The Indiana Lawyer on November 13, 2019 by Olivia Covington
As he prepares to begin a 30-day, unpaid suspension, Clark Circuit Judge Bradley Jacobs is publicly apologizing for the first time for a night of drinking that led to him being critically wounded in a downtown Indianapolis shooting.
“I have been a fortunate person. I have an amazing wife, three wonderful daughters, a father that loves me unconditionally and a brother who has always stood up for me and beside me,” Jacobs said in a statement released Tuesday by his Jeffersonville attorney, Larry Wilder. “In January of 2015 the people of Clark County, Indiana also blessed me with the privilege to serve as judge in the same court that my father presided over when I was a child. On May 1, 2019 I nearly lost all of those things.”
Jacobs was suspended Tuesday, along with fellow Clark County Judge Andrew Adams and Crawford Circuit Judge Sabrina Bell. All three were involved in an early-morning altercation on May 1 that led to Jacobs and Adams being shot, with Jacobs taking two bullets to the chest and being hospitalized in critical condition. Continue reading →
Email on 11/15/2019 by IOCS Justice Services
The Indiana Office of Court Services will be providing trainings in Indianapolis to kick off 2020! All trainings will take place at our offices, located at 251 N. Illinois Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204. Below is the list of the trainings, including registration links.
IOCS will not provide lunch or hotel for these trainings.
Case Management: January 14-15, 2020
https://ijc.wufoo.com/forms/zn63uji17dbh2v/
EPICS: January 28-30, 2020
https://ijc.wufoo.com/forms/zqy1fy90hw7p79/
Note: It is highly recommended that the Case Management training is attended before attending EPICS.
Carey Guides and BITS: February 13, 2020
https://ijc.wufoo.com/forms/z8gfgvq1kutair/
Interviewing Skills: February 14, 2020
https://ijc.wufoo.com/forms/z1f13d8c1vta2tm/
Save the Date: Below are dates for staff orientations and other trainings for the first half of 2020. These trainings along with registration links will be posted on our website within the next few weeks.
2/11/20: New Problem-Solving Court Coordinator Orientation
2/12/20: New Court A&D Director Orientation
3/17/20: New Problem-Solving Court Staff Orientation
3/18/20: New Court A&D Staff Orientation
3/19/20: Assessment and Interviewing
4/07 – 4/09/20: New PO Academy
4/27 – 4/29/20: Justice Services Conference
5/20 – 5/21/20: Substance Abuse Characteristics
6/16/20: Permanency Roundtable Orientation
TIME on October 15, 2019 by BY TIM WALZ AND MIKE PARSON
When we talk about criminal justice reform, we naturally think about the people behind bars. But there’s another population that gets far less attention — one that’s facing a world of challenges which, if not addressed, will keep our nation’s prison populations stubbornly high.
About 4.5 million people in the United States are on probation or parole supervision — double the number of people locked up. If this population were its own city, it’d be the second largest in the country.
Probation and parole supervision are offered either in lieu of prison time or in exchange for early release. These options are meant to help people avoid crime and succeed in the community while keeping them out of prison. Instead, the data reveal a harsh reality.
A new report by The Council of State Governments Justice Center shows that 45% of state prison admissions nationwide are the result of violations of probation or parole, either for new crimes or technical violations. In 20 states, including Minnesota and Missouri, more than half of admissions are due to supervision violations.
Even more alarming is the number of people who are being sent back to prison as a result of technical violations, which are typically minor infractions, such as failed drug tests or missed curfews. According to the report, approximately 95,000 people are incarcerated as a result of technical violations on any given day. Incarcerating people for these types of infractions collectively costs states $2.8 billion annually, with 12 states each spending more than $100 million. READ ON
NPR on 11-7-2019 by Andrea Dukakis
Melinda McDowell had used drugs since she was a teenager. But she didn’t try methamphetamine until one fateful night in 2017 after her mother died suddenly of a stroke. She went to a neighbor’s house and he had crystal meth.
“I tried it and I was hooked from the first hit,” McDowell says. “It was an explosion of the senses. It was the biggest high I’d ever experienced.”
Afterward, McDowell says, that big high started getting more elusive. But she kept using the drug frequently, and it took a toll. She went from 240 pounds to 110. Eventually, she lost custody of her children, who were put in foster homes. McDowell started having hallucinations.
McDowell tried many times to stop using meth, but when she’d quit for a few days, she’d have severe panic attacks and begin to shake uncontrollably. One night, she remembers lying on her bathroom floor thinking that if she didn’t get help, she’d die.
