On the same afternoon last week that the Hancock County Council was voting to raise taxes to pay for a new jail, Michelle Catt was well on her way to becoming another poster child for the problem few people in power here are discussing.
Catt, 50, was due in Hancock Circuit Court the next day for sentencing on felony drug charges. She had been caught 15 months earlier trying to sell methamphetamine at a hotel in Greenfield. Instead, Catt was sitting in jail in DeKalb County, facing the very same charge in a new case there after being released pending trial. Instead of a chance at rehabilitation, she had her bond revoked by Judge Scott Sirk. Depending on what happens in DeKalb County, Catt might well wind up back in jail here.
Another day, another failure in the criminal justice system.
We can talk all we want about personal responsibility and the importance of keeping drug dealers off the streets. No one can dispute that Michelle Catt, if guilty of drug dealing as charged, needs to be locked up. But her case, like so many others, illustrates the vicious cycle of recidivism that our discussions about a new jail have largely overlooked.
To what end? That’s the question we should be asking about dropping $43 million for a new jail. The need for a new facility is not in question. It’s obvious the county needs more space. Our population, after all, has essentially doubled since the jail was built 30 years ago.
We’ve asked this before, but it bears repeating: What about the programs that are proven to reduce the churn of inmates through our jail? Where is the communitywide discussion on those? Sheriff Brad Burkhart says upwards of 80 percent of prisoners have been there before. Making the place so uncomfortable they don’t want to come back isn’t an answer, because the jail is so overcrowded it’s not a pleasant place to begin with.
The new jail will be built. It’s time we come to grips with how we should work to lock up fewer people. Not more. People like Burkhart, Beth Ingle of Hancock County Drug Court and Judge Sirk are the leading voices on trying to interrupt that vicious cycle. They are lonely ones.
Without an enlightened discussion on treatment, counseling, sentencing and other creative solutions, there will be many more Michelle Catts.
