Corrections officers inspect cells inside the Johnson County Jail’s newest wing on Jan. 10. Daily Journal File Photo
The Johnson County jail is seeing higher numbers of incarcerated Indianapolis residents, data shows.
Most of the people in the county jail now are not from Johnson County. On Friday morning, there were 316 inmates at the Johnson County jail, and more than a third were from Marion County. 144 inmates currently held at the jail are from Marion County, followed by Johnson County with 96 inmates, and Morgan and Bartholomew counties with 15 each, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
Indianapolis residents making up that proportion of inmates is common in the jail, which consistently sees large numbers of Indianapolis offenders incarcerated for committing crimes in Johnson County, Sheriff Duane Burgess said. In March, the jail had 112 people with an Indianapolis address booked into the jail out of 308 offenders.
“Johnson County residents are taking care of those people because they’re incarcerated in our jail. That is troubling,” Burgess said.
Burgess — who has been at the sheriff’s office for over 35 years — believes the number of offenders housed at the county jail who have Marion County addresses has increased gradually over the years, though officials may not have paid as much attention to it back then as they do now.
Johnson County is at Marion County’s backdoor, and as the population and number of shootings there has increased, crime has continued to bleed over into Johnson County, Burgess said.
“For somebody to say that this stuff doesn’t bleed over into Johnson County, they’re foolish,” Burgess said. “It’s bleeding over into Johnson County, and it’s using our resources, our manpower to fight this problem.”
Burgess emphasized he is not being critical of the county’s law enforcement partners in Marion County. There is just a large number of people from there being arrested for crimes in Johnson County, he said.
One of Lance Hamner’s goals as Johnson County Prosecutor is to put a stop to Marion County crime leaching into Johnson County. The way to do that is by sending Marion County criminals to prison, he said.
Hamner has heard from Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officers, who say many criminals know if they cross the county line they’re going to do more time, he said.
“‘Cross that line, do lots more time’ is the signal we’re sending to Marion County criminals,”
Hamner said. “Some of them may not know that yet, but they’re finding out fast.”
The prosecutor’s office is working closely with each Johnson County law enforcement agency to make sure criminals are held accountable, Hamner said. What it is key is holding the line to help stop the crime from filtering over into Johnson County, and law enforcement are using a wide variety of tools to try to keep the county safe, Burgess said.
For example, JCSO and Greenwood Police have worked together to do extra patrols as a crime prevention measure. They’ve made a number of arrests doing this, and many of those arrested live in Indianapolis, he said.
Another tool law enforcement uses is technology. With the advances of technology, police can find stolen cars much easier and look up license plate and drivers’ information even faster. This speeds up the time for law enforcement to find out if someone has a suspended license or is a habitual traffic violator, Burgess said.
The prosecutor’s office’s approach is to demand serious prison time for offenders who commit burglaries, flee police, steal cars and commit porch piracy. Hamner wants to show the offenders the full extent of the law, and says offenders who travel to Johnson County from Marion County to commit crime are going to experience “a completely new level” of prosecution here.
“They may be accustomed to lenient treatment up there but they won’t get it here,” he said.
Hamner says the prosecutor’s office will prosecute any and all crimes committed in Johnson County, particularly property crimes and those that involve victims. Johnson County will never go the way some communities in California have when it comes to not prosecuting certain property crimes, he said.
“This a safe community, an excellent place to work and raise families and we’re going to protect it at all costs,” Hamner said. “We’re going to protect that safe environment at all costs.”
Burgess doesn’t believe the higher number of offenders from outside Johnson County will change anytime soon. But through the working relationship between every county law enforcement agency and the prosecutor’s office, Burgess says they’ll continue to work on holding the line as best they can.
“People believe this is their community and they want to keep this community safe,” he said. “We’re gonna keep standing on that line to do it.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Johnson County Jail Population by Residence as of June 16
Marion County: 144
Johnson County: 96
Morgan and Bartholomew counties: 15 each
Homeless: 7
Out of State: 6
Hendricks and Madison counties: 4 each
Hamilton County: 3
Jennings, Hancock, Monroe and Delaware counties: 2 each
Jefferson, Randolph, Rush, LaPorte, Grant, Wayne, Martin, Henry, Floyd, Porter, Ripley, St.
Joseph, Clark and Putnam counties: 1 each
Source: Johnson County Sheriff’s Office