She heard about a woman named Nancy Beste who had recently opened the doors to a treatment center called Road to Recovery in Steamboat Springs, Colo., near where McDowell lived. McDowell says she begged Beste for help.
Beste, who’s a certified addiction counselor and physician assistant, says McDowell’s call came at a fortuitous time. She had just gotten back from a conference where she learned about research into what’s called medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, for methamphetamine users. Some early studies indicate that naltrexone, the same medication used to treat alcohol addiction and opioids, can work for some people addicted to methamphetamine.
Beste gave McDowell a prescription for naltrexone and signed her up for individual and group therapy. McDowell says that three to four hours after she took the first pill, she felt better. After the second pill, the withdrawals lessened.
“The shaking started going away. I wasn’t panicking. I could feel some relief,” McDowell says. “I knew there was something different.”
That was more than a year ago. McDowell is still sober today.
Continue reading…
WBIW on 10/11/2019
(PENDELTON) – Correctional Industrial Facility (CIF) hosted a tour of their Joni & Friends Wheels for the World wheelchair refurbishment shop.
Senior Manager for Domestic Operations Paul Dorthalina was joined by Joni & Friends outreach staff from Chicago, program donors and volunteers, along with correctional staff from Ohio who are interested in starting this program at their facility.
The tour was in conjunction with a normal audit of the operation by Joni & Friends as well as a PowerPoint outlining operational changes with Joni and Friends. Individuals were able to see the operation first hand and see how much work and care goes into refurbishing each wheelchair.
Paul Dorthalina presented Warden Wendy Knight with a plaque commemorating the refurbishment of 2500 chairs at CIF’s shop.
Warden Knight commented, “It’s rewarding both to CIF as well as the men working in our shop to realize how many lives have been changed as a result of this operation.”
Wheels for the World provides wheelchairs for people who need them in less resourced countries around the world.
The Wheels for the World process includes wheelchair collection, restoration, and provision. Chair Corps and Wheels for the World volunteers collect used, manual wheelchairs throughout the United States that are transported to Wheels for the World restoration centers located in correctional facilities in 10 states.
From there, offenders restore them to like-new condition. Finally, physical and occupational therapists trained in seating fit each wheelchair to the recipient’s need and provide them with training in its use and upkeep. They also provide a Bible in their language and join them in fellowship.
Indy Star on 9/5/2019 by Shari Rudavsky
Methamphetamine use appears to be making a comeback as the country continues to grapple with the opioid epidemic.
Methamphetamine use appears to be making a comeback as the country continues to grapple with the opioid epidemic.
But unlike the period marked a decade ago by hodgepodge labs hidden in rural communities in Indiana and elsewhere, the reemergence appears fueled by two factors: The drug is being smuggled in from other countries, and users are using it along with the opioid fentanyl — a far riskier high.
Indiana University researchers who track accidental drug overdose deaths have noted a rapid rise in the number of deadly overdoses involving methamphetamine since 2013 in Marion County. The number of deaths involving cocaine also has been rising.
Less than a decade ago, in 2010, methamphetamine was detected in only six of the 132 overdose deaths in Marion County, according to data from Indiana University’s Public Policy Institute. In 2018, 100 of the 361 overdose deaths involved methamphetamine.
Nationally the number of overdose deaths in which methamphetamine played a role increased 7.5 times from 2007 to 2017, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The number of people who reported having a methamphetamine use disorder soared in just one year. In 2016 an estimated 684,000 people reported having a methamphetamine use disorder. The following year that number rose to 964,000.
“There is a true shift in the market from opioids towards methamphetamine and cocaine,” said Bradley Ray, a former research director at the Indiana University Public Policy Institute.
Locally, the Indiana Poison Center also has seen an increase in calls associated with methamphetamine exposure. In 2009, the hotline received 76 such calls. Last year that number rose to 274, said Dr. Blake Froberg, the center’s medical director.
Fentanyl often involved in deaths
When it comes to deadly overdoses, only rarely does methamphetamine act alone.
Last year fentanyl played a role in nearly 60 percent of overdose deaths that involved methamphetamine.
“The increasing death is tied to fentanyl,” said Ray, now director of Wayne State University’s Center for Behavioral Health and Justice. “This is a new type of methamphetamine and cocaine use that is associated with death at rates that we have not previously seen.”
The number of accidental overdose deaths in Marion County has risen sharply since 2010.
Over the same time period, the percentage of overdose deaths that involved some combination of methamphetamine and fentanyl has grown steadily.
