INDIANA JAIL POPULATION JUMPS 60 PERCENT IN LAST DECADE

Increase Linked To Crackdown On Drugs

FORT WAYNE (AP) -- Despite Indiana's efforts at alternative sentencing,
the state's prison population jumped 60 percent to 34,676 in the last
decade, according to 2000 census figures.

In many counties, jail populations have doubled and even tripled since
1990, according to a report in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

National and state experts say the growth can be tracked to America's
crackdown on drugs, with a focus on enforcement, longer sentences and
more stringent laws for drug offenses.

The surging inmate population has led Indiana to build two new prisons
since 1990 with two more under construction and new or expanded jails
being built in several counties.

While the public can take satisfaction knowing more people are being
jailed, overcrowding increases medical and food costs and puts a strain
on staff, said attorney Kenneth J. Falk of the Indiana Civil Liberties
Union.

"With so many inmates so close, tempers flair," he said. "It creates
more chance for fights, making it an unsafe place to work, because it's
harder for guards to intervene because there are more people."

A May 1998 lawsuit filed against Allen County by the ICLU on behalf of
an inmate resulted in a 250-bed jail expansion, which is currently under
construction. At times before the lawsuit, more than 800 inmates filled
the jail, which was built to hold 462.

Similar lawsuits were filed against DeKalb and Steuben counties in the
1980s.

"We are now seeing the results of the war on drugs started in the early
1990s," said Deborah Vargas, policy analyst with the Justice Policy
Institute, a criminal justice think tank based in California and
Washington, D.C.

In many states, including Indiana, the emphasis on stopping drug dealers
and abusers led to mandatory jail time, bypassing a judge's discretion
in sentencing, Vargas said. Indiana law requires drug offenders to serve
a minimum amount of time behind bars that cannot be suspended by a
judge.

"Throwing them in jail doesn't address their addiction," Vargas said.
"It's a revolving door."

On July 1, 2000, 83 percent of Indiana's adult prison inmates who were
convicted of a Class A felony -- the most severe -- were serving time
for a drug offense, said Pam Pattison, Indiana Department of Correction
spokeswoman. Of those convicted of a B felony, 98 percent were serving
time for drugs.

The need for money to purchase drugs, particularly crack cocaine, often
leads to other types of crimes, said Allen County Sheriff Jim Herman.
Obtaining money for drugs is often the motive in burglaries, robberies
and thefts, he said.

Public pressure to crackdown on drugs led to a "knee-jerk reaction,"
said Allen County Jail Commander Thomas Hathaway.

Jailing drug abusers and dealers was not a rational solution, but a rash
decision that showed quick results without consideration of long- term
effects, like overcrowding, he said.

"When you respond with a knee-jerk reaction, you don't see the effects
right away," Hathaway said. "Jail is the stop for other programs that
have failed."