By Mike Fletcher
Kokomo Tribune
KOKOMO, Ind. — More people were arrested last year for failure to appear, petition to revoke probation and body attachments than any other charge.
Jail records show the three charges accounted for more than half of the top 10 charges for inmates housed in the Howard County jail in 2014.
“Unfortunately, petition to revoke probation charges are too common,” said Howard Circuit Court Judge Lynn Murray.
“When people don’t take responsibility for their actions there has to be consequences.”
The Howard County Criminal Justice annual report shows failure to appear charges totaled 923 in 2014, while petition to revoke charges numbered 662 and body attachments totaled 394.
In comparison, charges like OWI (operating a vehicle while intoxicated) and theft were much fewer at 385 and 342 respectively last year.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a huge problem, but it does cost taxpayers money,” Murray said of putting people in jail for missed court dates, not complying with the terms of their probation or failing to pay court fines.
The Department of Correction estimates the average cost to house an inmate in the prison is $53.96 a day.
In Howard County, it costs about $30 a day to house an inmate, based on a formula submitted to the Indiana Sheriff’s Association.
Currently there are 278 inmates at the jail, which is down from 309 last week. Lt. Robin Byers, the assistant jail commander at the Howard County jail, said many of those inmates were sent to the Indiana Department of Correction. Inmates sentenced to more than a year are usually sent to a state prison.The jail has a bed capacity of 364.
The trend is continuing this year as the top two charges are for petition to revoke (127) and failure to appear (74), Byers said.
Head in the sand
While some of the cases are a result of a probation or in-home detention violation, the majority of the cases are due to people failing to appear for court hearings on their original charge, said Howard Superior Court 1 Judge William Menges, who handles the majority of drug cases in Howard County.
“Warrants don’t go away.” - Judge William Menges
“The court doesn’t want to put somebody in jail, but we can’t work with them if they don’t show up,” the judge said.
“It’s the, ‘if I ignore it, it will go away’ syndrome,” he said.
“Warrants don’t go away.”
It’s hard to say whether more people are skipping out on court dates. Howard County Sheriff Steve Rogers explained a change in software the jail has altered how charges are tallied. In 2013, the jail tallied 556 bookings for failure to appear, making it seem like there was a 66 percent increase in 2014.
“There are a whole lot of FTA’s out there,” Rogers said. “It’s one of those things — people don’t show up for hearings.
“But I think it has a lot to do with a bookkeeping error,” Rogers said of the apparent drastic increase in failure to appear arrests.
“I don’t know if we’re arresting more people or not,” he said. “We’re in the process of getting records transferred to a new software system.”
Byers said a lot people are arrested on multiple charges and the old software would list the first charge and not all the charges.
That could be the reason for the increase from 2013 to 2014, she said.
“The Jail Tracker system lists everything they were arrested for, while the old system was not showing everything,” she explained.
The cost of crime
While most of the warrants are for those who simply don’t show up, some are for failure to pay fees, which is often listed as a body attachment charge.
Judges try to work out payment plans and as a last resort issue a warrant for a failure to pay fees hearing or a body attachment.
The fees can include $168 in court costs and $100 for probation administrative fees — plus monthly probation supervisory fees or in-home detention fees, which are based on the offender’s income.
In addition, drug offenders are routinely ordered to pay for and complete drug and alcohol treatment, which costs up to $400, and up to $200 for a drug interdiction fee.
In a lot of cases, the fees are deducted from the offender’s bond. The remaining fees are then ordered to be paid before the end of their probation.
In most cases, Menges said, court-assessed fees for drug offenders total about $800.
“We give them the option of community service, which they can buy out of,” he said.
If someone is working at a marginal job and has a family, the amount of community service is reduced.
In cases where people don’t make an effort to pay, the judge gets involved and will sentence the offender accordingly.
“We try to take an individualized approach,” Menges said.
Drug addicts have the hardest time sticking to court-related proceedings and orders, the judge continued.
When a person knows he or she owes money or failed a drug test, they often don’t report to the probation or in-home detention supervisor.
Menges said he sees a lot of people arrested for both failure to appear and petition to revoke because they don’t want to go back to jail.
Keeping people on track
Menges said restructuring probation to be more like the county’s drug court may be a solution.
The drug court, which is for the hardcore addict, cost offenders $500, Menges said.
But the best thing about the drug court is it doesn’t cost taxpayers.
“We’re able to partner with Community Howard and St. Vincent hospitals, which agreed to provide the treatment at no cost,” said Menges.
That comes with a stipulation that there is maximum cap of 50 participants.
“That way there’s no more than 25 people at each institution. Without that, we wouldn’t be able to offer it,” Menges said. “We don’t have any direct cost to the county.”
Since its inception, 54 non-violent drug offenders from Howard County have been enrolled in the drug court program and 32 have graduated, Menges said.
Offenders spend 16 months being monitored on a regular basis and are subjected to frequent drug screens and offered help with life’s problems.
The drug court program was implemented in February 2007 as an alternative to traditional case processing of drug offenders, said Menges.
The program involves a number of facilitators including a judge, prosecutor, public defender, drug court administrator/coordinator, probation officer, and treatment providers. It allows offenders to avoid criminal prosecution by agreeing to complete a substance abuse treatment program; remain alcohol and drug free; and complete other program requirements as determined by the drug court team and the judge.
The Howard County Re-Entry Program has a zero percent recidivism rate.
Upon graduation, participants have their pending charges dismissed. If they are terminated from the program, they are returned to court for sentencing.
Participants are required to remain in the program for between one and three years before they can graduate, said Menges.
The national recidivism rate for drug offenders is 94 percent, while Howard County Drug Court’s recidivism rate is 12 percent, Menges said.
Menges’ drug court program has been successful, but with 1,000 new drug-related cases filed each year, it would take multiple drug courts to treat them all.
Even more impressive, Menges said, is the Howard County Re-Entry Program, which has a zero percent recidivism rate.
The program is designated for those offenders who have failed every other treatment and is utilized as a last resort.
“In the four-year period, we’re churning out graduates,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing.”