The data sheds no light on whether so-called polysubstance drug users purchase the chemicals separately or in one concoction, such as a “speedball,” which mixes an opioid such as fentanyl or heroin with a stimulant such as methamphetamine or cocaine.
Decline of the meth lab
One thing law enforcement officers do know: The source of methamphetamine on the streets today is not the same as that of a decade ago.
At that point, most of the methamphetamine was manufactured in Indiana. Law enforcement focused on finding and shutting down local labs, said Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. John Perrine.
Even today the number of methamphetamine labs in the state continues to decline.
Now, though, dealers are importing the drug from outside the country.
“We’re trying to adjust our tactics to combat the current trends,” he said. “For so long, the trend was in making methamphetamine, and we specialized ourselves in stopping that. And now those numbers are down. Now we have to go looking for the drug itself, not just the manufacturers.”
Danger of drug cocktails
The trend in Indiana mirrors one addiction experts are seeing nationally: People increasingly are mixing stimulants with opioids.
A study last year found that in 2011, 19 percent of substance users surveyed said they used both drugs. In 2017 that had risen to 34 percent, said Jessica Hulsey, founder of the Addiction Policy Forum, a national non-profit based in Washington.
Many people who use substances never restrict themselves to just one type of drug, she said. Some might use a stimulant on Monday to start the week and an opioid on Friday to wind down for the weekend.
“We have a myth in this country that people struggle with just one substance,” she said. “While we have this idea that meth left the scene and we fixed that issue 15 years ago, that’s just not the case.
“It has been very prevalent in Western states in particular, and now we’re seeing it emerge again.”
When law enforcement cracks down on one type of drug, she said, it’s not uncommon to see users switch to another substance easier to find.
In general drug epidemics tend to go in waves, experts say. Painkillers, such as opioids, may be the popular drug one generation and then stimulants replace them.
Treating meth addiction
Still, these days many in the field of addiction medicine report it’s not uncommon to find patients who use both opioids and stimulants.
Because of the way addiction affects the brain, once a person develops an addiction to one substance, he or she is more likely to become addicted to another, said Dr. Claudie Jimenez, regional medical director of CleanSlate for Indiana and Kentucky, an outpatient addiction center.
And once a person has an addiction to more than one substance, treatment can be more complicated.
Medication assisted therapy such as buprenorphine can assist with opioid addiction, but no such equivalent pharmaceutical exists to ease methamphetamine addiction. Instead, time-consuming behavioral health programs like cognitive behavioral therapy tend to be the best way to treat the addiction, Jimenez said.
Similarly, while naloxone can reverse an opioid overdose, no such antidote to methamphetamine exists.
When a person overdose on methamphetamine, health care providers focus on delivering supportive care, said Froberg, also a medical toxicologist with Indiana University Health and an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
A meth overdose can lead to an elevated heart rate, breathing problems or excessive agitation. One of the most worrisome symptoms, said Froberg, can be hyperthermia, very high temperatures. In that instance, doctors may use ice, fans or cooled intravenous fluid to restore the body to normal.
If the current trend continues, Froberg said, it could spur more exploring into what lies behind the situation and what can be done to reverse it.
“If we continue to see this increase, it will start to come up on more and more people’s radars,” he said. “It’s already a substance of concern, but if it keeps increasing, more and more people will become concerned about finding out why there’s an increase and what kind of interventions can be done.”
Third Millenium Classrooms Newsletter by Katie McCall, CEO
Human trafficking and domestic violence both desire the same thing: power and control.
They can manifest themselves in very similar ways — coercion, manipulation, force.
These crimes against humanity affect millions, both women and men, of every race, religion, culture and status.
It’s not just punches and black eyes or voluntary work and nights out — it’s yelling, humiliation, stalking, manipulation, coercion, threats and isolation.
It’s keeping tabs online, non-stop texting, blackmail, constant use of the silent treatment, or calling someone stupid so often they believe it.
Experiencing domestic violence in a home can be a “push factor” for someone to leave their home, leaving them vulnerable to human trafficking.
If a person is being trafficked by a family member, violence is likely to occur, resulting in other forms of domestic violence.
If you think someone around you may be in danger of either, don’t hesitate to help:
Herald Times on 11/7/2019 by Laura Lane
Danielle Morris entered Monroe County’s two-year drug court program on Dec. 13, 2018. “At first it was really, really hard,” said the Bloomington woman, seen six months after she started the program posing with her jail booking photo.
“Monroe Circuit Court to give new ‘drug court’ a try,” said a June 1999 headline in the Herald-Times.
