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California Criminal Code Reform Offers Insight For Indiana

Derek Key
/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/derekskey/

An Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis study of California’s prison realignment – directing more offenders into probation, community corrections and local jails – shows no significant impact on public safety.  

But some Indiana experts say it's too soon to conclude whether similar reforms in the Hoosier State will have the same effect. 

California’s Realignment Act was passed in 2011. 

A study led by IUPUI professor Jody Sundt looked at crime rates in the three years following its passage.  

Except for a one-year spike in auto thefts in 2012, Sundt says the realignment had no effect on California crime rates. 

The Hoosier State has seen a spike in property crimes since reforms took effect in 2014. 

Sundt says other states, including those that have no reforms, also have seen a similar increase. 

“And it has much more to do with some other trends, and most likely changes in drug addiction, so the heroin and opioid addition problems that we’re seeing right now,” she says. 

Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council executive director David Powell says Indiana’s reform is too new to draw meaningful conclusions. 

“It’s too early to throw our hands up and say we’ve solved the world’s problems with 1006 (the criminal code reform bill), it’s also too early to say it’s failed,” he says. 

Powell says investing in mental health care and addiction treatment is key in helping ensure the criminal code reform is successful. 

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.
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