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| Indiana Jail Inspector Wants Counties to Segregate Violent Prisoners |
| By Indianapolis Star |
| Published: 07/30/2002 |
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As jailers in one Indiana county continue segregating juveniles from adults in the wake of an attack, state correction officials are considering wider-ranging measures to prevent violence among inmates. Last week, a jury convicted a 33-year-old man in a sexual assault on a teen-ager in the Madison County Jail. Only after the attack last October did Sheriff Terry Richwine start separating inmates younger than 18 from adults. A key state official is urging a new statewide screening that would segregate inmates not only by age, but also by their capacity for violence. The Indiana Department of Correction is considering requiring county jails to implement the classification system, which would place inmates with like criminal histories together. As regulations stand now, going to jail in most counties can be dangerous. Fred Washington was left half-blind after being arrested for driving with a suspended license in 1998. After being booked into the LaPorte County Jail, members of a gang kept in the same cell beat him with bars of soap stuffed into a sock -- destroying his right eye. But some county sheriffs say objective classification won't work in relatively small, older jails which they don't have the budgets to expand. The St. Joseph County Jail in South Bend, for example, started using objective classification in 1995 but was hampered by overcrowding. A class-action lawsuit filed by inmates eventually led to a new jail being built in St. Joseph County. That $45 million jail, which opened last year, was designed to accommodate objective classification. Proposals include using a model created by the National Institute of Corrections. County jails would be required to implement the system within three years, with the first training session held in 2003. Eight states, including Texas and Kentucky, have adopted the program as part of their jail standards. |
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