The story described a pilot project that former Monroe Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Todd and then-Prosecutor Carl Salzmann had proposed to the county council that would redirect resources to a court focused on helping the addicted break free from drugs.
Salzmann, the story reported, was skeptical at first. “I thought, ‘This is one of those soft-on-crime deals coming out of Washington.’” Instead, he said, “I found it’s a smart-on-crime program, because it deals with people the way they are, not the way you think they should be.”
Todd became the first drug court judge, paving the way for a program that for two decades has helped hundreds escape a life of addiction and to start over with hope for the future.
Judge Maryellen Diekhoff has since taken over a court that former White House deputy drug czar Scott Burns described as the best around. He spoke Wednesday morning at a courthouse ceremony celebrating the drug court’s 20 years.
Burns got his White House job in 2007, and was assigned to go out and find a successful drug court program to serve as a nationwide model.
“So I came here,” he said, and discovered a program that works.
But it could not be replicated, he said, because it was the people involved — Diekhoff, drug court coordinator Steve Malone and others — who were at the heart of the success.
“I went back and said the people in Indiana get up early, they work hard, they seek results and they get results,” Burns said. He introduced a drug court graduate he had met in the elevator on his way up to the ceremony and asked how his life changed during his two-year treatment program overseen by the court.
He held up his baby and pointed to his wife to illustrate his path.
Danielle Morris, 25, of Bloomington, is completing her first year in Monroe County’s drug court program.
Danielle Morris has a new life as well. The 25-year-old Bloomington woman entered Monroe County’s two-year drug court program on Dec. 13, 2018. She was scared and apprehensive but decided to try. “At first it was really, really hard,” she said.
Morris had been using heroin and and methamphetamine since she was 19 and her life was hell. Her family tried everything to help her, but nothing worked. “They were anticipating that phone call that I was dead,” she said.
Morris dried out during a 65-day stint in jail. “I guess I needed to be locked in a room so I could start to think clearly,” she said. “I wanted to have joy again. I just wanted to want to want to live again.”
She got accepted into drug court and signed the contract. “At first, it was overwhelming. I knew I had to take all that obsessive thinking about drugs and put the energy into the program,” she said. “I’ve stumbled, but I’ve known all the way through it they’ve had my back.”
Burns told the audience that people who recover from addiction are the best ones to help others struggling with drugs. He said when they get from rock bottom to the front of the line, to turn and help the next person get there, too.
Morris is doing just that, working as a behavioral health technician at the Indiana Center for Recovery, assisting people who are where she was not that long ago.
“There are other ways to deal with life when it tries to knock you down, ways to not use,” she said. “People can see how I got out of that dark cloud and they can, too.”
Wednesday’s 20-year celebration featured a video display of photos taken during drug court graduations through the years. Many showed Diekhoff in her judicial robe, taken from the back, showing arms embracing her with gratitude for offering a way out of their past lives.
Contact Laura Lane at 812-331-4362 or llane@heraldt.com.
WSBT on 9/29/2019 by AP
HARTFORD CITY, Ind. (AP) — A 49-year-old Indiana man on probation has been charged with new drug charges including possession of synthetic urine.
The Star Press reports Kirk Allen Boughman was charged Friday with felony possession of methamphetamine and three misdemeanors.
The Hartford City man was out on probation when authorities conducted a “compliance search” of his apartment at the request of his probation officer. Officers allege that they found drugs and synthetic urine, which is used by drug users in attempts to pass court-ordered testing.
A hearing is set for Monday.
Online court records did not list an attorney for Boughman. He faces several other drug charges dating back to 2007.
The Indiana Supreme Court
Find the full text of the Indiana Supreme Court annual report (July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019) online courts.in.gov/supreme/files/1819report.pdf.
in.gov
The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI) is making up to $837,156.00 in FY19 Federal Title II funding available for calendar year 2020 programs. Applications for the FY19 Federal Title II Funds are due by Monday, November 25th 2019. Only Indiana state agencies and units of local government are eligible to apply for Title II program funds from ICJI.
Title II Grants
The Title II Formula Grant program requires each state to develop a Three-Year Plan that identifies goals for the juvenile justice system and programmatic priorities to be supported by sub-grants. Title II sub-grant funding is competitive in nature. Therefore, ICJI will only give consideration to applications that fall under one of the following purpose areas AND have the greatest impact on Hoosier youth.
