Christina Kovats and Kristina Byers previously served time at the Indiana Women’s Prison, and this year they became advocates who worked to draft Indiana legislation aimed at dismantling the black-and-white mentality regarding termination of parental rights for incarcerated mothers. A new law now gives judges discretion in TPR cases involving parents behind bars.
Read MoreLegislation that would have favored summons over jail time for low-level misdemeanors didn’t pass the Indiana Senate, but in light of COVID-19 restrictions, the Indiana Supreme Court urged trial courts to take a similar approach. Local law enforcement seems to be following suit to keep inmates at low risk for exposure.
An emergency petition submitted Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is requesting immediate action from the Indiana Supreme Court to stem the spread of COVID-19 in the Indiana Department of Correction and Indiana’s county jails.
Twenty-five jail inmates in Fort Wayne have received early releases amid the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.
Six jail officers in Kokomo have been fired for misconduct dating back to early December, officials said.
A southwestern Indiana correctional officer has been arrested after a female inmate he was transporting accused him of assaulting her. Malyk Jawaun Johnson, 23, of Montgomery was charged Wednesday with sexual battery, official misconduct and trafficking with an inmate, Indiana State Police said.
City leaders can look southeast out the top floors of the City-County Building and see the Community Justice Campus taking shape in the Twin Aire neighborhood. Today, officials are just six months from a tentative opening for the first piece of the project, the 37,000-square-foot Assessment and Intervention Center.
The estate of an inmate who died in the Indiana Department of Corrections from complications arising from lupus and a blood clotting disorder had its case reinstated Monday against the DOC and its medical services contractor.
Raising allegations of unconstitutional conditions, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has filed a lawsuit against Wabash County for “chronic” jail overcrowding.
The grandmother of a northwestern Indiana man charged in a knife attack on her and her husband said it was like a “horror movie” when their grandson allegedly grabbed a butcher knife and began stabbing them. Nicholas Powers, 22, is charged with two counts each of attempted murder and battery, along with other charges, in the Jan. 28 attack near the town of Dyer.
A suspended Greenwood lawyer accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from disabled and injured clients whose special-needs trusts he established and then allegedly used for his own purposes is in jail in Muncie, where he may remain until standing trial on criminal charges around the state. Kenneth “Shane” Service, 46, was booked into the Delaware County Jail on Thursday, according to jail records.
A new Indiana rule requiring that booked inmates be assessed to determine risks or benefits of releasing them before trial is expected to eventually reduce overcrowding at the state’s county jails, criminal justice officials say.
A new Indiana rule requiring that booked inmates be assessed to determine risks or benefits of releasing them before trial is expected to eventually reduce overcrowding at the state’s county jails, criminal justice officials say. Criminal Rule 26, which set Indiana’s new pretrial release protocols, was adopted by the Indiana Supreme Court in 2017, but it didn’t take effect statewide until Jan. 1.
An Indiana man charged in the 2018 slayings of two people found in a nature preserve and an abandoned farmhouse will act as his own attorney, a judge has ruled. Madison Circuit Court 6 Judge Mark Dudley granted Daniel Lee Jones’ request to act as his own lawyer, but his public defender will serve as stand-by counsel during the trial.
Indiana Supreme Court justices have agreed to hear a case that sharply divided an appellate panel concerning whether minor felonies reduced to misdemeanor convictions should trigger new five-year waiting periods for individuals seeking a criminal expungement.
Indiana authorities are investigating the death of a man being held at a county jail on Saturday. Wayne County Sheriff Randy Retter said in a news release that 57-year-old Dean Lamb collapsed Saturday afternoon in the jail.
Two northwestern Indiana men have been charged with murder and arson in the death of a third man in a house fire, Indiana State Police said Thursday.
The Children’s Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana and more than 20 nonprofits and community groups have joined together to form the Indiana Coalition for Youth Justice, which advocates for reform in the juvenile justice system so that it offers treatment, programs and interventions that are age-appropriate, fairly applied and result in the best possible outcomes for Indiana children and public safety.
The National Judicial Opioid Task Force was created in 2017 to delve into ways the judiciary could get a handle on the opioid crisis. Co-chaired by Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush, the task force’s work culminated late last month in the release of a report that includes four findings and six recommendations for how courts can respond to the current drug scourge and be better prepared for the next addiction crisis.
Ten inmates at a southern Indiana jail are charged in an alleged scheme that authorities say used codes to help smuggle drugs into the jail. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office says the inmates worked with an outside contact who picked up drugs and hid them in the jail’s lobby, which inmates cleaned.
A northern Indiana county has settled for $2,000 a lawsuit filed by former jail inmate who alleged he was improperly treated.