Jennings Co. targets wanted probationers
May 3, 2005
by Cory Walker, Jennings County Superior Court Probation Department

For the past several weeks, I have been putting pictures of wanted probationers in Superior Court in the local newspaper "North Vernon Sun". It started out with Circuit Court Probation Officer Travis Shepherd who had raised the idea with me, in which I had thought of for a few months.

Each Tuesday on the page with the courthouse news, the assistant editor, Lilian Carmer, has been putting mugshots and descriptions of the wanted probationers in both Circuit and Superior Courts such as last known address, what reason they are wanted (failing drug test, being re-arrested, not reporting to probation as directed, and failure to appear for court).

Without the cooperation of the local papers and Jennings County Jail Captain Mary Ristuccia, who has been able to find most mugshots of the wanted probationers, we could not accomplish this task. I felt that by going to the local media, we could attract a lot of readers into looking each Tuesday in the paper to see who is wanted. It may be their neighbor, a person they see in line at the grocery store or pumping gas. Circuit Court handles more felons than Superior Court does, and they have had a few wanted probationers arrested on the outstanding warrants.

It's our hope to keep this a weekly event. It may mean a little more work in our schedule in which we have to do a little research and make sure the warrants are still active, the information is correct, and to have Captain Ristuccia track down the mugshots and print them off for us, but all in all, it has paid off by getting some felons off the streets and back in jail.

It may be hard for larger city newspapers to find room in their paper for this, but I hope that it will catch on with other departments in other cities.