Indiana has identified the following program/priority areas for funding:
- Disproportionate Minority Contact
- Diversion Programs
- Gender Specific Programs
- Mental Health Services for Youth in Custody
- Mentoring, Counseling, and Training Programs
- Rural Area Juvenile Programs
- Youth Substance Abuse
Applicants must select only one of the following purpose area per application. Applicants may submit multiple applications if they wish to operate multiple programs and/or address multiple purpose areas.
More information can be found in the request for proposals (RFP) at https://www.in.gov/cji/.
Questions about the RFP should be referred to ICJI program manager Adam Winkler at AdWinkler@cji.IN.gov.
IntelliGrants
To access the online application, the state or local government applicants must be registered in IntelliGrants, ICJI’s grants-management system, at https://intelligrants.in.gov/Registration2.aspx. Organizations that have already registered in IntelliGrants for another ICJI grant may add users for the Title II grant applications. For example, multiple departments within the same city, town or county government may need to work through one IntelliGrants administrator.
ICJI recommends that sub grantees review IntelliGrants material before registering and logging in for the first time. Use the password IndianaCJI1 to register and view the webinar recording at https://indianaenhanced.webex.com/indianaenhanced/lsr.php?RCID=f840ffe2b02ce356fb6f0322bf6960a3.
Everyone who signs an ICJI grant agreement(s) must learn how to make electronic signatures in IntelliGrants. When an organization registers a new user, it should suggest a user role in the notes section. The user types are explained on page 6 of the sub grantee User Manual at www.in.gov/cji/files/IntelliGrants_User_Manual.pdf.
Once an organization’s users are registered and approved, it will be ready to submit applications for ICJI funding availabilities. Questions beyond what the training webinar recording and user manual provide should be referred to CJIHelpdesk@cji.in.gov.
Indiana Public Media on 10-31-2019 by Associated Press
Indiana officials are suspending work requirements for low-income residents who receive their health insurance through Medicaid while a federal lawsuit challenging the plan is sorted out.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration said Thursday it won’t be enforcing rules that require those not qualifying for exemptions to report 20 hours a month of work or related activity or face coverage loss after Dec. 31.
The move comes after a lawsuit was filed in September against Indiana’s plan. Federal courts have blocked the Trump administration from allowing similar work requirements for Arkansas and Kentucky.
Attorneys for Medicaid recipients say Congress intended medical care as the Medicaid program’s goal, and the Trump administration failed to account for potential coverage losses for thousands of people from work requirements.
WTHR on 10/31/2019
INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — Marion County is now using technology to help streamline the check-ins some criminal offenders on parole.
New kiosks have been installed at the City County building downtown. The kiosks allow some offenders on probation to check in instead of meeting directly with a probation officers.
The kiosks only work with low-level offenders — about 3,000 people.
Officials say it will cut probation officer case loads by about 20 percent.
“By utilizing the kiosk system, what we are about to do is dedicate more resources to the individuals that are indeed in need of our help,” probation officer Christine Kerl said. “Those individuals that can be successful and manage their terms on their own will be able to do that thanks to the technology that we have deployed.”
Each unit has a camera to make sure the person who is supposed to be checking in is actually the one using the kiosk.
Besides downtown, there are three other kiosks in Warren, Lawrence and Wayne townships.
courts.in.gov
Purpose
The County Jail Overcrowding Task Force was established in 2019 (IC 11-12-6.8) to conduct a statewide review of jail overcrowding and identify common reasons and possible local, regional and statewide solutions. The task force will also study the issue of reducing recidivism for convicted felons in county jails by offering programs that address mental health treatment, drug and alcohol treatment, education, and other evidence-based approaches.
The task force shall submit a report to the governor, chief justice, and legislative council by December 1, 2019.
Meetings
The Task Force welcomes public comment on the issue of jail overcrowding. They have set aside time during each upcoming meeting hear in-person testimony. You may register to attend in advance if you wish to speak at the meeting. See below for links to register. Registration will be made for each event once a location has been finalized.
If you aren’t able to attend a meeting, the Task Force will take public written comments until 3:00 p.m. on Friday, November 8. Submit your comments online.
Next Meeting
November 6, 2019
12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Eastern)
Anderson University – York Performance Hall
Anderson, IN
The Indiana Lawyer on 10/21/19 by Associated Press
The nation’s three dominant drug distributors and a big drugmaker have reached a tentative deal to settle a lawsuit related to the opioid crisis just as the first federal trial over the crisis was due to begin Monday in Cleveland, according to a lead lawyer for the local governments suing the drug industry.
The tentative deal, details of which were to be announced later Monday, settles claims by state and local governments against distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKessen and the manufacturer Teva
