Offenders enrolled in Johnson County Community Corrections work to clean up in the aftermath of March 2023 Whiteland tornado. More than 2,700 community service hours have been logged by offenders this year. Submitted photo
The difference between the man arrested in 2016 and the one that exists today is profound.
Randall “Randy” Brown was given a 15-year prison sentence for dealing methamphetamine in a case he describes as “the second-largest single-man drug bust in Indiana.” But the man who did that is a far cry away from the 60-year-old who has been on work release for almost two years and has nearly completed his sentence after it was modified and sent to Johnson County Community Corrections.
While on work release, Brown was given an opportunity to volunteer and give back by working at the Franklin Parks Department and Johnson County Fleet Management. This work has changed him for the better, he said.
“I have a different mindset now. I like to be able to, I really like this phrase, ‘to pay it forward,’” Brown said.
Work release is supervised by community corrections, and is one of the last steps an offender has to go through before their sentence is complete. As part of their time, offenders have the opportunity, if granted permission, to volunteer at approved nonprofits and government departments. This includes food pantries like Greater Harvest Food Pantry in New Whiteland and municipal entities like the Franklin Parks Department and Johnson County Fairgrounds.
For 2024, there have been a record number of community service hours logged by offenders — 2,788 as of Aug. 13, which is the most recent data available. Angela Morris, director of Johnson County Court Services and chief probation officer, was surprised to see the number.
“When I saw that number, I sent it to our community corrections board, the commissioners and council because I wanted them to see that number. I was proud of it,” Morris said.
Almost all of the service hours this year have taken place at two locations: Greater Harvest and the county fairgrounds. Offenders were out helping at the food pantry and were responsible for helping clean up before and after events at the fairgrounds, including an eclipse event and the county fair.
In March 2023, offenders also helped clean up debris from the Whiteland tornado too, Morris said.
“They wanted to sign up and help with the tornado,” Morris said. “We had a lot of offenders signing up to help give back to that. They wanted to get out the community and help clean up.”
Over the last year and a half, court services staff became “very intentional” with the program, Morris said. They had been having offenders do work with municipalities like Franklin and Prince’s Lakes, but it was more of an occasional thing.
“Then some of those turned into consistent, ‘Hey, can we get you every week?’” said Tony Povenelli, community corrections director. “We were also like, kind of holding back a little bit because they do get incentive time, and we didn’t want to just say, ‘Go do all the service work you want.’”
In order to do the work, proper supervision has to be maintained and it has to be approved by an offender’s case manager and on their schedule. Offenders cannot go out an do it on their own, Morris and Povenelli said.
There have not really been any issues at all since they’ve expanded the program, Povenelli said.
“The offenders like it because they get to get out of the building,” Povenelli said. “I’ve heard some of them talk about how they feel. It makes them feel good, like they’re giving back a little bit. They also are able to get earned some incentive time, which is time outside of the building to go see family or go out to dinner or something like that.”
The places offenders volunteer at like it too, as it helps alleviate some of their workload.
“Regardless of where they’re from, we’re just grateful for them,” Melissa Rojas, director of operations for Greater Harvest Food Pantry, told the Daily Journal in March 2023. “From having just a couple of volunteers to having a couple plus 15 more able-bodied people. That’s amazing in the nonprofit world.”
Povenelli recalled one offender he arrested in his past role at Franklin Police, who is now under his purview at community corrections. The man is mechanically inclined and helped out a lot at the county’s Fleet Management department, he said.
“He knows that he has been hurting the community for many years, and he feels this was a way that he was able to get back by volunteering his time back to the county. It was important to him, and he was able to do it,” Povenelli said.
That man was Brown.
When Povenelli introduced himself to him again at community corrections, he wasn’t sure what his reaction would be. Sometimes people get mad at officers and blame them for arresting them. But not Brown.
“What he told me is that [his arrest was] ‘the best thing that’s ever happened to me,’” Povenelli said. “I don’t know exactly what he said, but [it] essentially changed his life for the better. It was professional and courteous, and from then on, we’ve been good. I think we’re on the same team now of everybody wants Randy and everybody else in here to be clean, sober, productive.”
While the staff at community corrections provide a lot of opportunities for growth and change, this is all they can do. People have to come in with a mindset to change, like Brown, Povenelli said.
“I don’t want to be remembered as the second-largest single-man drug bust in Indiana, or say, the largest drug bust in Johnson County. I don’t want to be remembered that way,” Brown said. “I want to be remembered more as the guy that, yeah he got in trouble for selling dope, [but] he did his time and he changed and he paid society back.”
Along with working at the county garage, Brown has volunteered by painting the locker rooms at the Franklin Family Aquatics Center. Even though he hasn’t worked at the garage in over a year, he still talks people who work there, he said.
Before he was put on work release and had the chance to give back, he didn’t really care about others. That’s no longer the case, he said.
“But now it’s a lot different. I care about people in general. It woke me up to be actually be aware of that,” Brown said.
As Brown prepares to leave community corrections, he’s enjoying the things that are in his life now. A motorcycle enthusiast, he’s also looking forward to being able to go to Daytona without having to get permission, he said.
“I’m having a better time in my life than I’ve had in a long time,” Brown said. “I’m not going to through this away. It’s just I wish I would have seen this 30 or 40 years ago.”
As the program continues and officials look at other opportunities for offenders to give back to the community, Povenelli is looking forward to continuing to build community relationships. He’s also looking forward to the public seeing more of the offenders in public, which could remove some of the stigma around offenders, he said.
While they have committed a crime, there’s more too it than that.
“I think that the more interaction that people have with them — just either seeing them or even communicating with them, and having a regular conversation just like you and I would have — that helps eliminate that stigma, and I think that that’s ultimately what would be ideal, and continue to help the county and the entities,” he said.
