This small Indiana county sends more people to prison than San Francisco and Durham, N.C., combined. Why?

[smilesammich 10,727]

Donnie Gaddis picked the wrong county to sell 15 oxycodone pills to an undercover officer.

If Mr. Gaddis had been caught 20 miles to the east, in Cincinnati, he would have received a maximum of six months in prison, court records show. In San Francisco or Brooklyn, he would probably have received drug treatment or probation, lawyers say.

But Mr. Gaddis lived in Dearborn County, Ind., which sends more people to prison per capita than nearly any other county in the United States. After agreeing to a plea deal, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

“Years? Holy Toledo — I’ve settled murders for a lot less than that,” said Philip Stephens, a public defender in Cincinnati.

Dearborn County represents the new boom in American prisons: mostly white, rural and politically conservative.

A bipartisan campaign to reduce mass incarceration has led to enormous declines in new inmates from big cities, cutting America’s prison population for the first time since the 1970s. From 2006 to 2014, annual prison admissions dropped 36 percent in Indianapolis; 37 percent in Brooklyn; 69 percent in Los Angeles County; and 93 percent in San Francisco.

....

A collection of small, quiet towns near the Ohio River, Dearborn County does not look like a prison capital. Violent crime is rare. There are few empty storefronts. And local officials, flush with money brought in by a popular local casino, have built a convention center and a high school football field fit for a movie set.

But the extraordinarily high incarceration rate here — about one in 10 adults is in prison, jail or probation — is driven less by crime and poverty than by a powerful prosecutor, hard-line judges and a growing heroin epidemic.

Opioid addiction spread early here. Mr. Negangard, the prosecutor, has fought the heroin crisis by aggressively going after drug crimes.

“If you’re not prosecuting, then you’re de facto legalizing it,” Mr. Negangard said.

Mr. Negangard has faced few obstacles to getting more convictions. He supervises his own police force, an unusual arrangement that allows him to investigate and prosecute most of the county’s serious crime. The police go after even minor drug cases, often offering to dismiss drug possession charges in exchange for information on friends or family members who sell drugs.

A Prison Capital

Dearborn County has more than quadrupled the number of people it sends to prison since 2003.

New inmates per 10,000 residents

Dearborn

County

100

75

50

Indiana

average

25

0

’03

’14

Source: New York Times analysis of the National Corrections Reporting Program

Probation officials are just as strict. Offenders released on probation are tested for drugs frequently, and hundreds of people who violate the terms of their probation have been sent to state prison in the past few years.

By 2014, Dearborn County sentenced more people to prison than San Francisco or Westchester County, N.Y., which each have at least 13 times as many people.

“It’s government run amok,” said Douglas A. Garner, a local criminal defense attorney.

Lawmakers in Indiana, concerned about the rising cost of incarceration, enacted a law that reduced criminal penalties starting in 2014 — one of at least 40 states to approve measures to reduce incarceration in the past few years. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence, now the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

But the new rules, which Mr. Negangard fought, have done little to curb incarceration rates in Dearborn County.

Mr. Negangard said the long sentences here are the envy of police officers in Cincinnati. If a suspect is willing to sell drugs in Dearborn County, the Cincinnati police will help steer the case here, where greater punishment is almost assured, he said.

Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main story

4 MILES

HAMILTON

COUNTY

21

OHIO

DEARBORN

COUNTY

114 admissions

per 10,000

people

Cincinnati

Lawrenceburg

INDIANA

BOONE

COUNTY

KENTON

COUNTY

37

CAMPBELL

COUNTY

52

75

KENTUCKY

Source: New York Times analysis of the National Corrections Reporting Program

One Cincinnati man, Scott Huy, drove from Cincinnati to Dearborn County in 2013, enticed by a heroin deal set up by a police informer. Mr. Huy had already been convicted of drug trafficking twice in Ohio, for which he had served a total of five years in prison.

After Mr. Huy sold seven grams of heroin to an undercover officer, he was sentenced to 35 years.

Lawyers here have a term for when defendants like Mr. Huy realize the geographic disparity: “sticker shock.”

Defense lawyers outside Dearborn County respond with disbelief as well.

“That is so far out of line with the crime itself and any common notion of decency,” Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender, said of Mr. Huy’s sentence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/upshot/new-geography-of-prisons.html?_r=0

Edited September 2, 2016 by smilesammich

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Shocking. They could spend more time and money on rehab and finding out who is making the dis. Cure the addiction the drug goes away.

"The bill was signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence, now the Republican vice-presidential nominee."

Awwww yes, Pence. I wouldn't be surprised if they are profiting off of these incarcerated individuals

[lostinblue 1,989]

They can cure that addiction by sitting in a jail cell for 12 years ...

[Janelle2002 3,865]

They can cure that addiction by sitting in a jail cell for 12 years ...

Do u ever research before responding? U do realize they have access to drugs in jail?????????

