Published: July 08, 2009 01:33 pm      

Indiana prison shuffling inmates to open more space

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Department of Correction expects to gain more than 2,000 beds for inmates by shifting programs and hundreds of prisoners to different locations.

Department Commissioner Edwin Buss said the changes would save money and space — but they won’t create more room for the state’s fast-growing number of maximum security inmates. Buss repeated previous promises that the state will not jeopardize public safety by releasing prisoners early as other states have done.

The shifts announced Tuesday affect eight prison programs and 440 employees. Officials said workers will have the opportunity to apply for revamped jobs, although some may have to relocate or be retrained.

Perhaps the most controversial change is moving female youth offenders from Indianapolis to Madison in southeastern Indiana. They will be housed in existing buildings on the Madison State Hospital campus, where the Madison Correctional Facility for women is also located.

But many of the female youth offenders are from counties far from Madison. About 7 percent of the 171 juvenile females in the prison system are from Lake County in northwest Indiana. About 15 percent are from St. Joseph County and about 9 percent are from Elkhart County in northern Indiana; about 6 percent are from Marion County.

Madison is about a two-hour drive from Indianapolis, and is nearly five hours from northwest Indiana.

Crystal Garcia, an associate professor of criminal justice at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said moving those offenders will make it difficult to maintain relationships that are so important to young girls.