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.
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.
An intellectually disabled Indianapolis man who suffered unexplained injuries and allegedly was not given his medication while incarcerated in the Marion County Jail has filed a lawsuit against the Marion County Sheriff’s office, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and several individual officers and staff.
Although the Marion County Sheriff’s remedy failed to fix a glitch between two different computer systems and caused an inmate to be detained longer than the court had ordered, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law enforcement agency and the city of Indianapolis were not deliberately indifferent.
A former Noblesville school bus aid has pleaded guilty to battery charges and will now serve 10 days in prison for slapping a non-verbal, wheelchair bound child in her care.
The Hamilton County Jail’s Transitioning Opportunities for Work, Education & Reality — or TOWER — mentoring program, which was launched in January, provides inmates with a mentor who can help connect them to resources in the community. But perhaps most importantly, it also aims to help inmates find work.
Washington state’s effort to force a privately run immigration jail to pay its detainees minimum wage for work they perform can continue after all, a federal judge in Tacoma ruled Wednesday.
Stakeholders from around Indiana shared experiences and expectations regarding pretrial release reform as the entire state moves toward a system less reliant on cash bail beginning in January.
As 2019 draws to a close, judicial officials across Indiana are preparing for a change coming Jan. 1. On that day, Criminal Rule 26, which dictates new pretrial release protocols, will be effective statewide.
Representatives from all 92 Indiana counties will gather in Indianapolis next week for a team-based training event on pretrial release practices in criminal cases.
The family of a man who took his own life in the Howard County Jail in Kokomo is suing local police, alleging his death was avoidable.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed a ruling for Madison County in a lease dispute with a property manager that housed county inmates before the county backed out of the agreement years early.