawmakers would have never envisioned ten years ago – signal jamming, a device that disrupts communications. SEA 26 makes it a Level 5 felony if someone uses a signal jammer to disrupt a critical infrastructure facility or the communications of a public safety agency.
Another law makes it a Level 6 felony for a passenger of a vehicle to point a firearm during the commission of the driver’s criminal recklessness.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
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