[smilesammich 10,727]

They can cure that addiction by sitting in a jail cell for 12 years ...

there are far better methods of 'curing' addiction than jail. far better for tax payers, and far better for the addicts' friends, family, kids..i don't know about you, but i don't like government flushing my tax money down the toilet. i want to get bang for my buck.

"The total taxpayer cost of prisons in the 40 states that provided data was 13.9 percent higher than the costs represented by their combined corrections budgets. The full price of prisons to taxpayers—including costs that fell outside the corrections budgets—was $39 billion, $5.4 billion more than the states’ aggregate corrections department spending, which totaled $33.5 billion. Of the $5.4 billion in prison costs outside the corrections department, the greatest costs were underfunded contributions to retiree health care ($1.9 billion); states’ contributions to retiree health care on behalf of the corrections department ($837 million); employee benefits and taxes ($613 million); states’ contributions to pensions on behalf of the corrections department ($598 million); capital costs ($485 million); health and hospital care for the prison population ($335 million); and underfunded pension contributions ($304 million). Because Vera could not obtain data for some costs outside states’ correction budgets, these are conservative estimates that undercount the total amount of prison-related costs outside the corrections budget"

http://archive.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/price-of-prisons-updated-version-021914.pdf

and the wasted tax money doesn't stop there..

"When a person is in prison, taxpayers may incur additional—or indirect—costs, such as the costs of social services, child welfare, and education, for example. For the most part, these indirect costs are borne by government agencies other than the department of corrections. They are not included in the calculations presented here, however. Incarcerated men and women also bear economic and social costs associated with prison—as do their families and communities.* As a 2005 study concluded, “Incarceration impacts the life of a family in several important ways: it strains them financially, disrupts parental bonds, separates spouses, places severe stress on the remaining caregivers, leads to a loss of discipline in the household, and to feelings of shame, stigma, and anger."

[lostinblue 1,989]

Do u ever research before responding? U do realize they have access to drugs in jail?????????

But he is not standing on the corner selling it to the school kids is he ...

[smilesammich 10,727]

But he is not standing on the corner selling it to the school kids is he ...

so you don't have a problem with drug addicts getting high on your dime in jail? because that certainly happens more often your extremely antiquated (and mythical, d.a.r.e. failure numero uno) scenario of a creepy addict on the corner of the school yard luring children to try heroin out.

Edited September 2, 2016 by smilesammich

[lostinblue 1,989]

so you don't have a problem with drug addicts getting high on your dime in jail? because that certainly happens more often your extremely antiquated (and mythical, d.a.r.e. failure numero uno) scenario of a creepy addict on the corner of the school yard luring children to try heroin out.

But they could get high and die in prison .. One less dealer we have to put up with ....

[smilesammich 10,727]

But they could get high and die in prison .. One less dealer we have to put up with ....

you don't seem to put very much value on human life. or understand the financial consequences of mass incarceration.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

But they could get high and die in prison .. One less dealer we have to put up with ....

You really should move to a country where Sharia law is all the rage. I feel like we're not using your anger to it's fullest potential.

[lostinblue 1,989]

you don't seem to put very much value on human life. or understand the financial consequences of mass incarceration.

How much value of human life does a dealer have when he sells drugs that could kill 12 year old children ... His customers ... Or gets them hooked on a drug that leads to an overdose of heroin .. No compassion there I take it.

[CarlosAndSveta 808]

You really should move to a country where Sharia law is all the rage. I feel like we're not using your anger to it's fullest potential.

He really should move to Russia. Putin is president and very few people of color.

[smilesammich 10,727]

How much value of human life does a dealer have when he sells drugs that could kill 12 year old children ... His customers ... Or gets them hooked on a drug that leads to an overdose of heroin .. No compassion there I take it.

i can't discuss this with you until you stop sounding like a page from a 'just say no' workbook from my fifth grade nightmares. heroin doesn't have a particular age set it targets and the vast majority of 'dealers' are addicts themselves. addiction is a health issue, and i think it's safe to say that if a person is addicted to a substance like heroin, they don't really care who they hurt to get their fix. that apathy doesn't originate from the addict, but the effects of the drug their enslaved to.

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Heroin#sthash.lPhZWppx.dpbs

[Janelle2002 3,865]

But they could get high and die in prison .. One less dealer we have to put up with ....

But they don't die in prison....

You really should move to a country where Sharia law is all the rage. I feel like we're not using your anger to it's fullest potential.

He really should move to Russia. Putin is president and very few people of color.

i can't discuss this with you until you stop sounding like a page from a 'just say no' workbook from my fifth grade nightmares. heroin doesn't have a particular age set it targets and the vast majority of 'dealers' are addicts themselves. addiction is a health issue, and i think it's safe to say that if a person is addicted to a substance like heroin, they don't really care who they hurt to get their fix. that apathy doesn't originate from the addict, but the effects of the drug their enslaved to.

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Heroin#sthash.lPhZWppx.dpbs

I blew my wad. Plus 1000 to you fine folks

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

And I bet that County has a berry small crime rate